When three-time Grammy winning jazz vocalist Samara Joy McLendon was just a girl growing up in the Bronx, she watched her Philly-based grandparents, Elder Goldwire McLendon and Ruth Byrd, load into their “Godmobile,” a passenger van converted into a tour bus with a generator-powered organ to take their gospel choir and mobile street ministry, The Savettes, on the road. Samara Joy, as she’s known professionally, also remembers her father, Antonio McLendon, a gifted bassist and soulful vocalist, leaving home to tour with the gospel singer-songwriter Andraé Crouch. Her uncle, Laurone McLendon, and cousins, Tiera Lovell Rowe (vocalist) and Thomas Niblack (bassist and vocalist), are likewise virtuosos.
The McLendon family is now following in the footsteps of Joy’s grandparents by taking a family act on the road for the holidays. “A Joyful Holiday Tour” showcases Joy, her aforementioned father, cousins, uncle and, for select shows, 94-year-old grandfather, all performing holiday tunes and sultry jazz numbers at venues across the nation.
