Martha Reeves Still Believes in Miracles: Inside Searching, Her First Album in 22 Years
By : Josh Kitchen / August 12, 2026
Listening to Martha Reeves talk about her first album in over twenty years, the excellent set of new gospel, jazz, funk, and R&B songs that span 11 tracks over 40 minutes, it’s impossible not to feel just as excited as she is. She’s calling from her home in Detroit, and she tells me there are rain clouds in the sky. We need the rain, she says. I think of the Temptations classic “I Wish It Would Rain.” The Temptations, of course, were Motown labelmates with Martha Reeves and the Vandellas—one of the legendary acts Reeves can count herself among, alongside the Funk Brothers, the legendary house band that backed such Martha Reeves and the Vandellas classics as “Nowhere to Run,” “Dancing in the Street,” “Jimmy Mack,” and “Heat Wave.”
Today, Reeves is thanking God for the gift that is Searching, her new record. Masterminded by manager and producer Chris Roe, Searching was recorded in New Orleans with dozens of musicians, including backing vocalists, horn players, jazz musicians, and jazz great Delfeayo Marsalis. “There was so much spirit, and us working together. I didn’t know any of the people... our spirits united beautifully. It was almost like we were all handpicked for that particular music place,” Reeves told me of recording the album.
You certainly feel like you’ve gone to church on “Thank You, Jesus,” where a gospel choir lifts Reeves’s still-powerful voice to heavenly heights. In the music video for lead single “To Know You Is to Love You,” Reeves walks through a hall lined with Martha Reeves history, her gold records on the walls, before emerging onto a glorious stage with all the musicians she’s so lucky to consider part of this album. In the video, Martha Reeves, now 85, glows radiantly—a legend still doing what God put her here to do. Back in Detroit, the rain clouds may still be hanging overhead, but Martha Reeves is still finding the sunshine. We’re lucky to still have her with us, and Searching is just her latest miracle.
Martha, it is so wonderful to hear your voice. How are you today?
Martha Reeves:
I'm happy. My dreams have come true, and I'm still here.
The new album is so full of joy. I'm so excited for people to hear your first album in 22 years.
Martha Reeves:
I've been recording all along, and I think I'll always be recording. It's a wonderful place to be, and this wonderful album—it is so good.
Along with the new album, you've got a grew music video for the lead single, "To Know You Is To Love You."
Martha Reeves:
Although I'm not jumping around trying to do the splits, I'm standing there and all these wonderful musicians are doing their thing and feeling it. There was so much spirit in us working together. I didn't know any of the players, but our spirits united beautifully. It was a great place to be. It was just a wonderful place to be and to finally get free. I wasn't told how to do anything. I had lyrics and moods and pictures, and all of that just happened naturally. It was just great, like I'd never recorded before.
You went down and recorded it in New Orleans. I've got to imagine that being around a place with so much musical history and life really meant a lot to this album.
Martha Reeves:
In terms of music and making music and jazz and wonderment, it's great to be a part of this tradition of talent. It's like Motown versus the Big Easy. I'm allowed to mingle in all of the influences that Motown music has had and jazz music has had together, collectively. I mean, it's a dream come true.
It's such an incredible part of your story. You started over 60 years ago in Detroit. Your music and your voice have meant so much to popular music. America just turned 250, and I feel like it's got to feel very special to have had your voice be a part of popular music and our history.
Martha Reeves:
God is good. To realize just how far we've come and how far we can keep going, how great it is, how wonderful it is that it grows and grows—that's a joy.
You just turned 85 - you're still doing it. How special of a birthday present is this album?
Martha Reeves:
My album is coming out, and the single, oh, it's lovely.
Chris, how did this album come together - why now?
Chris Roe:
One of the things that was really important for me for this album was that originally we were going to do a jazz album. That was my original plan, to just do a really good jazz album. I happened to be in Dallas for a film festival, and Delfeayo Marsalis just happened to be at this film festival because a documentary on his father was debuting there. His father, of course, was this great jazz legend of New Orleans, Ellis Marsalis.
I saw him at an after-party. I was a juror at that festival, and I kind of got him cornered. I said to him, "Hey, my name is Chris Roe. I'm Martha Reeves' manager." Of course, he knew instantly who I was talking about. I said, "I want to do a jazz album with Martha, and I want you on it" He went, "Why is that?" And I said, "Because you're the best. You're jazz royalty, and I'd love to talk to you about this."
That was in May of 2023. By the fall, I'd say late August or early September, I had flown to Detroit. He flew to Detroit and met with Martha. By October, we had set up a weekend of performing together in Baltimore just to see how the chemistry would work. That was at the end of October 2023, and we were in the recording studio three weeks later.
From there, what really happened was it went from jazz to R&B, gospel, blues, and it just took a life of its own. The one thing that I've always said is when something starts to organically happen like that, don't force it. Just do it. Just go with it. And three years later, Searching is what the outcome was.
these things naturally evolve as you live them. I think what makes this record so special is that you wanted to start with jazz, and funnily enough, like jazz, it evolved into something else. There are jazz elements, but that's the beautiful thing about Martha's music and this music in general. There's so much life in it, so to speak, and it gets better when you have this kind of talent involved.
Martha Reeves:
They all blended in those places just like I knew them well. When I got to sing and perform and just talk and be in their presence, everybody—it was like I went into another place.
Going to New Orleans and working with Chris and all the wonderful people that collected—the finest musicians, the finest singers—everybody was so happy and so in love with actually just the recording aspect. Not me or anybody special. There was nobody standing out saying, "Hey, that's the king." Everybody was wonderful. It was fellowship. I prayed for a fellowship like that, and this can happen. It's like heaven on Earth.
Your voice is just so astounding on this record. What do you attribute that to?
Martha Reeves:
Teachers along the way. One example is Judy Garland. When she came to see us perform at the Copacabana in New York, she said, "Martha, I just love you, and I love your voice. I can teach you how to make people cry." We were invited to her place, and we didn't hear from her anymore, but she did come to a performance and she told me she could teach me. I've had some great teachers, local teachers. So when you say something about it, it's really just applying the lessons I've had.
It also seems like it comes from growing up in the church, where you're surrounded by beautiful music.
Martha Reeves:
They allowed me to do some gospel - "Thank You, Jesus." I wrote it myself, and it was all about getting a chance to thank Jesus. Just thank Jesus without having to explain it to anybody or go through any kind of ritual. Just say thank you. It's got these beautiful singers who agreed with me at the end. They just wanted to sing these simple words, like, "I'm thankful."
You can hear the church in that song.
Martha Reeves:
Right away. When you're blessed, it might go away. You've got to thank Him while you're aware He's blessing you. You've got to thank Him - whether somebody hears you or not.
Chris Roe:
The beautiful thing about that song is, again, it kind of organically happened. Martha put that together very quickly, but it really came to life when we got this beautiful 40-member choir in the studio. I think that's what Martha talked about earlier. The musicians were exceptional. Some of these guys toured with B.B. King and Fats Domino and so many others. Then you have this fantastic choir, and then you have these fantastic backup singers.
Martha knows exceptional musicians because she's had the best, being at Motown and working with the Funk Brothers - she felt protected. She knew she was going to feel protected with the best musicians, and there was never a problem.
That remix version of "To Know You Is to Love You" is something else. Eric Kupper's remix is so fun.
Chris Roe:
The thing about Eric, which I found to be really exciting as a producer, is when you sit down to do a remix of a song, a remix can destroy a good song, and it often does. Eric is a master producer, and he's been a part of 123 number-one dance hits. So when you get someone like that on your team, you know it's going to be great.
When Martha heard it for the first time, the one thing she said after she listened to it was, "He didn't destroy the integrity of the song," because so often remixes do. We're very excited about it, especially since it's kind of geared toward the European audience. European audiences love soul music, they love dance, and so I think it has its place. It's hot in America, but even Billboard did away with the dance charts, unfortunately. In Europe, that's not the case. They're thriving, and the advance feedback from DJs and club DJs has been phenomenal.
Eric, how did you end up doing a remix for Martha Reeves?
Eric Kupper:
Chris [Roe] told me he'd always been a fan of my work, and he had spoken to somebody at Universal. Chris was saying, "I'd really love to get Eric on this," and the guy at Universal was like, "Well, why don't you just contact him?" Chris reached out to me. I told him I would love to work on a record with Martha Reeves, and we took it from there.
The song itself already starts with such a great groove. What were your first thoughts when you heard it, and what did you want to do with it?
Eric Kupper:
When I first heard it, tempo-wise, the original version is slower than my version. It wasn't in the right place for me to bring it up to what's considered a normal dance tempo.
So I wanted to bring it into what I call a downtempo, kind of house-funky groove. I thought it would really work, and it did. It's on the chart right now in the UK, and there's nothing in that tempo there. It just proves to you that not everything has to be so cookie-cutter.
I was watching Martha And the Vandellas' Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction from 1995, with the great Fred Schneider and Kate Pierson from the B-52's inducting you. I'm thinking the B-52's are long overdue for the Rock Hall, and how appropriate would it be for you to induct them? Their year has got to be soon.
Martha Reeves:
Oh they're not in? Maybe I can go for something else and call them and tell them, "Come on, let's campaign." I've been living on prayers and answers and little wishes and miracles—miraculous things in this business. I wouldn't be surprised if what we've talked about right now happens next week.
What would Martha Reeves of 2026 tell Martha Reeves who was joining the Del-Phis all those years ago?
Martha Reeves:
Oh I can't do that. Its like going backwards, I cant do that. I keep going. The older I get, the more I have to slow things down. I can't speed up trying to do 35 when you've got to be doing 50 to keep up with everything and everybody.
All I'm doing is enjoying the blessing. Chris is putting the pieces to the puzzle together. I told him it's time for me to make my million dollars. I was told when I first started in this business that it was a million-dollar industry, and I sold records. I'm still here, and I'm hoping that this is the way to get that million.
It says in the Bible, if you want it, you've got to speak it. If you want it, you've got to say it. And I'm not being silly. I might be happy about it because I can finally say it: I want my million dollars. I think we've got a billion-dollar project here.
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