Review of 20 Feet from Stardom (2013) by Elle B — 17 Mar 2014

Listening to these women's heavenly, uplifting, passionate voices leaves us wondering why they are anonymous voices on an album or shadowy faces on the stage. Several prominent singers are featured.

Some reviewers have criticized the storytelling as being unfocused, but I disagree. Rather than follow each singer's career separately, the director has chosen to examine backup singing chronologically, as a career or calling in life, amidst social upheaval and revolutions in music.

We witness the journey that backup singers have taken from subdued harmonies of the 50's, to Phil Spector's wall of sound, the American export of R&B to British rock music, the insurgence of technology over the human voice, and backup singing in the current decade.

The women's journeys mirror the civil rights movement and women's battle against the glass ceiling. One poignant example: Merry Clayton's reluctance and eventual consent to singing background vocals on "Sweet Home Alabama," a confederate anthem that was written by Skynrd in response to Neil Young's condemning "Southern Man.

" Later, we see Merry as a solo artist, finally able to sing Young's lyrics, "I heard screaming and bullwhips cracking." In the absence of a narrative explanation, the poignancy of this moment might be lost on some viewers.

While some structure may be lost by allowing the singers to tell the stories in their own ways, it's only appropriate that the singers take the spotlight that they have deserved for decades. Most of all, their voices and harmonies continue to transport us with the music to heavenly place.