Biography
Soul singer Patrinell Staten entered the world in Carthage, TX, and spent her childhood there. As the daughter of a preacher, she soaked up the gospel sounds of Mahalia Jackson during services with her father’s church choir. The year 1964 brought her to Seattle, where she assembled the group Pat Wright & the Cassanovas. Before long she was commanding stages at Emerald City venues such as Club Ebony and the Tiki Tavern, and she eventually worked her way along the West Coast’s storied chitlin circuit of black-owned nightclubs. Church remained central to her life, however. While singing at Seattle’s True Vine Baptist in 1967, she drew the attention of LaVera Clark, proprietor of the fledgling Sepia imprint. Although Clark also composed songs, none suited Staten, so the vocalist supplied her own material instead.
The resulting single, “I Let a Good Man Go,” appeared on Sepia in 1969 with the stronger flip side “Little Love Affair.” Steady rotation on KYAC turned the record into a local sensation, yet it never registered on the national stage. Staten stepped away from club work in 1973 to establish the Total Experience Gospel Choir; four years later, in 1989, the ensemble became the first African-American-oriented choir invited to sing inside the Mormon Tabernacle. In subsequent decades she resumed secular appearances, delivering jazz and R&B alongside her Good Foot Band. Britain’s Northern soul enthusiasts later revived interest in her solitary Sepia release, driving original pressings—now vanishingly scarce—to prices exceeding $4,000 until Light in the Attic included the track on its 2004 anthology Wheedle’s Groove: Seattle’s Finest in Funk & Soul 1965-75.
The resulting single, “I Let a Good Man Go,” appeared on Sepia in 1969 with the stronger flip side “Little Love Affair.” Steady rotation on KYAC turned the record into a local sensation, yet it never registered on the national stage. Staten stepped away from club work in 1973 to establish the Total Experience Gospel Choir; four years later, in 1989, the ensemble became the first African-American-oriented choir invited to sing inside the Mormon Tabernacle. In subsequent decades she resumed secular appearances, delivering jazz and R&B alongside her Good Foot Band. Britain’s Northern soul enthusiasts later revived interest in her solitary Sepia release, driving original pressings—now vanishingly scarce—to prices exceeding $4,000 until Light in the Attic included the track on its 2004 anthology Wheedle’s Groove: Seattle’s Finest in Funk & Soul 1965-75.