The Bishops Quartet - Heaven Is Too Far (For You To Walk)

The Bishops Quartet
Heaven Is Too Far (For You to Walk)
Sharper Brothers Records (2011)
http://www.sharperbrothersusa.com/

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.

From Orlando, Florida comes a group of singing church leaders called the Bishop’s Quartet. Whether soaring into falsetto, shouting, or singing flatfooted, the Bishops Quartet is rooted in traditional gospel, southern soul style. The group’s new album, Heaven Is Too Far (For You to Walk), is a respectable introduction to their music ministry.

The quartet consists of Bishop Thurman Hargrove, Bishop James Coleman, Bishop Alvin Palmer (manager), and Elder Robert Brice. Songs such as the title track, with its admonition that you can’t walk to Heaven (ed note: it's hard enough to run a marathon, for heaven's sake), benefit from the quartet community’s longstanding and effective tradition of employing themes and lyrics that sound lifted right from the Sunday sermon.

The tightest, richest harmonies on the CD can be found on “Lord, You’ve Been There” because they are anchored by a bass vocal line, something surprisingly hard to find in gospel quartet nowadays.

In addition to the title track, another solid selection is the down-tempo “Let the Lower Lights Be Burning.” Also known as “Brightly Beams,” the performance features an impassioned lead vocal. The quartet also contributes a soulful version of the spiritual “Steal Away.”

“If the Lord Needs Somebody” is the album’s drive song, complete with a vamp that could have gone on longer. In fact, the album would have been even stronger had that track been extended, replacing the follow-up, an instrumental reprise of “He’s Still On the Throne.” Despite the fact that the musicians are excellent and the emphasis on organ over synth is particularly appealing, another few minutes of quartet vocals would have been more satisfying.

The bishops can sing, sure enough, and Heaven Is Too Far (For You to Walk) is the finest Sharper Brothers Records project I’ve heard.

Four of Five Stars

Picks: “Heaven Is Too Far (For You to Walk),” “Let the Lower Lights Be Burning.”

William McDowell - Arise: The Live Worship Experience

William McDowell
Arise: The Live Worship Experience
Light Records/eOne Entertainment (2011)
www.williammcdowellmusic.com

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.

From musician and studio "steward" to worship leader, accidental Internet sensation and Billboard charting artist, to performer on the stage of the Stellars, the last several years have been an amazing ride for William McDowell. But as Martha Munizzi told TBGB, it’s time the rest of the world knew about McDowell.

Light Records has done its part to make that happen. Recorded in December 2010 at Christian Life Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, McDowell’s two-CD Arise: The Live Worship Experience is exactly as billed. It is a two-hour worship experience, a continuous praise jam session that builds in intensity on Disc One and incrementally drops the blood pressure throughout Disc 2.

McDowell works squarely within the P&W subgenre, best known for songs with uncomplicated major key melodies, gentle arrangements, and the capacity to be extended for so long that even legendary jam groups such as the Grateful Dead and Phish would pause in admiration. Still, some of McDowell’s pieces possess melodies somewhat outside of traditional P&W fare. His talent for songwriting is particularly evident on “All I Want is You,” which is a better and potentially longer-lasting composition than the gentle and hypnotic Internet sensation, “I Give Myself Away,” reprised here in a medley with “Yes.”

Perhaps the most distinctive part of Arise is its opening, which eschews the typical bouncy praise song for a dramatic narration of the world’s major problems, including illiteracy, poverty, hunger and the impact of natural disasters. The notion of praying for the world, not one’s self, is reinforced later in the project. By concluding the experience with “I Won’t Go Back,” McDowell recapitulates the CD set’s overarching theme of belief in God's ability to solve even the largest problems.

The guest vocalists pay tribute to the multiculturalism of P&W music. Sisters Martha Munizzi and Mary Alessi, Josh Dufrene, and David and Nicole Binion all make appearances. McDowell sings one of Munizzi’s songs, “Wait,” which features a lovely vocal lead by Stacey Joseph, a solo artist in her own right.

The musicians on Arise are top-notch and the backing vocalists are so tight and professional as a chorus they could make money singing television commercials and jingles.

Down the road, historians may argue whether Texas (Houghton, Binion, Dufrene) or Florida (Munizzi, Alessi, McDowell) is the Praise & Worship capitol. Regardless, William McDowell gathered the team together in sunny Fort Lauderdale for two hours of no-nonsense worship, and the result is available to everyone.

Four of Five Stars

Picks: “All I Want is You,” "I Give Myself Away," “Wait.”

"Christmas in July" - Timothy

“Christmas in July”
Timothy
LionHearted Productions (2011)
Available on iTunes, Tunecore

“Whatever happened to the War on Poverty?”

It’s the question that not only concludes Timothy Amukele’s “Christmas in July” but hovers over it like the voice of conscience, encouraging us to examine our own inner voices.

With post-graduate lyrics that evoke Sting’s notebook and an easy-going but insistent melody and arrangement, “Christmas in July” encourages us to open our hearts and lend a helping hand to the homeless. And not just at Christmas time but throughout the year. July or January, it doesn’t matter to Timothy: “give what God commands.”

New Canton Jones Video: "Hallelujah"

Power-packed video featuring gospel hip hop stars Canton Jones, Deitrick Haddon, DBP, and Mr. Del.

TBGB Pick of the Week: January 23, 2012

“So Proud”
Brian Courtney Wilson
From the forthcoming Music World Gospel CD So Proud
www.musicworldgospel.com

The autobiographical title track from Brian Courtney Wilson’s forthcoming CD finds the robust crooner reflecting with humble admiration on all those individuals, especially his father, who sacrificed sun-up to sundown so he could live his dreams.

The message is sufficiently general for everyone to consider who in their own lives has served such a purpose...and perhaps still do. The feel-good R&B rhythm evokes some of BeBe Winans’s best solo offerings.  Nice work from the singer whose "All I Need" was a Billboard perennial.

TBGB Shout Out: WLOU

Congratulations to music director/announcer Brodric Purvis and WLOU 1350 & 104.7 FM Louisville for their recent Stellar win for Medium Market of the Year!

Photos from First Chicago Black Music Awards

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.

The Harold Washington Cultural Center was the site of the first-ever Chicago Black Music Awards, which honored the city's home-grown gospel talent of today.  Dr. Rick Warren and his team produced the event, which took place Saturday evening, January 21, 2012.  Kalamazoo television personality Bee Bee White served as M.C.

Among the winners in a variety of categories were Phil Tarver, Shekinah Glory Ministry, Donald Lawrence, Regula, Pastor Ray Berryhill and the Evangel World Outreach Choir, and the Renowned Voices for Christ.

Chicago Black Music Awards Reach Awards were bestowed on Zadella "Mama" Curtis, Percy Gray, Wanda Ewing, Dr. Jacquie Hadnot and Peyton Bailey.  Special recognition and a standing ovation were given to the late DeLois Barrett Campbell, whose daughter, Mary Campbell, accepted the award on her behalf.

Some of the evening's highlights (photo credits: Bob Marovich, Laurel Delaney):

Awardee Phil Tarver of Shekinah Glory Ministry always has a way with a song.

Pastor Ray Berryhill accepts the award on behalf of Evangel World Outreach for Choir of the Year.

The Renowned Voices for Christ demonstrate why they have been around for more than two decades.

TBGB's Bob Marovich and Stellar Award-winning Gospel Synergy's founder Andre Carter are interviewed by gospel artist Mark Hubbard for "Eyes on Chicago."

Gospel rapper Regula gets the audience to their feet and rocking to the beat.

Etta James Dies at 73

Singing legend Etta James has died at the age of 73.

While she is best known for her R&B classics, "Dance with me Henry" and "At Last," James received her early musical training from gospel singer and choir director J. Earle Hines and her participation, as a young girl, in the famed Echoes of Eden choir of the St. Paul Baptist Church of Los Angeles.

I had the privilege of interviewing "Miss Peaches" for my Gospel Memories radio show years ago.  We talked about her transition from gospel to R&B.  Gospel Memories will rerun that interview next week (January 28).

Read more here at CNN.com: Etta James

My sympathies to James's family, friends and countless fans.

"My Everything" - Cheneta Jones

“My Everything”

Cheneta Jones

From the forthcoming CD Transformed (release date: April 3, 2012)

http://www.chenetajones.com/

Cheneta Jones is making a touchdown run by gathering marketing muscle and enlisting the great Percy Bady to produce her latest single, “My Everything.”

The follow-up to the breezy, feel-good “Be Like You” finds the St. Louis singer in similar territory. Her breathy, agile voice floats the song’s worship lyrics to the heavens on a laid-back bed of beats. Its hymn-like verses and simple, circuitous melody make “My Everything” easy to sing and hard to forget.