Christian Music Online

Clark Sisters being honored in the Grammys

June 24, 2007 – 12:33 pm

Everywhere you turn, it seems the Clark Sisters are putting in an appearance.

There they are splashed across newspapers touting their first joint CD since 1994, Live: One Last Time.

Then they’re in Washington, D.C., being honored in the Grammys alongside Bobby Jones and contemporary Christian artist Michael W. Smith.

And in October the famed Detroit-based quartet, who began singing as teenagers three decades ago under their influential mother’s tutelage, will launch a 25-city tour from Nashville.

The sisters, who sing solely for the glory of God but have influenced both gospel and secular artists for years, simply shrug at the notion that this is a “reunion.”

“We never stopped singing,” sister Jacky Clark Chisholm says just before rehearsal in Washington’s Lincoln Theater, where she and her sisters picked up the Recording Academy’s President’s Merit Award on June 8.

After years of recording individual albums, the sisters - Jacky, Elbernita “Twinkie” Clark-Terrell, Karen Clark-Sheard and Dorinda Clark-Cole - came together for One Last Time last July in Houston.

“I believe that God has hooked us up for such a time as this because we are getting older and we all have our own individual ministries and careers,” Dorinda says. “But my mother has always said to us, ‘Y’all stick together.’ “

BORN TO SING

The Clark Sisters grew up singing in Detroit with a pioneer of gospel music - their mother, Mattie Moss Clark, a revered choir director, writer, and musician who recorded more than 35 albums during her career and is credited with being the first person to teach three-part harmony to choirs.

“I guess the girls get it honest because it’s in the blood,” gospel singer Richard Smallwood says. “The whole family has been trailblazers and pioneers.”

The sisters “sang in front of thousands on top of thousands of people around the world before it was popular,” says a singer and long-time family friend, Donnie McClurkin. “Each of them play organ, they sing, they write their own songs, they preach. The true depth of what they do hasn’t even been touched.”

Often touted as the biggest-selling female gospel group in history, their 1980 album, Is My Living In Vain, remained on the top of the Billboard charts for more than a year.

And their 1981 smash, You Brought the Sunshine, crossed over to the R&B black singles chart in 1983, peaking at No. 16.

Twinkie says when she penned the song, with a “reggae” beat from a Stevie Wonder tune in mind, she never imagined it would take off like it did. That was just God in the details.

“The message in the song appealed to so many people that don’t go to church and that were in clubs,” she says.

A MAJOR INFLUENCE

The sisters always have strived to use music to reach people wherever they are in their lives, even if that place isn’t church.

“We’re responsible for bringing people to Christ, singing songs that will stir up the spirit in people,” says Karen, whose guest roster for her solo albums has included hip-hop and rap artists such as Missy Elliott.

Fellow gospel artists such as McClurkin, Jones, Crystal Lewis and Yolanda Adams agree the sisters’ influence has been far reaching.

“They’ve influenced everybody from gospel to mainstream, Faith Evans, Mary J. Blige, Kelly Price,” says Donald Lawrence, who helped produce One Last Time. “Twinkie was just an ultimate musician, she influenced most of the way people play organ in church today.”

“I sang everything they sang because I wanted to sound like them, I wanted to dress like them, I wanted to look like them,” Yolanda Adams says. “They were groundbreaking and really didn’t know they were groundbreaking when they were teenagers.”

While flattering, such praise doesn’t faze the sisters, who take it all in modest stride. And, even though the title of their live album suggests finality, they hesitate when asked whether they’ll record together again.

Says Karen: “We’re just in a holding pattern.

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