Chirpin'
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox album
| name = Chirpin'
| type = studio
| artist = the Persuasions
| cover = Chirpin'.jpeg
| alt =
| released = 1977
| recorded = 1977
| venue =
| studio =
| length = 34:22
| label = Elektra{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kTO5DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA167|title=Doo-Wop Acappella: A Story of Street Corners, Echoes, and Three-Part Harmonies|first=Lawrence|last=Pitilli|date=August 2, 2016|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9781442244306}}
| producer = David Dashev
| prev_title = More Than Before
| prev_year = 1974
| next_title = Comin' at Ya
| next_year = 1979
}}
Chirpin' is an album by the American musical group the Persuasions, released in 1977.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-persuasions-mn0000411446/biography|title=The Persuasions | Biography & History|website=AllMusic}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-1993-08-08-2934239-story.html|title=The Persuasions Are in Harmony with the Present|first=Jennifer|last=Whitlock|work=The Morning Call|date=8 August 1993 }} It was rereleased in 1990, following the success of the PBS documentary Spike Lee & Company: Do It a Cappella.{{cite news |last1=Heim |first1=Chris |title=Record labels turn on a shower of collections |work=Chicago Tribune |date=5 Oct 1990 |department=Friday |page=S}}
Production
The album was produced by David Dashev.{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-xpm-2012-may-13-la-me-joe-russell-20120513-story.html|title='Sweet Joe' Russell dies at 72; singer with the Persuasions|date=May 13, 2012|work=Los Angeles Times}} After two albums that contained instrumental accompaniment, Chiripin' was a return to an a capella style, albeit without member Jayotis Washington.
Critical reception
{{Music ratings
| rev1 = AllMusic
| rev1Score = {{rating|4.5|5}}{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r15101}}
|rev2 = Christgau's Record Guide
|rev2Score = B+{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|publisher=Ticknor & Fields|isbn=089919026X|chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: P|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=P&bk=70|accessdate=March 10, 2019}}
|rev3 = The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
|rev3score = {{rating|4|4}}{{cite book |last1=Larkin |first1=Colin |title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |date=2006 |publisher=MUZE |volume=6 |page=496}}
| rev4 = The Rolling Stone Record Guide
| rev4Score = {{Rating|5|5}}Marsh, Dave; Swenson, John (Editors). The Rolling Stone Record Guide, 1st edition, Random House/Rolling Stone Press, 1979, p. 291.
}}
The Richmond Times-Dispatch praised the "rich, gutsy and romantic harmonies," and considered Chirpin' the group's best album.{{cite news |last1=Bustard |first1=C.A. |title=Chirpin', the Persuasions |work=Richmond Times-Dispatch |date=Apr 20, 1977 |page=A12}}
Greil Marcus, in The Village Voice, wrote of "Willie and Laura Mae Jones": "'That was another place, and another time,' runs the last line of Tony Joe White’s chorus; as the Persuasions sing it, it is full of dignity, close to bitter, and empty of regret. I don’t know that I have heard new black music this strong since the days that followed Sly Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On."{{Cite news|url=https://greilmarcus.net/2014/11/25/the-persuasions-chirpin-0576/|title=The Persuasions, 'Chirpin" (05/76)|date=November 25, 2014|work=The Village Voice}} He later listed the album as one of the ten best of the 1970s.{{cite web |title=Rock in the 1970s: Journey Through the Past |url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2019/12/11/rock-in-the-1970s-journey-through-the-past/ |work=The Village Voice |date=11 December 2019 |access-date=9 June 2021}}
Track listing
;Side 1
- "Papa Oom Mow Mow" (Al Frazier, Carl White, Turner Wilson, John Harris) – 2:18
- "Willie and Laura Mae Jones" (Tony Joe White) – 3:15
- "Moonlight and Music" (Leroy Fann) – 3:00
- "Johnny Porter" (Bobby Ray Appleberry, Bill Cuomo) – 4:34
- "Looking for an Echo" (Richard Reicheg) – 4:11
;Side 2
- "Women and Drinkin'" (Jerry Lawson, David Dashev) – 6:53
- "Sixty Minute Man" (Billy Ward) – 2:00
- "Win Your Love (For Me)" (Sam Cooke) – 3:32
- "It's Gonna Rain Again" (Charles Johnson) – 2:22
- "To Be Loved" (Tyran Carlo, Gwen Gordy Fuqua, Berry Gordy)– 2:32
Details
- Produced by David Dashev.
- Recorded and mixed at The Hit Factory, New York.
- Engineered by Michael Getlin.
- Released in 1977 by Elektra.