How I Got Over: Clara Ward & Her World Famous Ward Singers By Willa Ward-Royster And Horace Clarence Boyer (Temple University Press)

    The connection between gospel music and blues music has been well documented, so it was with great anticipation that I delved into the book "How I Got Over" the story of Clara Ward and her family. Clara Ward was the product of a musical family. Although it was a very dysfunctional musical family. Born in 1924 and mostly raised in the Philadelphia area where her mother, an established gospel matriarch, established and guided the Ward singers to become a dominant force in the world of gospel music.

  "How I Got Over" is supposed to be the story of Clara Ward's rise to stardom in the music world, it is also equally the story of Clara's mom, Gertrude. The author of "How I Got Over" is Clara's sister, and one time member of the Ward singers, Willa Ward-Royster. Willa recalls the early days when the singers (Clara, Willa and Gertrude) would travel from church to church to sing for whatever those who got the spirit would toss into the hat. She also remembers moving from address to address as the family struggled to stay afloat. The whole time mom is running the show, both musically and financially.

  The group after a long struggle hits it big with "Surely God Is Able" and "How I Got Over". These two monster gospel hits improves the family fortunes drastically but unfortunately Willa realizes little of these rewards. Mom seems to be driving a new car every other year and her donations to the various religious organizations are tremendous and secretive. Not only does she control the family fortunes but she also controls Clara through out her short life. Her ability to lay guilt on Clara prevents her from entering any type of long-term relationship and also prevents her from crossing over into the lucrative secular market, ala Sam Cooke. Mom's control over Clara is so complete that after Clara suffers a severe aneurysm and stroke and is told by her doctor to never sing again or risk death she overrules Clara's doctor by stating "The Lord don't know do no halfway healing. He saved her so she could sing gospel". In fact the stories told by Willa are sometimes so off the wall that this book reminds me of a gospel version of "Mommy Dearest"!

  There are also stories about the band traveling on the road in the gospel circuit. One of saddest and funniest is a story about the Wards encountering a group of white racists in the Deep South. Gertrude and her daughters were driving in the deep south, in a new Cadillac, when they were stopped by a small contingent of racists who insist that the car they are driving must be stolen. They are showered with racial slurs and are threatened with bodily harm when Gert goes into action. She feigns to be possessed by the spirit. She contorts her face, flicks her tongue like a serpent and begins to call on the devil to save her. There would be attackers quickly back off fearing a down-home spell was being cast on them!

  The first's are well documented by Willa, the first gospel group to sing at the Newport Jazz Festival, the first to sing at the Paramount Theater in Los Angles, the first gospel group to headline a show at the famed Apollo Theater, and the first gospel group to record a million selling record "Surely God Is Able".  Willa also drops the names that have become the staple of gospel history there's Alex Bradford, James Cleveland, Mahalia Jackson, Rosetta Tharpe, Rev. C. L. and Aretha Franklin.

  "How I Got Over" might not rank as historically important as other gospel historical books such as, "The Gospel Sound" by Anthony Heilbut, but it serves as an interesting insight to one of the most important musical families of the gospel genre.

(Dave Moskal)