Elder Jack Ward, age 83, may be the greatest gospel singer you’ve never heard of. True, Bruce Watson’s Bible & Tire Recording Co., founded on the older aesthetic of “sacred soul” rather than modern jazz/funk/fusion gospel, has given new life to a few singing careers in the field, and many of them were not well-known at the time. Yet some, like Elizabeth King, were quickly embraced by media outlets like NPR, vice.com, and American Songwriter. Ward’s name hasn’t received as much attention but may soon follow suit, now that his album of songs, freshly recorded with the Sacred Soul Sound Section at Delta-Sonic Sound, has been released.
One thing distinguishing his album, Already Made, from other Bible & Tire releases is Ward’s songwriting. While many gospel singers focus on breathing new life into classic church music, Ward composed every song on the album. As he tells it, it has always been thus. “I’ve been writing basically since I started singing, when I was 8 or 9 years old,” he says. “I grew up listening to the Grand Ole Opry and such … Ernest Tubb, a lot of guys, I used to pattern after them. I never did try to record them. But when I was in the cotton field I used to sing, ‘I’m walking the floor over you. I can’t keep awake and it’s true.’ [laughs] Yes. It was just a gift that was in me, and I can just about sing any type of song. But I had stuff of my own. What you’ve been listening to [on the new album], that is my way of singing, ‘This is what I like. This is me. No one else.’”
That talent for composition served Ward well when he first journeyed to Memphis from his hometown of Itta Bena, Mississippi, at age 18, determined to make a life in music. He fell in with a group called the Christian Harmonizers, and their 1964 single on the Stax subsidiary Chalice stayed on the charts for an impressive stretch of time. “‘Don’t Need No Doctor’ was a hit for about two years, off and on,” says Ward. “Isaac Hayes was playing piano on both of those sides. The flip side was ‘Jesus Will Send Down His Blessings.’ Those are the two songs I wrote. And I can tell you about the fast one, ‘Jesus Will Send Down His Blessings.’ I was walking when I was in my 20s. I heard someone saying ‘Help me!’ from down in a deep ditch. I couldn’t see it so good. It was almost dark, and I was headed back home from going to see a girl. And he said, ‘Help me out!’ The guy was drunk, and I pulled him out and he appreciated that. And I went from there on that particular song.”
From there, Ward and a new group, the Gospel Four, recorded his originals with Pastor Juan D. Shipp’s D-Vine Spirituals label, which Bible & Tire has gone on to acquire and reissue in recent years, and whose roster from the ’70s has continued to supply Watson’s new imprint with much talent, including Elizabeth King. As Watson notes, “Elder Ward has a notebook” full of compositions. “We had a tough time narrowing the list down to 10 songs. Ward has an otherworldly gift.”
In true Bible & Tire style, the songs are arranged and recorded using the same house band featured on other releases by the label, including Will Sexton and Matt Ross-Spang on guitars, George Sluppick on drums, and Mark Edgar Stuart on bass. Lucero’s Rick Steff adds keyboards (full disclosure: so do I), but the really captivating sounds come from Ward’s own family.
“I’ve got two sons in Ohio, and they’ve been up there for a spell. But I’ve got my three daughters and my son here, they do the background,” says Ward. “I started them off when they were about 7 or 8.” Now, they are deeply involved in his ministry and often sing with him. “The First Temple Holiness Church, 701 Pearce Street. Smokey City. My wife is the evangelist, and our daughter is in the ministry. Sometimes my wife sings with us, and most of my children and grandchildren. I’ve got some great-grandchildren coming, too. So I’m still in it. I love to sing, love to preach, love to teach. That’s me!”