Transcript: Listen to Milwaukee’s soul gospel ministry

This audio featured aired on WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” on Thursday, May 8, 2025. Read the full story here.

(Background of O.W.’s Exalters singing “Jesus” in harmony)

Host Kate Archer Kent: First thing’s first: This gospel troupe has a deep relationship with God. They show it when they are in perfect harmony at the altar of Baptist churches. They show it after a performance — decked out in matching baby blue dresses —  sitting around a table in the church basement. As we are now. Also, most of them are related. 

(O.W.’s Exalters introducing themselves, one after another) 

I’m Mary Griffin. I am the overseer. I do lead, tenor and tone. And I’m the biological mother of (pointing) to one, two, three. And all of these (pointing) are my adopted girls right here. These are my children from another mother.

I’m Tiffany Boyd. I’m the booking manager, and I’m the top and the tenor singer and lead singer.

I am Patrice Carter. I am the manager of O.W.’s Exalters. 

I am Kaya [Makaya] Evans.

I am Amber Wilkerson.

I’m Temple Smith.

I am Trivoris Griffin.

I am Terrence Griffin. 

Kent: Deacon O.W. Griffin started this gospel group in the family’s basement. As the story goes, Griffin and the boys would sing together and the girls would run downstairs to harmonize. Deacon Griffin died in 2008. But the Exalters added O.W. to their name in his honor. And the group is celebrating 35 years together. 

Producer Mackenzie Krumme testing the sound: That’s in, we should be going and this is it here. Yeah, hello, hello, hello, yep. That sounds good. 

Kent: OK, it sounds good. Why don’t we start with Tiffany? Can you distinguish what is soul gospel to you and the Exalters?

Tiffany Boyd: Well, it’s uplifting. It’s a ministry, and that’s what we do. We carry it. It’s a song in you. And every song has a story. So in singing, we’re telling a story and encouraging and uplifting someone that may be going through something. 

Kent: How much inspiration do you get from people who are listening to you sitting in the service? 

Boyd: Well, it depends. They lift their hands. They clap. They praise. They participate as they’re going through. They minister to themselves. Witness to themselves.

(A worship song at Milwaukee’s Holy Temple Firstborn Missionary Baptist Church where the pastor is encouraging people to stand up and praise.)

Kent: Gospel groups in Milwaukee share a strong bond with one another, even though they attend different churches. At this service, O.W.’s Exalters are performing in honor of another gospel troupe. 

(Sounds of walking down a hall and someone knocking on a door)

Mother and vocalist of O.W.’s Exalters Mary Griffin: It’s me.

Kent: Oh they are getting dressed.

Mary Griffin: They are praying.

Kent: Down a hallway of the church, a group of women put on rhinestone-studded outfits and come together for a prayer. It’s there I meet sister Glanda Jeanes of Milwaukee’s Legendary Holy Gospel Singers, a group that is celebrating 45 years.

Glanda Jeanes: How do I look?

Kent: You look smashing, gorgeous.

Kent: Who in your life kind of brought you along with music? Where did you learn to sing? 

Jeans: I’m from Mississippi. I was in the field and hoeing cotton in the hot sun. And God spoke to me. And I looked up and he showed me he wanted want me to sing with the group. I didn’t know anything about singing quartet. I was only 14. 

Then my mother passed and I moved to Milwaukee and I got married. I was 20-some I guess. Then he came to me again one Sunday morning about how he want this group to sing. And he showed me everybody in a bubble individually to sing. 

So I went to each one of them and told them. They said let’s do it.

Kent: Sister Glanda Jeanes and the O.W.’s Exalters have been friends for years. And they support each other and lift up one another’s work. Here’s Tiffany again. 

Boyd: We fellowship a lot. It’s like different groups and every weekend it’s like someone else’s anniversary. All of the groups end up going to each other group’s anniversaries and celebrating with them and fellowshipping with them. We’re all like one big family. We all know each other. We commune together and we serve one God.

Kent: O.W.’s Exalters practice and perform regularly. Each Wednesday is rehearsal. And since they were young, they’ve stayed committed to the group.

And committed to producing original material. That was a standard set by the father of the group, Deacon O.W. Griffin, who forbade them to sing anyone else’s works. Here is Tiffany with her mother, Mary Griffin. 

Mary Griffin: Let her know that daddy didn’t allow us to sing other people’s songs, right?

Boyd: Never, he said, never, no. We sing our own songs. Because if we get on the floor singing someone else’s song, someone else may get up to sing our song before we sing our song. Then what do you do? So all our songs are original. 

Kent: That takes a lot of work, a lot of work together, original compositions for everything you do. 

Boyd: Absolutely, absolutely. I remember one time we were in Chicago, and we were just standing outside of a pastor’s church and we just started singing. We have a song called “Sunshine.” There won’t always be sunshine and we’ve written that song standing outside.

(O.W’s Exalters harmonizing with “Sunshine”)

Kent: Granddaughter-in-law Makaya Evans often writes the lyrics. Whenever inspiration comes to her.

Evans: For me the song that I’ve written recently I wrote basically during pain or different low moments. That’s how I found myself getting out of it, writing music.  Sometimes I also dream about it. So I’m like let me throw that in there because it’ll be real nice. What makes it better for me is that my boyfriend currently is the MC. So a lot of times it’s three o’clock in the morning and I’m like I just got this up and we get up. 

Kent: How does writing music make you feel? 

Evans: It is a release for me because a lot of times I can’t articulate exactly what I want to say. But if I do write a song perfectly, it speaks for me.

Kent: O.W.’s Exalters are working on their fifth album. They perform most Sundays, and often fit in dozens of performance dates a month. These women are also known for hitting the high notes in a bright, clear tone. Here is manager Patrice Carter. 

Carter: To hit those high notes is all God. To be perfectly honest with you, it’s by God’s grace. Is not my doing at all. It’s all him. I can’t tell you, it’s just his gift that he has given us. 

I’ll piggyback on to dad. He was a man of integrity. He was very structured. And I believe as being the manager for the last several years now that, looking back, we used to be in rehearsal and dad used to try to give us something and they couldn’t get it. And he’ll say, “Patrice you get it, you do it.” And I’ll do it and I give it to them and then they’ll get it. I just feel now that all that time that he was grooming me, didn’t know it, but I feel like he was grooming me to be in the position that I am in now.

Kent: Which is to help people feel closer to God.

[Hearing the congregation at Milwaukee’s Holy Temple Firstborn Missionary Baptist Church]

Announcer: Get ready. Listen, the spirit is high. We going to keep it moving just like this here. That’s all I’m talking about. When you come to church, you ought to have church, right? Amen. Amen. Our next group that’s going to minister to us. I’m not going to say sing, but they’re going to minister because that’s exactly what they do. And that is none other than O.W.’s Exalters. You all come on clap your hands. Give them some praise. 

Come on, come on, come on. Shout hallelujah. Shout thank you Jesus.

[O.W.’s Exalters singing “Keep The Faith”]

Kent: As Mary Griffin gets older, she thinks about the legacy of her family and the O.W’s Exalters place in the community. After decades of marriage, Mary remembers how the group performed at Deacon O.W. Griffin’s funeral, which was difficult on Mary. 

Mary Griffin: At one point, me personally, I just didn’t feel like I could carry it on. I couldn’t do it justice, and I did want to give up. But through encouragement and me realizing how being in the church had kept my kids from things that you know could’ve gone really bad or they just not cared about life. It was the singing that they love to do that held them. 

Kent: For now, Mary keeps close watch of the next generation of O.W.’s Exalters and what roles her great-grandchildren will have in singing and in the band that backs up the women. 

[Sounds of being in the basement and people talking]

Mary Griffin: Then I watched my little kids over here. This little girl right here. This is my great granddaughter. That’s Makenzy.

Krumme: Hi, what’s your name dear?

Makenzy Griffin: Makenzy Griffin. 

Kent: There’s a Makenzy and there’s Mackenzie. There is two Mackenzies. 

Krumme: My name is Mackenzie too. How old are you? 3?

Mary Griffin: And right now she wants to sing. That’s the fourth generation. So I’m excited. It just keeps going and going. And I believe that at the end, his legacy is going to live on for a long time, a long time.

(Mic sounds) 

Great-grandson Kamden Carter: My name is Kamden. 

Krumme: How old are you? 

Kamden Carter: 7.

Kent: What do the O.W.’s Exalters mean to you?

Kamden Carter: Love and kindness.

Kent: Why do you feel that when you think of them? 

Kamden Carter: Because they always make so many good… of the good! 

Kent: They see the sunshine? 

Kamden Carter: Yeah. 

Kent: Do you want to see that as well when you are a little bit bigger? Would you like to be part of that experience? 

Kamden Carter: Yes.

Kent: What do you want to do in the band?

Kamden Carter: Play drums.

Kent: Is that a good way to praise Jesus and be apart of your community?

Kamden Carter: Yes, because I love God so much.

Kent: Kamden, just like all the mothers who surround him, keep the faith… and sing.

[O.W.’s Exalters performing “He Saved Me.”] 

Kent: That story was produced by Mackenzie Krumme with sound design by Sarah Hopefl.

O.W.’s Exalters is set to perform Sunday at True Love Missionary Baptist Church in Milwaukee with a Mother’s Day musical. To see other performances, you can visit their Facebook page or attend a service at a number of Milwaukee’s Baptist churches, they just might be there.

They take us out here on music they performed at Holy Temple Firstborn Missionary Baptist Church on a recent Sunday. 

This song is “He Saved Me.”