Elizabeth King

Elizabeth King performs sacred soul and gospel from her Memphis base. Her commanding contralto has anchored church services and weekly gospel broadcasts on radio since the 1960s. In 1969 she issued her debut single, “Testify,” on Designer and followed it with additional sides for the same imprint. The following year she joined D-Vine Spirituals as lead vocalist for the all-male Gospel Souls; the ensemble produced five singles and one album across 1970–1973, though the album remained unreleased. She then stepped away from commercial recording and live performance to raise her family, limiting her music to church and radio.

Contact from her former producer Rev. Juan D. Shipp in 2019, who was then collaborating with Bible & Tire Recording Company founder Bruce Watson, brought her back. Watson signed her immediately, and within days she resumed studio work. At age 77 she delivered her first full-length album, Living in the Last Days, in 2021; I Got a Love appeared the next year. Bible & Tire issued her third collection, Soul Provider, in April 2024.

King has sung since infancy. At nine she suffered a grave illness that left doctors without a diagnosis after her mother carried her to a physician. That night, burning with fever, she sang despite her mother’s pleas to rest; by morning she had recovered and recognized a divine intervention that music had helped sustain. She has performed in church ever since.

A 1969 car crash caused by a drunk driver left her hospitalized for 17 days and informed by physicians that she would never walk again; she recovered and credited the outcome to God. Shortly afterward she signed with Designer and began releasing singles, opening with “Testify.” In 1970 she began fronting the Gospel Souls on the road. Gospel DJ Rev. Juan D. Shipp launched D-Vine Spirituals in 1972 to document regional talent; a year later Elizabeth King & the Gospel Souls scored a hit with “I Heard the Voice,” earning King a Gospel Gold Cup from the gospel DJs association.

The group ultimately cut five singles for D-Vine, plus an album that financial constraints kept on the shelf. King exited the industry to focus on her fifteen children yet kept singing locally and on radio. Multiple label offers arrived during her absence, all of which she declined.

In 2019 Watson founded Bible & Tire, constructed a Memphis studio, and partnered with Shipp to restore D-Vine masters. Watson’s interest in contemporary sacred soul from the mid-South paralleled his earlier Fat Possum work with Delta blues. Bible & Tire’s third release was the compilation The D-Vine Spirituals Recordings by Elizabeth King & the Gospel Souls, gathering those five singles. While researching the roster, Shipp learned King still sang weekly on air, reached her by phone, and arranged an introduction to Watson the following day. After expressing admiration, Watson offered a new recording opportunity; King accepted on the condition that Shipp participate, and Watson signed her.

Shipp and Watson recruited the Sensational Barnes Brothers for harmonies—the siblings had supplied Bible & Tire’s first release—along with King’s former D-Vine associates the Vaughn Sisters and the D-Vine Spiritualettes. Backed by the Sacred Soul Sound Section under guitarist Will Sexton, the ensemble recorded eleven tracks that revisited three Designer numbers (“Testify for Jesus,” “A Long Journey,” “Walk with Me”), plus the Shaw Singers’ “He Touched Me,” Fred McDowell’s “You Got to Move,” Rev. James Cleveland’s “No Ways Tired,” and the a cappella “Blessed Be the Name of the Lord” drawn from the Book of Job. Living in the Last Days appeared in April 2021, more than fifty years after her first single. In June 2022 she reunited with Watson, the label, and the Sacred Soul Sound Section for I Got a Love. Late in 2023 she returned to Memphis’s Delta Sonic Sound with co-producers Watson and Sexton and the same rhythm section; guests included Jimbo Mathus and John Paul Keith. The resulting ten-song Soul Provider emerged in April 2024.