About the beginning...

We met at church, Moseley Road Methodist in Birmingham. Sam came to the church some years ago to help us out with the youth project and from there he started playing the Piano. I suppose the turning point was a concert held in 1997 when we all sang together, now we sing not only at our home church but also get invited to sing at other churches and special occasions".

About Our Name

"Well, Carol would say our choice of name was down to a spur of the moment choice. But I think we'd all agree that the name has come to represent two important elements of our identity that, through music, we are able to bring together. Our "soul" expressing our cultural and historical experiences and our "spirit" representing our faith and the holy spirit who works within us".

About Our Singing

"We all love singing and find it easy to express ourselves through our love of music, it gives us great joy and fulfillment. And we miss it when we're not able to do it. When we sing it is as if we are worshipping God with our whole being. It's a great privilege and opportunity to be able to make both of our CD's and share in our worship with you". 

About Musical Worship

"For the group, singing is almost like another form of preaching. Music has a way of enabling people to relate to a message in a way that preaching may not. This is especially the case for younger people. We love to sing and often feel more confident singing about our faith than talking. Music has always been so important to us as African Caribbean people. We always expressed ourselves and our spirituality through music, particularly the voice, and in a way we are just part of an ongoing tradition.  But there's more to it than that; the Bible makes constant references to"singing songs unto God", or to others about God. The book of psalms is basically a hymnbook containing songs of the most beautiful and personal reflections, supplications and exultations to God.  Music has the unique ability to reach out to people and draw them into the very presence of God. And we've found God speaking to us through other people's songs on many different occasions and in different circumstances. However we don't see that we have chosen to use music as a vehicle for our faith, rather we believe God has given us the gifts in music so that he may use us as a medium for his word"

About Our Inspiration

"It all depends on what is happening in our lives at the time and it sounds very clichéd, but, again, we can only relate the music and songs we write to being inspired by God.  Sometimes you can wake up with a melody in your head and the words will come later. A lot of the time it just comes together - like it's a gift from God. Often, when you look back on a song, it's difficult to tell where the words have come from. It just somehow came together. We like to incorporate aspects of our own spiritual journey and experience into songs, or rather the spiritual journey, because there are certain mile stones that we all come across, for example the song "Mercy for Me" - expresses very simply, the point of the realisation that God's love and mercy can cover our sins, as well as everyone else's and, even though we mess up at times, through Jesus Christ, there is still hope".

About Our Faith

"Our faith means a great deal to all of us, so much so that without it, it would've been difficult coping with some of the more difficult times in our lives. Faith represents a relationship with God, but further more it represents "Hope". We live in hope, through the message of Christ, that one day, despite our inadequacies and our failings, by faith we'll be acceptable to God and be at peace with him and he with us.  In the meantime it's our responsibility to tell others about our faith and why we live in hope. But then it's not something to be talked about to be honest, it's just something I think we all feel and something we communicate in our songs".

Soul and Spirit are available for Seminars, workshops, weddings and other occasions. If you would like some more information as to how to book us please send us a mail at joanne@soulandspirit.co.uk or call us at 0121 256 1310.