(December 26, 2025) 85 year-old soul music veteran Candi Staton, has earned her first Grammy® Award nomination in 40 years for her 32nd album, Back to My Roots, (Beracah Records / The Orchard). The twelve-track Americana soul set features Staton-penned originals alongside spiritual covers of The Rolling Stones’ 1972 cut “Shine A Light” and the retro soul singer Aaron Frazer’s “My God Has a Telephone,” a duet with STAX Records legend, William Bell. The album earned a nod as Best Roots Gospel Album of the Year alongside offerings from The Isaacs, the Gaither Vocal Band, Karen Peck & New River, and the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. The 68th annual Grammy® Awards ceremony takes place on Sunday, February 1, 2026, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA. It will broadcast live on the CBS Television Network with streaming on Paramount+.

“I know it’s a cliché but it’s always nice just to be nominated,” says Staton. “I was nominated before and a couple of times I was up against Aretha Franklin who I love but I had no chance of winning against her. She just dominated in that era. I’m proud of this album and at this stage of my life, I hope I can finally bring one home before I leave this earth.” One of London, England’s most popular music periodicals MOJO has ranked Back to My Roots at No. 2 on its end of the year Top Ten Soul albums list that includes stellar projects by soulful luminaries such as Mavis Staples, Leon Bridges and Joy Crookes. The album also ranked at No. 27 on the NACC (North American College & Community Radio Chart) Top 50 R&B/Soul records of 2025.

The track “I Missed the Target Again” (featuring Harry Connick Jr.’s longtime guitarist Jonathan DuBose Jr.) – about her recent divorce – has earned airplay on SiriusXM’s Bluesville and other blues stations. Staton’s sister, Maggie Staton Peebles (who alongside Staton was a member of the Jewel Gospel Trio in the 1950s), is featured on the traditional cut “It’s Gonna Rain” and on “There Will Be Peace in the Valley” that Elvis Presley popularized in the 1950s. Staton and her British band, PUSH, went into a London studio to record a Muscle Shoals-styled rendition of The Rolling Stones’ 1972 gem, “Shine A Light.”

“1963” is Staton’s harrowing, first-hand memory of the September 15, 1963, Birmingham Church bombing. “Reach Down and Touch Heaven” finds Staton playing piano on the haunting plea for divine intervention in a weary world. There’s a 1960s R&B throwback to the Motown-styled “Love Breakthrough” and Aaron Frazer & the Flying Stars of Brooklyn’s 2017 cut“My God Has a Telephone” that pairs Staton with STAX Records legend, William Bell. The album closes with the wistful, “In God’s Hands We Rest Untroubled,” originally recorded by the late country star, Lari White, who died in 2017 at the age of 52. “Lari sent me that song to consider at least ten years ago, and I always loved it,” Staton says. “The record label didn’t want it on the album or something, so I just held it.”

Back to My Roots was produced by Staton with her son, Marcus Williams, a drummer who has toured with the likes of Peabo Bryson and Isaac Hayes. They brought in Mark Nevers of Lambchop fame, who produced three of Staton’s prior Americana albums for Honest Jon’s and Thirty Tigers, to sweeten certain tracks. “Some of the first songs I ever heard were songs like Peace in the Valley’ andIt’s Gonna Rain,’” says Staton. “The new songs or cover songs are tracks that remind me of that era when I was growing up as a child and evolving as a young woman. That’s why I named the album Back to My Roots because I’m going back to the roots that made me who I am.”

I Missed the Target Again (Candi Staton)

It’s Gonna Rain (PD/ Candi Staton arranger)

Hang on in There (Candi Staton)

Shine A Light (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards)

Lord Will Make a Way Somehow (Thomas Dorsey)

God’s Gonna Use Me Anyway (Candi Staton)

There Will Be Peace in the Valley (Thomas Dorsey)

1963 (Candi Staton)

Reach Down and Touch Heaven for Me (Candi Staton)

Love Breakthrough (Candi Staton)

My God Has a Telephone (Aaron Frazer, Micah Blaichman, Wyndham Baird) Ft. William Bell

In God’s Hands We Rest Untroubled (Lari White, Jimmy Stewart, Marion Cannon)