Heaven - David Wright & the DW Project

David Wright & the DW Project

Heaven

Godfather Records (2011)

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog

Another ensemble featuring the progeny of gospel royalty is David Wright and the DW Project.  Wright’s father, Godfather of Gospel Music Rev. Timothy Wright, met an untimely end in April 2009, the result of a tragic auto accident the previous July that also took the life of Rev. Timothy's wife, Betty, and grandchild D.J.

The title track to David Wright and the DW Project’s CD, Heaven, is a musically rich and radio-ready ballad that evokes the joy in entering the hereafter and seeing loved ones gone on before.  The song’s clear reference to Rev. and Mrs. Wright and D.J. is made more explicit in the music video, found on the companion DVD, which depicts David visiting their gravesite.

On Heaven, recorded live at Christ Fellowship Baptist Church, Wright and the DW Project come across as a well-rehearsed, well-oiled group, from the leads to the background vocalists to the musicians.  The DVD companion contains footage of the group doing three of the album’s songs live.  Although the nattily-dressed ensemble sings flatfooted, they nevertheless deliver spirited performances.

The DW Project cultivates the mood-setting multicultural P&W sound, though not without a couple of nods to the traditional.  “This is the Day,” the quintessential congregational sing along, begins as a jazzy aisle walker and transitions into a contemporary gospel arrangement.  With organ and piano accompaniment, Wright solos on “Great is Thy Faithfulness”—titled “Hymn” in the liner notes—like a veteran church singer.

Songs on Heaven that have the more delicate touch include “Great God,” “Healing Is Here,” “He Saved My Soul,” and “He Was There,” which features a lovely lead vocal by Jessica Price.  Two songs were clearly recorded earlier: “I Feel the Lord” and “He Saved My Soul” contain cameos by the late Rev. Wright.  

The well-produced album is quality P&W and contemporary gospel product.  It is still eerie to think of the Godfather as gone, these four years hence, but as “Heaven” clearly states, he is waiting on the other side.

Four of Five Stars

Picks: “Heaven,” “This is the Day.”

The McCrary Sisters - All the Way

The McCrary Sisters

All the Way

McC Records (released April 30, 2013)

www.mccrarysisters.net

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog

The acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree, as the saying goes.

In the McCrary Sisters’ case, the spark doesn’t travel far from the flame.

The sisters—Ann, Deborah, and Regina McCrary and Alfreda McCrary Lee—come from holy stock.  Their father, the late Rev. Sam McCrary, was the incendiary lead singer for Nashville’s Fairfield Four during its golden era.  The group’s sophomore CD, All the Way, continues the family tradition.

Produced by Tommy Sims and Kevin McKendree, All the Way sizzles with inspirational and message songs delivered with soulful, southern-fried grit.  Individually and collectively, the ladies are on fire from the get go with “Come On,” a song with so much funkiness, you’d think the late James Brown loaned out his horn section.

The musicians provide ample backup, indeed.  Depending on the song, one will hear trumpet and saxophone, harmonica, tambourine, and even a string section, along with the standard guitar, organ, piano, drums, and bass combo.

All but two of the album's songs are originals.  Those two, however, are especially notable.  “Skin Deep,” recorded previously by bluesman Buddy Guy, is a call for equal treatment, because “underneath, we’re all the same.”  “You Can Make It” is a lovely inspirational ballad.

Of the originals, “Hello Jesus” is a bluesy plea from the prayer closet for forgiveness and strength, while “Talk to You,” a more conversational discussion with Jesus, contains vestiges of ‘50s R&B.  Both benefit from Rob McNelley’s simmering guitar solos.  The show stopper, however, is the title track, a tour de force of gritty soul steeped in a bluesy stew.

Despite all the work the McCrarys have done on various and sundry audio and video projects over the years, one credit surprised me most: Ann and Regina sang background vocals for Ray Stevens’ “Everything is Beautiful.”  That song is seared in my memory because the first time I heard the 1970 original was on Top 40 AM radio, during a mid-afternoon tornado warning.  Hearing that disc still brings back a subconscious mixture of satisfaction and primal fear.

Some portion of this CD was funded by a grassroots Kickstarter campaign.  While the McCrary Sisters’ fans obviously came through for their favorites, one cannot help but wonder why talented groups such as this are not on a major label.

Nevertheless, gospel and roots music enthusiasts alike will enjoy the spirit-filled All the Way.

Four of Five Stars

Picks: “Skin Deep,” “Talk to You,” “All the Way.”

More on Chicago Gospel Music Festival 2013

TBGB provides more info on this year's Chicago Gospel Music Festival.  Click here: Gospel Fest.

"Release Me" - Hope Askew

“Release Me”

Hope Askew (2013)

www.cdbaby.com/cd/hopeaskew32

“Release Me” is a pleasant, satisfying contemporary ballad from Hope Askew of Portsmouth, Virginia, who sings about being an empty vessel that seeks filling from the Most High.  

“I’ve tried the pleasures of this world, but the hurt still remains.” In a voice brimming with honesty and authenticity, Askew beseeches God to “break the chains and turn my life around.”

Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Askew is dedicated to singing her pain away.  She proved that by auditioning in February for The Voice and by being a guest this spring on Bobby Jones Gospel.

Erica Reed - Sold Out

Erica Reed

Sold Out

Eden Records

www.ericareed.org

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog

Sold Out, the latest full-length CD from St. Louis gospel singer (and restaurateur) Erica Reed, traverses some of the same musical and lyric territory as her 2009 offering, The Time is Now. 

Once again, Reed sings urban AC melodies in a penetrating, pop-influenced soprano.  Once again, the lyrics combine familiar gospel song couplets with biblical passages.  Once again, an electronic keyboard is the predominant instrument and Reed’s multi-tracked voice serves as the background singers. 

Reed co-wrote all of the album’s fifteen radio-sized songs with her co-producer, Jimmy Lee Brown.  The standout track, “Never Let Go,” is a passionately sung ballad with a simple, heartrending melody about holding fast to the Word.  This one has legs and could well be covered by other gospel artists. 

Another highlight on Sold Out is “Papa Says,” which evokes the ‘60s girl group era in its singsong melody and the tambourine that beats out the spritely rhythm.  Even the title brings back memories of the Shirelles’ playful early '60s hit, “Mama Said.”  But where the Shirelles’ Mama applied a soothing salve to a broken heart, Reed’s Papa doles out wisdom about leaning on God’s saving power and omnipotence.  Since Reed grew up in a family of church leaders, the lyrics are most likely autobiographical.

The title track would have made a more effective opening track than “Thankful” because it is truer to the album’s overall vibe.  Further, the vamp of “Hold On” cried out for the interjection of a Christian rapper, but one did not appear.  Nevertheless, Sold Out demonstrates that Erica Reed is at her best on inspirational balladry.

Three of Five Stars

Picks: “Never Let Go,” “Papa Says.”

TBGB Pick of the Week: May 13, 2013

“Worshiper In Me”

Javen feat. Jonathan Nelson

From the forthcoming Tyscot CD Worship in the Now - Live

www.tyscot.com

Praise leaders Javen and Jonathan Nelson form a strong duo on "Worshiper In Me," an elegant, well-developed P&W piece about tapping into the worshiper inside.  The graceful melody backed ably by smooth background vocalists is reminiscent of Darius Paulk’s chart-topping “Nobody Greater.”

“[Jonathan Nelson and I] wrote it in about five or six minutes,” Javen told The Black Gospel Blog.  “We knew it was God the moment we sat down and began to pen the words, and when we got to the vamp, we knew it was going to be a hit.”

Book Review: To Do This, You Must Know How - Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff

To Do This, You Must Know How: Music Pedagogy in the Black Gospel Quartet Tradition

Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff

University Press of Mississippi, 458 pages, illus.

www.upress.state.ms.us

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog

Venerable gospel music historians Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff decant the contents of their sizable notebooks into To Do This, You Must Know How, a history of the development of the African American gospel quartet singing tradition.

Those who follow gospel music history are familiar with Abbott and Seroff.  For the past several decades, each has contributed a significant amount of content to books, magazines, journals, commemorative programs, and liner notes.  Seroff’s recent essay for There Breathes a Hope, Archeophone Records’ reissue of rare Fisk Jubilee Quartet cylinders, was nominated for a Grammy Award.

In fact, the opening chapter of the book is an expansion of the Archeophone essay.  It explains how the jubilee quartet tradition emanated from the revival of university-based vocal harmony singing, most notably the Fisk Jubilee Quartet and its leader, John Work II.  From there it made its way, via university-trained teachers, to the mining region of Jefferson County, Alabama, where a generation of young people were taught to sing with “time, harmony, and articulation,” and to foster a love and appreciation for the African American spiritual.

From Jefferson County, quartet trainers moved to Chicago, Mobile, New Orleans, and other cities, teaching new and established quartets, sometimes referred to by its members as “clubs,” the gospel of “time, harmony, and articulation.”  Later, singers such as Silas Steele added the pulpit zeal of the Baptist preacher to jubilee quartet, opening the door for the hard gospel quartet style that dominated the 1950s and 1960s.

To Do This benefits from avid detail--Abbott and Seroff endeavor to leave no stone unturned, no tidbit of unearthed information omitted--and is well illustrated with rare publicity photos and illustrations from African American newspapers.  At the same time, the book is not mired in academic jargon and is eminently readable.  

Along the way, the reader will learn about the primacy of rigorous vocal instruction, as music teachers and quartet trainers, like modern day griots, traveled the highways and byways to instill proper singing skill, discipline, and performance etiquette into men and women who, in turn, taught the next generation, and so on.  Abbott and Seroff ensure that long forgotten but important vocal trainers, such as Norman McQueen, Charles Bridges, Joe Union, and Jimmy Ricks, get their props. 

This reviewer found the Chicago section particularly fascinating, as it opened the curtain on the often ignored connection between the nascent gospel music community and the city’s classically-trained African American musicians, such as Profs. J. Wesley Jones and James Mundy, and Julia Mae Kennedy.  While I would argue quartets had nothing to fear from Dorsey’s National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses—at least not until the late 1950s, and by that point, the real threat to quartet dominance came from the Detroit choral community—the popularity of gospel groups, singers, and choirs ultimately surpassed quartet singing in terms of radio spins.  Today, gospel music and quartet singing exist as two separate but parallel communities, a state of affairs that is perplexing but nonetheless real.

To Do This, You Must Know How is essential reading for the serious student as well as the armchair enthusiast of African American sacred music.  Abbott and Seroff’s unquestionable street-level command of the subject, and their passion for the music, make the book a pleasure to explore and a significant contribution to American music scholarship.

Five of Five Stars

"Shine On Me" - Roscoe Robinson & the Birmingham Blind Boys

“Shine On Me”

Roscoe Robinson & the Birmingham Blind Boys

Archie Brownlee selected quartet tenor (and future soul star) Roscoe Robinson to lead the Original Five Blind Boys of Mississippi after his passing.  After a few years with the Mississippi Blind Boys, Robinson teamed with Lawrence Abrams to organize the Blind Boys of Ohio and recently put together a new outfit, the Birmingham Blind Boys.

The quartet’s single, “Shine On Me,” is a slow, easy, and prayerful request to the “God of the second chance” for light in the darkness of life.  “I’ve been a loser and a winner,” Robinson intones in a wizened voice, “Stuck between a saint and a sinner.”  Nevertheless, he’s a survivor, and the Birmingham Blind Boys continue the tradition of vocal harmony in Jefferson County.