re: #494 Afrocity

I hate to say it but I met more religious hypocrites in Texas then anywhere.
Like the preacher who had myself and another black person over for supper and bible study and expected us to know how to sing because we were black. He gave us some hymn books and we started singing terrible. He stopped playing the organ and said “Can’t you gals do some Aretha type vocals. You are black so I know you got some soul”

I wanted to puke my brisket and cornbread up.

Oh man, I’m a soul singer, but I’m white (I’ve showed up for sessions before where producers/engineers expected me to be black and were shocked when they let me in the door). I once sang a duet in a church with a black man who was very, very good, but really, the whole band was great. The thing was, the rest of us were white.

We did our thing and sat down, and I thought the pastor (a white man) was going to have a breakdown, he was so over-the-top, falling all over himself to thank the black man for coming, for sounding so amazing, etc. - and the rest of us were just invisible. It was quite hilarious, actually. Embarrassing on so many levels. My vocalist friend (his name is quite unique or I’d use it here) didn’t enjoy it much.