Merry Clayton

★★★★ Beautiful Scars MOTOWN GOSPEL. CD/DL/LP

Famed backing singer Merry Clayton’s gospel-inspired resurrection from tragedy.

The chilling cries of “Rape! Murder! It’s just a shot away!” from The Rolling Stones’ classic Gimme Shelter were sung by Merry Clayton and they added the truest grit. The church-rooted Clayton had a busy career as a backing vocalist, chronicled in the documentary 20 Feet From Stardom. In 2014 she was terribly injured in a car accident and this album’s title song refers to her refusal to let her damaged body control her destiny. Clayton doesn’t simply sing, she ecstatically wrings the meaning from each lyric, imbuing it with the Holy Spirit and her own astonishing strength. Love

Is A Mighty River, co-written by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, is a modern anthem. In her hands, the song’s subject becomes God. (The same goes for Leon Russell’s A Song For You.) The Ooh Child Medley closer, a duet with her granddaughter, also looks upwards – and forward.