RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. The New Year is a time of new beginnings - resolutions, projects, new directions. So it's a perfectly appropriate time of year for Leo Welch, at the age of 81, to put out his debut album.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
LEO WELCH: (Singing) And I don't know what you come to do. I don't know what you come to do. I don't know what you come to do...
MARTIN: Leo Welch has been making music around the tiny town of Bruce, Miss., for decades. He was a local standout unknown to the outside world until he called up an Oxford-based record label, went in for an audition, and signed a record deal on the spot. The result is "Sabougla Voices." It's an album brimming with gospel songs, with titles like "Praise His Name" and "Take Care of Me Lord." But Leo Welch has the soul and sound of a blues man.
WELCH: That's what it was - blues. I tell them I was born not with the blues; I born in the blues.
MARTIN: Born in the blues. Leo Welch went into the Memphis studio of WKNO last week to talk with us about his music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MOTHER LOVES HER CHILDREN")
MARTIN: Well, let's get into the album a little bit. Let's hear a song. This is "Mother Loves Her Children." Let's take a listen.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MOTHER LOVES HER CHILDREN")
MARTIN: Did you give your mother a lot of trouble?
WELCH: Not too much. 'Cause I know not to give her no trouble 'cause I know what's coming behind that trouble. That's a good whipping and that's what I would really get when I do wrong. She threw me up and tell me to fly right now and do right and you won't get no whooping. I said, yes, mama.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MOTHER LOVES HER CHILDREN")
MARTIN: Let's play another track off the album. This is a gospel song. This is called "You Can't Hurry God." Let's take a listen.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU CAN'T HURRY GOD")
MARTIN: So, what has that meant in your own life, you can't hurry God? What does that mean to you?
WELCH: Well, that means that, you know, we just have to trust Him, believe in Him and give Him time. He may not come when we want Him to come but any time He comes, He's always on time. He's right on time.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU CAN'T HURRY GOD")
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU CAN'T HURRY GOD")
MARTIN: It's a great band on this new album, some really lovely backing vocals, lovely production. But I wonder if there is something especially satisfying about the next song I'm going to play. This is a track that's rather stripped down. This is just you and an acoustic guitar. Let's take a listen to the track called "The Lord Will Make a Way."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE LORD WILL MAKE A WAY")
MARTIN: Well, I'm hope we're listening to your music for a long time. Mr. Leo Welch. His new album is called "Sabougla Voices." He spoke to us from member station WKNO in Memphis, Tennessee. Mr. Welch, Happy New Year.
WELCH: Happy New Year to you.
MARTIN: Thank you so much.
WELCH: Thank you.