Soul Music legend Candi Staton, 85, has earned her first Grammy® Award nomination in 40 years for her 32nd album, Back to My Roots, (Beracah Records / New Day / The Orchard), which was released on Valentine’s Day this year.
The twelve-track Americana soul set of spiritual and inspirational tunes features Staton-penned originals alongside covers of The Rolling Stones’ 1972 cut “Shine A Light” and the retro soul singer Aaron Frazer’s “My God Has a Telephone,” a duet with STAX Records legend, William Bell. The album earned a nod as Best Roots Gospel Album of the Year alongside offerings from The Isaacs, the Gaither Vocal Band, Karen Peck & New River, and the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir.
The 68th annual Grammy® Awards ceremony takes place on Sunday, February 1, 2026, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA. It will broadcast live on the CBS Television Network with streaming on Paramount+.
“I’m so surprised,” says Staton. “I know it’s a cliché but it’s always nice just to be nominated. I was nominated before and a couple of times I was always up against Aretha Franklin who I love but I had no chance of winning against her. She just dominated in that era. I’m proud of this album and at this stage of my life, I hope I can finally bring one home before I leave this earth.”
One of London, England’s most popular music periodicals MOJO has ranked Back to My Roots at No. 2 on its end of the year Top Ten Soul albums list that includes stellar projects by soulful luminaries such as Mavis Staples, Leon Bridges and Joy Crookes. It also ranked at No. 27 on the NACC (North American College & Community Radio Chart) Top 50 R&B/Soul records of 2025.
The track “I Missed the Target Again” (featuring Harry Connick Jr.’s longtime guitarist Jonathan DuBose Jr. on the axe) – about her recent divorce – has earned airplay on SiriusXM’s Bluesville and other blues stations. Staton’s older sister, Maggie Staton Peebles (who alongside Staton was a member of the Jewel Gospel Trio in the 1950s), is featured on the traditional cut “It’s Gonna Rain” and the 1939 gem “There Will Be Peace in the Valley” that Elvis Presley popularized in the 1950s. Staton and her British band, PUSH, went into a London studio to record a Muscle Shoals-styled rendition of The Rolling Stones’ 1972 gem, “Shine A Light.”
The moody “1963” is Staton’s harrowing, first-hand memory of the September 15, 1963, Birmingham Church bombing. “Reach Down and Touch Heaven” finds Staton playing piano on the haunting plea for divine intervention ina weary world. There’s a 1960s R&B throwback to the Motown-styled “Love Breakthrough” and Aaron Frazer & the Flying Stars of Brooklyn’s 2017 southern soul stomp “My God Has a Telephone” that pairs Staton withSTAX Records legend, William Bell. The album closes with the wistful, “In God’s Hands We Rest Untroubled,” originally recorded by the late country star, Lari White, who died in 2017 at the age of 52. “Lari sent me that song to consider at least ten years ago, and I always loved it,” Staton says. “The record label didn’t want it on the album or something, so I just held it.”
“These songs represent my roots,” Staton adds as she reflects on her many trials and triumphs. “Even the new songs on some level represent something I’ve experienced and that’s what real soul music is about.” Back to My Rootswas produced by Staton with her second eldest son, Marcus Williams, a professional drummer who has toured with the likes of Peabo Bryson, Isaac Hayes, and Tyler Perry.
They brought in Mark Nevers of Lambchop fame, who produced three of Staton’s prior Americana albums for Honest Jon’s and Thirty Tigers, to sweeten certain tracks. “Some of the first songs I ever heard were songs like `Peace in the Valley’ and `It’s Gonna Rain,’” says Staton. “The new songs or cover songs are tracks that remind me of that era when I was growing up as a child and evolving as a young woman. That’s why I named the album Back to My Roots because I’m going back to the roots that made me who I am.”
1. I Missed the Target Again (Candi Staton)
2. It’s Gonna Rain (PD/ Candi Staton arranger)
3. Hang on in There (Candi Staton)
4. Shine A Light (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards)
5. Lord Will Make a Way Somehow (Thomas Dorsey)
6. God’s Gonna Use Me Anyway (Candi Staton)
7. There Will Be Peace in the Valley (Thomas Dorsey)
8. 1963 (Candi Staton)
9. Reach Down and Touch Heaven for Me (Candi Staton)
10. Love Breakthrough (Candi Staton)
11. My God Has a Telephone (Aaron Frazer, Micah Blaichman, Wyndham Baird)
Ft. William Bell
12. In God’s Hands We Rest Untroubled (Lari White, Jimmy Stewart, Marion Cannon)
Candi Staton is a 5x Grammy® Award nominated singer-songwriter who began her professional career as a member of the Jewel Gospel Trio, the first gospel group with a full band. They recorded for NashboroRecords and toured with 1950s gospel legends such as Mahalia Jackson, Sam Cooke and The Staple Singers. By the late 1960s, Staton had launched her solo R&B career with Rick Hall’s FAME Records where she scored over a dozen southern soul-styled Billboard R&B chart hits such as “I’m Just a Prisoner (Of Your Good Lovin’).”
Her covers of country songs “In the Ghetto” and “Stand by Your Man” earned her Grammy® Award nominations. She closed the 1970s with Warner Brothers Records where she scored dance hits such as “Nights on Broadway,” “Victim” and her platinum-signature hit “Young Hearts Run Free” that reached No. 1 on the US R&B charts and No. 2 in the UK. In the 1980s, Staton left R&B and began a gospel career that brought more Grammy® award nominations and a string of hit albums.
In the early millennium, a series of compilations celebrating her FAME Recordings revived her secular career. She began to make a series of Americana-styled albums that celebrated her southern soul roots such as the critically-acclaimed His Hands(2006), Who’s Hurting Now? (2009), Life Happens (2014) and Unstoppable (2018). Life Happens featured a brilliant Staton collaboration with Jason Isbell, John Paul White (of The Civil Wars) and The Swampers on “I Ain’t Easy to Love.”
It earned them an unforgettable performance on The Late Show with David Letterman. At the same time, she’s also maintained a side career with the dance community that has made songs such as “Love Sweet Sound,” “You Got the Love” and “Hallelujah Anyway” major club classics. “You Got the Love” has sold and streamed millions with various remixes hitting the UK Pop chart Top Ten in 1991, 1997 and 2006. The song has been covered with great success by Florence & The Machine, Joss Stone, Becky Hill and Pete Tong, among others.
It’s been featured in commercials for Mercedes Benz, Charlotte Tilbury and the TV series “Sex and the City.” Within the last year, Staton has enjoyed millions of streams for new dance cuts with CHANEY (“Lose My Number”), Kelly G (“Power of One”) and Benji LaVida’s viral House remake of “Young Hearts Run Free.” In 2025, Staton received the Americana Music Association UK’s highest honor, the International Lifetime Achievement Award. Recently, Staton attended the opening of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Muscle Shoals: Low Rhythm Rising exhibit that features one of her stage costumes from a 1976 appearance on the TV show, Rock Concert.
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