Excerpted from Cooler Than Ice: Arctic Records and the Rise of Philly Soul
The Lane Relations were a Philadelphia-based group that performed at the North Philadelphia Gospel venue, The Met, and were produced for record by Louise Williams. The Lane Relations’ Arctic debut, the Gospel Queen’s first production for Arctic, is startlingly modern for 1965; the band sounds more R&B than spiritual apart from the tambourine. A forceful young female delivers a unifying message over a walking bass line on “Everything On Earth,” Curtis Mayfield-style guitar winding through the delicious mid-tempo backing as the rest of the group chants harmoniously in the background.
Philadelphia only had one Gospel Queen: the amazing Louise Williams Bishop. She was on her way to broadcasting institution status on the radio airwaves when she began dabbling in record production for Arctic with this single. Born in Cairo, Georgia, Williams and her 11 brothers and sisters toiled as sharecroppers prior to relocating to Philly when she was 15. Louise graduated from West Philadelphia High in 1953, continuing on to the American Foundation of Dramatic Arts, In 1958, her degree in communications and radio broadcasting in hand, Williams landed an evening gig at WHAT-AM, where she was known on the air as “Tiger Rose.” But that didn’t last long. She soon moved over to WDAS (her uplifting The Louise Bishop Show would beam for nearly half a century).
“Cleaning Up Here” is more of an old-fashioned rouser, though the groove is similarly up to date. This time a male member of the Lane Relations takes the primary lead and does some serious holy ghost testifying, urged forward by enthusiastic call-and-response interplay with his cohorts. Not only is the song’s message inspiring, so is its highly infectious groove. Clearly, Louise Williams Bishop was not a strict gospel traditionalist.
