PICTURED: Arif Mardin and Barbra Streisand
Higher Ground was Barbra Streisand's eighth number one album.
Streisand heard the song “On Holy Ground” at Virginia Clinton Kelley's funeral in 1994. Barbra was moved by the young singer, Janice Sjostrand, and described it as an “electrifying moment.” In her liner notes for the album, Barbra wrote, “I love the sound of a gospel choir, with all its earthly passion...The lyric says that whenever we stand in the presence of God, we're on holy ground.”
Streisand explained that “the music united us, invoking Virginia's essence and elevating our spirits with every note. I knew then that I had to sing that song, and others like it. The idea for this album was born at that moment.”
The man who wrote “On Holy Ground,” Geron Davis, remembered Streisand's reaction: “Here's a lady,” he said, “who's sung on Broadway. She has sung duets with every famous person in the country. She's produced, starred in, and directed movies. You think a 19-year-old's song is gonna electrify her? That's not what electrified Barbra Streisand. What happened to Barbra Streisand—and I believe she would agree—is that she got into the presence of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. She was electrified not by my song, but by the presence of God that she felt in the room.”
Streisand recorded Higher Ground quickly — in two weeks during the months of August and September 1997. “I wanted to go back to the way I recorded in the 1960s,” Streisand told the Los Angeles Times. “With my first few albums, I made an album in four days. I did three songs at a session. But now they do all this stuff with synthesizers and layers and stuff and then you sing again. So, I just wanted to be spontaneous with an orchestra. My goal was to do three songs that first day and we did it.”
Arif Mardin produced four tracks on Higher Ground (“I Believe/You'll Never Walk Alone”, “Higher Ground”, “If I Could” and “The Water is Wide/Deep River”). He said, “Working on a [Neve Capricorn digital audio console] a few years ago on a Barbra Streisand project, she was in LA and we were in New York and we would mix the song, play it to her over the fibre-optic telephone line, she would critique it, we'd do the changes, and then she would say 'Oh, what about yesterday's mix?' If it wasn't a Capricorn, the assistant would have to set the mix up, look at his notes, set the EQs and everything. With the Capricorn you press one button and everything is recalled. So with Barbra Streisand, who's known to be very particular, we mixed five songs in seven days. Would you believe that? She was very happy. So in that domain, it was important that we worked on a digital desk.”
Ann Hampton Callaway, a gifted performer and songwriter, contributed “At the Same Time” to the album. She told Barbra News: “When I exchanged my first words with Barbra about some lyric rewrites for her, I was too cool for words, trying to remain as dignified as possible,” Callaway said. “We had a very interesting conversation about what she was looking for in the rewriting of the bridge of my song. It was important to her that the words be ‘simple but profound’ and understandable to the listener upon first hearing. She was warm and expressive about the message she wanted to convey.”
"[Barbra] has a certain clout and star wattage that is dazzling beyond almost anyone," Ms. Callaway said of Ms. Streisand. "The powerful impact she's had on me and anyone I know as a singer, as an interpreter of great American songs ... she's a force of nature. When she does a song, she owns it."
