The Rare And Splendid Soul Music Of Wendy Rene

I first heard Wendy Rene's voice, like many others of my age, sampled by Wu-Tang Clan, on a track from their first album, 36 Chambers. I was 12 years old, and I remember being extremely curious what a group of Asian singers who claim to be ninjas will sound like. I listened to the cassette in my walkman on the walk home, and as I was approaching the doorstep, "Tearz" came on. As a hip hop track, it wasn't the strongest in Wu-Tang Clan's repertoire, but the organ and vocal samples from "After The Laughter (Comes Tears)" were absolutely haunting. The overall menagerie of samples left me deeply impressed, but not none of them affected me as much as that one track.

As a kid, my grandmother would bring me to the bar where my grandfather bartended during the day. They'd give me a roll of quarters, and I'd play a bowling or golf arcade game, whilst listening to a good amount of soul music on the juke box, as well as country, and plenty of popular hits of the time--so I had some affinity for soul music at the age of 12; More-so than many of my peers, anyway. After that tape, I not only coveted what Wu-Tang Clan did, but also what they sampled (prior to the internet), and that is what slowly forged my solid enthusiasm for soul music. I have still yet to hear anything that matches the exhilarating feeling I caught on that day walking home from the mall with my Walkman.

Wendy Rene's voice is both child-like and robust, mature, almost husky with the rustic sincerity of a person who'd had her fair share of broken hearts and hard knocks. In all honesty, I never heard any other song by Rene, until I began DJing soul music at a Chicago radio station with a friend named Eric Lab Rat around 2007. At that time, I was elated to find more music by Wendy Rene, as WLUW had a copy of the 9CD Stax Singles Box Set. I remember loving just about everything by her that I'd heard, but since I'd been unable to bring the whole box set home, I'd been unable to hear all of it anytime soon. I remember thinking that the song Bar-BQ was gimmicky and not entirely sincere, and it turns out I was right! The rest of what I heard was better and better the more I heard it, though.

At some point around that time, I bought a box of mystery 45 singles, about 100 of them, for something like $10. Lo and behold, within the first five records that I flipped through, was Wendy Rene's After The Laughter single, with a B Side that I hadn't heard yet: What Will Tomorrow Bring. What a massive surprise that was! It's still among my favorites of hers. At the time, that record alone would go for at least $60, but I knew I'd never sell it for anything in the world. I wonder if Rene knew how nuanced and unique her work was.

The organ, sometimes played by Booker T. Jones (of Booker T. & The MGs) had such a bright placement in so many of Rene's songs, and a uniquely, subtly foreboding presence in others. The string sections that occasionally appear on some of Rene's songs, both solo and with The Drapels, the band she was in with her brother prior to their breaking up, they give an almost funereal edge to some of these already morose songs about lost love, loneliness, and self-doubt. I've listened to a lot of soul music, but have never heard songs play out in such a compelling, and almost upliftingly sad tone. In hindsight, t's almost gothic. I'd call it "exaltingly dark".

In 2011, Light In The Attic released a 2LP compilation of Rene's work, both solo and with The Drapels. It's still a prized possession. Apparently this impetus drew Rene out of her obscurity, enough for her to perform one more time, in Louisiana, in 2010. In December of 1967, she'd given up her music career to dedicate her life to her family and her church. Incidentally, she even cancelled her last scheduled performance. If she hadn't, she would have been on a plane that crashed, killing Otis Redding, The Bar-Kays, and others.

From 1968 on, Wendy Rene, her stage name, was discarded, and the newly-wed Mary Cross went on to raise 6 children prior to her passing in 2014. One of the many would/could/should scenarios that I'd like to see play out in music history for me must be the notion that Wendy Rene continued with her music career without being on that airplane, but maybe the obscurity of her work is part of what gives it its power.