Como, Mississippi, doesn’t have the name-recognition factor of nearby Memphis, Tennessee, but on a per capita basis it’s probably contributed just as many giants to the roots-music canon as the home of Stax-Volt soul.

Folklorists have known this for a long time: the legendary Alan Lomax made some of his favourite recordings in Como, with his discoveries including both slide-guitar god Mississippi Fred McDowell and raucous fife-and-drum bandleader Otha Turner. Not all of the artists he recorded in Como during his 1959 sojourn went on to fame, however.

Some, like singer-guitarist Miles Pratcher, were content to stay at home and raise a family—but now Pratcher’s granddaughter Ester Mae Smith is out to bring some glory back to their little Delta town.

Joined by sisters Della Daniels and Angela Taylor in the Como Mamas, Smith sings gospel like you’ve never heard it before—unless, that is, you’ve been lucky enough to hear Lomax’s field recordings from half a century ago. On their Daptone debut, Get an Understanding, the Como Mamas offer a sound that is both startlingly immediate and a trip back in time. Way back in time, in fact, with one of the most beautiful aspects of the trio’s a cappella singing being the way that it often carries distant echoes of their West African heritage.

For Smith, who’s been immersed in this music all her life, that’s maybe just a bit of a stretch. “My grandfather said that his people came over from Africa,” she allows, in a telephone interview from her home. “I was too young to know anything about that, but he told us that his father came from Africa over to here. So I don’t know if it goes back to that or not, but they did come over here from Africa.”

It’s not the sound of the Como Mamas’ music that concerns Smith most, however: it’s the message. A lay preacher who aspires to someday having her own church, she’s a fervent believer in the redeeming power of Christ—and it’s God’s love, not his wrath, that forms the basis of her theology.

“I became a minister in 2009, and I go different places and speak in different churches,” she explains. “They call me to come and speak at different events, and I’m enjoying that too, because it’s really getting the word across to people. It just makes me feel good to let them know that God is love, and that he gave his only begotten son for us. Some people feel alone, but if you allow Christ to come into your life, he’ll fill that empty gap. Sometimes we get to feeling empty, and that’s what we’re lacking. We can have all our materialistic things and a whole lot of stuff, but it’s the word of God that will give you peace.”

As an unbeliever, I can’t speak to that—but I’ll happily testify that these three women are going to bring a ton of joy to the Vancouver Folk Music Festival’s traditional Sunday-morning gospel get-together, and every other time they stand up to sing.

The Como Mamas play a Stage 2 showcase at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival on Saturday (July 19), in addition to various workshop appearances on Sunday (July 20).