Motown legend Martha Reeves returns to the spotlight with Searching, her first album in twenty-two years, arriving August 14. In a candid conversation, Reeves, who recently celebrated her 85th birthday, reflects on the creative fire that inspired her long-awaited comeback LP and the joy of rediscovering her voice. Joining her is long-time manager Chris Roe, who offers insight into the project’s evolution and the team behind Reeves renewed artistic chapter. Together, they share stories of resilience, legacy, and the excitement surrounding an album that marks a powerful new moment in one of music’s most enduring careers.
TRIBUNE: How does your new album reflect where you are as an artist today?
MARTHA: This album is just a whole lot of love. I’m just so proud to tell the world that I’m spiritually inclined permanently. I’m not going to switch back and forth anymore. I know where I’m going and I know who I serve. Thank You, Jesus is, one of the songs I wrote on the album. There’s a choir performing. We had people hollering at the end of the day, just being blessed and feeling the same Holy Spirit in one accord.
TRIBUNE: What was the experience like recording in New Orleans?
CHRIS ROE: To be able to see someone of Martha’s caliber, in the studio, was a phenomenal thing to watch. There was nothing about this recording process that was calculated. It was very organic. It started out as jazz, then it kind of took its own life in a different direction. It was jazz, went to R&B/Soul, and then some gospel—it’s all infused and it works beautifully. The whole idea was Motown meets the Big Easy type of project. So later, I ran into Delfeayo Marsalis in Dallas at a film festival. I just cornered him, telling him how I wanted to do an album with Martha, and wanted him to be involved…About 5 months later, it all began.
MARTHA: Chris, Delfeayo and I each had a list of songs that we liked. Some songs were eliminated. Delfeayo also wrote some original songs, which I co-wrote with him, such as the current single To Know You Is to Love You. Chris can give you more details.
CHRIS: We even dug up an old Motown vault classic that had never been released that Martha recorded in the early 1960s called I Got It Bad and it had never been released and we just kind of gave it a whole new modern touch. And so, at times it was kind of like being in the studio with the old gang again because that song was written by William Mickey Stevenson and IB Joe Hunter, who co-wrote Dancing in the Street…And then there’s some classics on there by Gershwin, Billie Holiday, and Stevie Wonder.
TRIBUNE: Are there any touring plans for the new album next month?
CHRIS: We’re working on tour for 2027. The full SEARCHING album premieres digitally on August 14th will be in the record stores about two weeks after that. their local music stores and order it a couple weeks after the initial release or they can go to Talk Stop Live or MarthaReeves.net, there you can actually order a deluxe purple-color vinyl edition of the album and signed CDs.
TRIBUNE: Martha, what would you like to say to your millions of fans?
MARTHA: The release of this new album’s been my heart’s desire. God will give you your heart’s desire if you pray to him, mean it and trust him. I trust in God completely. He did this project for me, and I’m overjoyed and it’s wonderful to be here!
I have not intentionally changed any words. The only changes made were removing the newspaper’s column line breaks and placing the text into paragraph form. Any grammatical errors, punctuation, capitalization, spacing within sentences, and wording have been preserved exactly as they appeared in the text you provided.
