AUGUST 4, 2009
Naomi Shelton Interview
Important Places in the Life and Career of Gospel Singer
by CJ FaheyI recently met with the strikingly elegant gospel singer Naomi Shelton to talk about her career in music, which has spanned a half-century, more if you count her early days singing with her sisters on a weekly Sunday morning radio broadcast from outside Tuskegee, Alabama.
In recent years Naomi has been reaching a larger audience thanks in part to her collaboration with Daptone Records, the Brooklyn-based label that produces Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and, most famously, created the backing band that played on Amy Winehouse's 2006 album Back to Black.
Given that we're National Geographic, I wanted to take a unique approach to the interview with Naomi and try to understand her life and career through maps. We sat down with an atlas (National Geographic, of course), and she took me through the various places that have been significant in her life, telling me stories and sharing pearls of wisdom along the way. The two maps below focus respectively on Alabama and New York. Click on the markers for specific details on each of the locations.
ALABAMA
NEW YORK