By the time she was ten years old, Shirley Caesar had already made a name for herself. The tiny singer in pigtails and bobby socks was known throughout the Carolinas and Virginia as "Baby Shirley," and her foot-stomping, bring-down-the-house style was in demand for church services and revivals. To date, Shirley Caesar has had an astonishing career spanning four decades. The Lady, the Melody, and the Word is Shirley"s own story of those years, told in her intimate and passionate style.