"Winner in You" - The Apostles

“Winner in You”
The Apostles
OneSoul Entertainment, Inc. (2010)
http://www.apostleslive.com/

Embracing a sultry and smooth ‘70s northern soul vibe, the Apostles render a song of inspiration and encouragement in “Winner in You.”

“When your friends turn their back on you,” sings lead vocalist Earnest H. Faust, Jr., “Hang on in there,” respond the Apostles. “There’s hope for tomorrow,” they remind gently. The Stylistics come to mind when hearing the group sing, “Thank You Jesus” and when they blow harmonies behind Faust.

The Apostles – Faust, Marcia P. Bennett, Jackie Etienne, and Marlon R. Graves – hail from Miami, Florida and attend the 93rd Street Community Baptist Church, where Dr. Rev. Carl Johnson is Pastor.

Special thanks to Mike "the Messenger" Stankovic of WFHB in Bloomington, IN for introducing the Apostles to TBGB.

TBGB Pick of the Week: January 31, 2011

“He Has His Hands on You”
Marvin Sapp
From Here I Am (2010)
http://www.verityrecords.com/

Marvin Sapp has reaped a season of accolades with songs of simple truths, from “Never Would Have Made It” to “The Best in Me,” and the latest single from Here I Am, “He Has His Hands on You.”

Sapp and his vocalists sing ministerially about God as a kind father who is always present, always caring: “He’ll be there to wipe your weepin’ eyes.” The intimate vocals and lullaby-like melody are the ingredients of Sapp’s previous singles and make for a solid follow-up charter for the former member of Commissioned and one of the most popular male vocalists in gospel today.

Eumika Body-Griffin - The Greatest Gift

Eumika Body-Griffin
The Greatest Gift
Make Music Group (2010)
www.cdbaby.com/cd/EUMIKABODYGRIFFIN

During the opening track of her debut solo CD, The Greatest Gift, Eumika Body-Griffin shouts, “We come to blow the roof off this house tonight!”

Yet the most interesting selections on the CD are when Body-Griffin, the Gospel Choice winner of Best New Artist for 2008, is not trying to blow the roof off the house. When the biting guitar and thumping bass die down, the woofers stop pounding and the power P&W songs are over, the singer waxes traditional with Kevin “Griff” Griffin’s B3 in strong support, as on the medley “I Am God”/”Call Me By My Purpose.” It is on selections such as this one where the CD shows true character and distinctiveness.

In fact, from her “Worship Medley” through the conclusion, we hear Body-Griffin bask in her element, embellishing lines, shouting, squeezing ounces of emotion out of the notes until they cry of their own accord. She injects plenty of gospel energy on “Never Let Go,” a tribute to God’s goodness in her life (as in “I’ll never let go His hand”). “It’s Okay” is a song of encouragement to those who have the strength to succeed and simply need a pep talk.

Not that Body-Griffin is solely capable of traditional; it’s simply her sweet spot. True to her COGIC music heritage, she tries a little of everything, including getting jazzy on the title track and giving the vocal line what for on “Wanna Say Thank Ya,” a high-energy R&B-inspired song that closes the CD. She also brings in the Veni Vidi Canti Choir from Sweden to support her on “I Need You.”

The live portions of The Greatest Gift were recorded at One Accord Community COGIC in Decatur, Georgia, where Body-Griffin serves as worship leader.  She delivers a fine debut solo performance and finishes strong.

Four of Five Stars

Picks: “I Am God”/”Call Me By My Purpose,” “Wanna Say Thank Ya.”

How Great You Are: Worship at Grace Covenant

Various Artists
How Great You Are: Worship at Grace Covenant
Grace Covenant Church (2010)
http://www.gracecov.org/

How Great You Are is the soundtrack of the ethnically-diverse Grace Covenant Church, located in Chantilly, Virginia, near the Nation’s Capitol, where Brett Fuller is Senior Pastor.

The CD showcases a baker’s dozen of P&W compositions by Grace Covenant’s Minister of Music Tifani Wilson and Music Director Rob Ellis. The lovely and talented Wilson wrote and leads most of the album’s selections, with Grace Covenant choristers and musicians supporting her.

Arranged as a seamless worship experience, the songs blend one to another, varying from bouncing and energetic to atmospheric and meditative, but always sweet and optimistic. The lyrics are pure P&W, sweeping, psalm-like, and prayerful. Melodically, the songs have more in common with CCM, pop and rock than gospel, but given the church’s cultural cornucopia, that’s not surprising. In fact, Ellis’ “Bless His Name” has a Latin flavor in its swaying beat, and Wilson’s “God Like You” concludes with the line “There is no other God like you” in Spanish. “I’ll Worship” is quasi-orchestral during its opening moments.

“Superhero,” the balladic bonus selection, and the melodic title track are most representative of the album’s offerings.

Die-hard gospel fans like me will not find any heart-rending songs, blue notes, occasional shouting, praise breaks or church wreckers, but my guess is that's not what this church's music ministry is about. On the other hand, fans of the music of Israel and New Breed, Martha Munizzi, Mary Alessi and of Joel Osteen’s Houston-headquartered Lakewood Church will find this CD particularly appealing. Grace Covenant members will enjoy revisiting their worship music at home or in the car.

Three of Five Stars

Picks: “How Great You Are,” “Superhero.”

70 Useful Links for Celebrating Black History Month

Bachelors Degree Online offers 70 Useful Links for Celebrating Black History Month.  Lots of great educational content available out there!

Catch them all here: Celebrate Black History Month.

Chris & Kyle with True Spirit - Heal Me

Chris & Kyle with True Spirit

Heal Me

T Records (2010)

http://www.trecords.net/

Award-winning St. Louis-based songwriters and producers Christopher J. Watkins and Kyle E. Kelley team up with the 40-voice True Spirit choir on Heal Me.  It's a CD filled to the outer edge with new songs, mostly from the individual pens of Watkins and Kelley, but with a few other contributors, as well.

The True Spirit choir, which also hails from St. Louis and East St. Louis, has a big, thunderous contemporary sound that works best when balanced well with the musicians and not in competition with them. They demonstrate nice unison ensemble work, for example, on the meditative title track and “Totally Complete.”

Although “No One Like You” is the album’s current single, buoyed by an electrifying solo by Judith Christie McAllister, the song that stands head and shoulders above the others on Heal Me is “Barabbas’ Song.” Written by Kelley, “Barabbas’ Song” is sung from the protagonist’s point of view as Barabbas marvels at this man Jesus who took his place on the cross. The trio of singers effectively delivers the song’s message of a Savior willing to die for us and who is also a God of second chances. Given the glut of praise songs, gospel music needs more compositions like “Barabbas’ Song,” pieces with real depth and character.

“He Did it Again” is an unexpected church rouser with energy appropriate to the subject, while “Your Way” finds the group working within the urban R&B style. Demonstrating its vocal versatility, True Spirit delivers two anthems, “Worthy is the Lamb” and “All Hail the Power,” both done with the gravitas of a senior choir. Meanwhile, Jewell Brown’s lead on “Thank Ya” is alternately sweet and bluesy as she shouts old-school couplets to the choir’s responses.

Chris & Kyle with True Spirit captured Artist of the Year and Song of the Year (“He Did It All”) at the 2010 Rhythm of Gospel Awards.  They pull out all the stops on Heal Me, released on the Emtro subsidiary T Records.

Four of Five Stars

Picks: “Barabbas’ Song,” “He Did It Again.”

"6' 7" Freestyle" - J Prophet

“6’7” Freestyle”

J Prophet

From the forthcoming Getting My Shape Up, Vol. 2

http://www.jprophet.com/

Sampling a line from Lil’ Wayne sampling the 1950s classic “The Banana Boat Song,” Rodney Reynolds, aka J Prophet, uses the reference to demonstrate that his calling is higher, so high, “I’m close to the sun, I’m hotter.”

JP wants the finer things, too, but unlike those who seek after “money, jewels,” he seeks the spiritual. “Can I talk about something?/They ain’t talking about nothing.” The rhythm marches on.

J Prophet told TBGB he will be “releasing freestyles and remixes leading up to the release of Getting My Shape Up Vol. 2, which will be called V2.”

TBGB Pick of the Week: January 24, 2011

“Ordinary People”
Minister Greg Harris

Singer/Songwriter Minister Greg Harris of Little Rock, Arkansas recently released a new single, a paean to God’s use of “ordinary people…like you and me.” Ordinary people called to do extraordinary things.

Given a snappy production by Minister Earl Bynum, the song rolls along with female-led background vocalists who back Harris as he sings heavenward, accepting the calling willingly as one of the ordinary people.

Mike McCoy & Voices United - Continue to Continue

Mike McCoy & Voices United
Continue to Continue
M. McCoy Publishing (2008)
http://www.mikemccoy.info/

Reviewed by Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.

In 1994, Mike McCoy assembled Voices United from choir directors, pastors, preachers, praise and worship leaders, musicians and evangelists living in the Washington, DC area.

In February 2006, the group won the national Gospel Heritage Praise & Worship Choir Competition, and two years later, released its sophomore CD, Continue to Continue.

Their combined professionalism and years of singing together are evident on Continue to Continue, recorded live at the Master’s Child Church in District Heights, Maryland, where Bishop Melvin Robinson, Jr. is Senior Pastor.

Voices United is a contemporary gospel choir with a big, bold, brassy sound; its round, throaty harmonies are especially robust on tracks such as “Join Me in the Praise,” “Help Me Lift Jesus Up” and “Get Thee Hence.” The group can also sound like an old-fashioned senior choir, as on Freddy Jackson’s lushly orchestrated, classical “Come Thy Holy Spirit.” The ensemble navigates the complex choral parts seamlessly.

Several female lead vocalists stand out on Continue to Continue. Cherlita Claiborne handles the contemporary ballad “He’ll Take Care of You” with lovely finesse, and Lady Kim McLeod does an equally fine job on “I’ll Praise Him.” The star, however, is Vanessa Williams on “From My Heart.” She gives this praise ballad an R&B feel with Whitney Houston-style grace notes.

Stephen Hurd makes a cameo appearance as Exaltor on “Lord I Worship You the King.” Listen for McCoy's polished piano work throughout the project.

Continue to Continue is restful and contemplative, and with the right amount of energy to keep listeners engaged and inspired.

Four of Five Stars

"From My Heart,” “I’ll Praise Him.”

The Showers Family Singers - Hear My Prayer

The Showers Family Singers
Hear My Prayer
Aquila and Priscilla Records (2010)
www.cdbaby.com/cd/sfgs

Ten siblings – ten! – who are the offspring of a pastor and his missionary wife from Louisiana blend their voices as The Showers Family Singers.

Their star is on the rise, as they won Best Traditional CD of the Year at the 2010 Ensound Music Awards for their eleven-track debut Hear My Prayer, and are nominated for three Rhythm of Gospel Awards.

Hear My Prayer introduces a larger audience to their straight-ahead mix of contemporary, praise and worship and traditional gospel performance styles.

And it’s a decent debut because they pour every ounce of energy they have into it. The group’s affinity for high-intensity contemporary gospel comes through loud and clear in the opening tracks, most especially on “Jesus’ Blood” and “Jesus You Died.” The group’s traditional roots show on the up-tempo classic “God’s Got It,” complete with quartet guitar riffs, and “Hooked On Jesus.” In an ironic twist, the old congregational chestnut “On the Battlefield” has a funkier feel than one is normally accustomed to hearing.

There seems to be plenty of talent on the Showers Family bench, too, as various members step up to share lead duties throughout Hear My Prayer.

A nice surprise was hearing the ensemble cover Wynona Carr’s “Our Father,” titled “Amen” on the project. They use the Original Five Blind Boys’ 1950 arrangement, too. Despite its popularity at the time, this masterpiece is all too infrequently reprised.

The CD concludes with “Save a Soul,” which in addition to serving as the Showers Family Singers’ farewell to its listeners, it includes their mission statement: their work is not for naught “long as our ministry saves some lost soul.” Amen.

Three of Five Stars

“God’s Got It,” “Amen.”

Windy City Gospel on South Cottage Grove Avenue

Various Artists
Windy City Gospel on South Cottage Grove: 1947-1959
Macomba Music Group (2010)
www.rootsandrhythm.com

When one thinks of Chess Records, what springs to mind are artists such as Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Etta James.  Little Walter.  The film Cadillac Records.

But like most post-war independent labels, Chess/Checker carried a gospel catalog. Although it's catalog really grew during the 1960s, after signing such top stars as the Soul Stirrers, Violinaires, the Salem Travelers, and the Meditation Singers, Leonard and Phil Chess’ involvement with gospel went all the way back to the beginning. All the way back to Aristocrat Records, the label they purchased that predated their eponymously titled imprints.

The two-CD Windy City Gospel on South Cottage Grove, with liner notes by Opal Nations, devotes its attention to these early Aristocrat/Chess/Checker offerings, released during the heady days of the genre’s Golden Era. While some of the recordings, such as Elder Utah Smith’s iconic “Two Wings” and the Famous Blue Jays’ “I’m Bound for Canaan Land” have been reissued before, many of the 52 selections are available on CD for the first time. This includes the Silver Stars’ chilling a cappella “12 Years Old” and the impossibly-rare Dixieland Singers sides.

Among the set’s most interesting discoveries are four tracks by the Evangelist Singers of Alabama. Although they never achieved the popularity of the Dixieaires and Golden Gate Quartet, this group performs with the same rhythmic intensity and almost as much polish. COGIC Elder Charles Beck’s crooning lead on “When” sounds like a cross between Billy Eckstine and Ivory Joe Hunter. His “Wine Head Willie Put that Bottle Down” is a novelty sketch that takes Dusty Fletcher’s “Open the Door Richard” as its inspiration, pitting minister against wayward sinner.

Most of the selections on Windy City Gospel are male based groups, quartets, singers, and one preacher (Mt. Pleasant’s Rev. H.R. Jelks; Chess’ voluminous library of Rev. C.L. Franklin materials were left out deliberately). The solitary female voice on the set is heard on “Precious Memories” by the Ellis and Dixon Spiritual and Vocal Group. She sings accompanied by a slow-shuffling brassy Dixieland band that kindles images of a New Orleans marching band leading the funeral procession to the burial ground, a mourning saxophone solo piercing the proceedings like lightning in a rainstorm.

The South Cottage Grove appellation, used throughout the liner notes as a nom de plume, refers to the location of Phil and Leonard Chess’ Macomba Lounge at 39th and South Cottage Grove, as well as their record company headquarters ten blocks south, before they moved to the legendary 2120 South Michigan Avenue space.

Windy City Gospel is a window to an important time in gospel music when independents captured the sound as it transitioned from sweet jubilee to the more emotionally intense Pentecostal and Holiness style that dominated the 1950s and 1960s.

Four of Five Stars

Tony Addison - He is Love

Tony Addison
He is Love
That Other Label (2010)
http://www.tonyaddisondrummer.com/

There are gospel saxophonists, gospel bassists, gospel violinists, gospel harpists, gospel keyboardists (of course), and with Tony Addison, a gospel drummer.

It’s no surprise, then, that percussion takes center stage on Addison’s debut CD, He is Love.

No, we’re not talking an album-long drum solo, but rather a project that places religious songs in the context of various world rhythms. In fact, on one of the CD’s ten tracks, songster/actress Rosalind “Roz” White sings, “If I could, I’d go around the world.” Her point is that she would like to go around the world spreading the good news.  An accomplished combo of musicians grants her wish, in part, by taking her, and us, on a world cruise of music.

For example, the title track has touches of Brazilian polyrhythm while a brassy Afro-Cuban shuffle lifts “God is By Your Side.” A Calypso beat fuels “Let’s Praise Him,” and the cornucopia of percussion on “He Is Jesus,” on which vocalist William Hubbard lets loose on the vamp, is the closest we come to an Addison drum solo.

The praise and worship songs, all written by Addison, are eager and friendly enough, but a tad too conventional for my taste. One notable exception is “Lost Without You.” Lead vocalist Anthony Manough sells the smooth, pop song whose title telegraphs the message: we are lost without the Lord.

A former boxer whose fast-lane life “got the best” of him, Addison began to study music and eventually formed his own trio to play a variety of music styles. He had imagined his first CD to be jazz, but the Lord thought otherwise. Still, jazz is an intrinsic component of He is Love, as jazz is, and always has been, a key ingredient in gospel music.

Three of Five Stars

Picks: “Lost Without You,” “He is Jesus.”

TBGB Pick of the Week: January 17, 2011

“No Not One”
Eddie Ruth Bradford
From the CD Jesus is Coming Back (2011)
www.eddieruthbradfordmusic.com

Leave it to Mississippi’s Eddie Ruth Bradford to get the New Year started with a dose of spicy, bluesy traditional gospel.

Bradford delivers “No Not One,” a variation on “There’s Not a Friend Like the Lowly Jesus,” in a low, brooding voice that increases in energy, always threatens to explode into shouting, but remains controlled and on point. Halfway in, the background vocalists chime their assent to Bradford’s message. It's what the Roberta Martin Singers might have sounded like had they been organized in the Delta.

www.uGospel, GOSPELflava Release List of 2011 Stellar Awardees

The Stellar Awards were held in Nashville this evening, and http://www.ugospel.com/ as well as http://www.gospelflava.com/ released the list of winners.  Read more here:

And the 2011 Stellar Award goes to...

and for the list of winners alongside the nominees, go here:

GOSPELflava.com.

From the looks of it, the evening was especially rewarding for Marvin Sapp, BeBe &CeCe Winans, and James Fortune & FIYA.  Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!

For more information, check out http://www.thestellarawards.com/.

Reverend John Wilkins - You Can't Hurry God

Reverend John Wilkins
You Can’t Hurry God
Fat Possum Records/Big Legal Mess (2010)
http://www.biglegalmessrecords.com/

Talk about old school.

On You Can’t Hurry God, Reverend John Wilkins takes us way back into the North Mississippi Hill Country for sacred music, guitar evangelist style.

The result is an album with the simple authenticity of an Alan Lomax field recording and the spicy soulfulness of a Willie Mitchell production. From the unhurried Toussaint McCall-esque title track to the rhythmic no-nonsense “Sinner’s Prayer,” You Can’t Hurry God is an invigorating journey along the blue highways of American music.

Wilkins, pastor of Hunter’s Chapel Church in Como, Mississippi, had a natural role model in his guitar-playing father, Robert. Robert Wilkins recorded country blues in the late 1920s and early 1930s, most famously the two-sided “Rolling Stone.”  He was rediscovered by the Dick Spottswoods during the early part of the 1960s blues revival, and became a minister.

The younger Wilkins’ recording resume includes accompanying former gospel quartet singer O.V. Wright on his 1965 record, “You’re Gonna Make Me Cry,” and membership in the M&N Gospel Singers, a group that recorded for Style Wooten’s eponymously-titled Designer label during the 1970s.

But this is Wilkins’s first full-length solo album, and what a debut it is. He plays lead and rhythm guitar, and pulls out the bottleneck slide on “Prodigal Son,” a song originally recorded by his father as the blues “That’s No Way to Get Along.” The performance hearkens back to the original, hypnotic verses and all, while keeping one foot in the 21st century, thanks to the handiwork of producer Amos Harvey.

It’s hard not to sing along with the spritely congregational songs “On the Battlefield” and “I Want You to Help Me.” Here, Wilkins’ daughters assist on background vocals, providing the response to their father’s call.  And most uncanny is the musical and vocal similarity to mild-mannered Washington Phillips on “Let the Redeemed Say So,” though Wilkins substitutes guitar for double-zither.

The album is best represented by “You Got to Move,” what Wilkins calls a “good old foot stomping, good old hand clapping song" that urges the listener to get ready because death doesn’t discriminate. The performance’s steady electric riff-propelled rhythm is what inspired the formation of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kinks, Led Zeppelin and sundry other blues bands.

You Can’t Hurry God is as authentic and unpretentious as the artist, and will appeal to trad gospel fans as well as blues and folk enthusiasts.

Five of Five Stars

Picks: “You Can’t Hurry God,” “I Want You to Help Me,” “Prodigal Son.”

VaShawn Mitchell in the Chicago Tribune

Downbeat editor and gospel music contributor to the Chicago Tribune Aaron Cohen offers an excellent portrait of gospel singer and composer VaShawn Mitchell. 

Read it here: VaShawn Mitchell

Kevin Gray - The Comeback

Kevin Gray
The Comeback
Goldstreet Gospel (2010)
http://www.goldstreetgospel.com/

A sonic blast smacks you in the face, like a bracing wind, in the first seconds of Kevin Gray’s The Comeback, his third and latest project. Sneering guitars, booming bass and roaring drums attack you like Batman, whose dual life as Caped Crusader/Bruce Wayne becomes Gray’s metaphor for the "comeback," a return from sin to salvation.

The opening salvo sets the tone for much of the rest of the CD. The Comeback is what I call "gospel fusion": R&B mixed with rock and power pop. It's rhythmic and vigorous, forever optimistic and relentless, much like the work of J Moss, who Gray lists as among his many influences, and Aaron Sledge, who provides guest vocals on the remix of Gray’s “Nobody Else in My Ear.”

Thematically, the songs, written by Gray in partnership with Jamel Kimbrough and Marqus Curtis, center on a person – presumably Gray but, by extension, anyone – who is given a second chance to turn from sin and do the right thing. The freedom experienced upon salvation could mean a better relationship (“Beautiful”), or as in “Peace Love Joy,” the ability to stop war, poverty, and prejudice between people and nations through the application of love to all things.
The finest moments on The Comeback are the quiet ones, when Gray sings with tempered instrumentation. “There is a God” allows the singer to set loose his estimable voice in praise of a God who cares about everyone and never forgets anyone. Similarly, the calm, beautiful and dramatic “Please Stay” features a cameo appearance by Chicago-born opera star Martin Woods who sings in Italian (when he was in high school, Woods was one of my late wife’s choir students).

Gray’s message is that the road to salvation may not always be smooth; on “Show Me the Way,” he pleads for direction. Still, by believing (“Dream Big”), one can achieve maximum potential.

The Comeback is expansive and richly complex, melodic and appealing.

Four of Five Stars

Picks: “There is A God,” “Please Stay,” “Nobody Else in My Ear.”

Trip Lee: The Journey (Thus Far)

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.

This coming weekend, Trip Lee will learn whether his third album, Between Two Worlds, earns a Stellar Award for Rap Hip Hop Gospel CD of the Year.

Whether or not Lee wins, the Stellar nomination is the latest milestone in the journey of the young Christian rapper from his birthplace of Dallas, Texas to Reach Records, one of the premier Christian hip hop labels.

“Dallas is a really churchy place,” Lee (born William Lee Barefield III) told TBGB during a telephone interview recently. “Pretty much everybody identified themselves as Christians, but from a young age, I had a misunderstanding of what it meant to be a Christian. I thought repeating a prayer made me a Christian. It didn’t bother me that I had sinned against God, that I didn’t have any affection for Jesus whatsoever and hadn’t put my faith in Him.”

Lee gave his life to Christ at fourteen. “I got involved in youth ministry when I was young, but it was really for social reasons. But we went to an event where the gospel was preached. Although it wasn’t the first time I heard the gospel, it was the first time I realized I had offended God and that Christ paid the penalty for sins I had committed. I turned away from my sins and put my faith in Jesus. I entrusted my life to Him.

“That’s when my life started to change,” Lee continued. “I realized my music should be submitted to Jesus, too. I wanted to help people celebrate Jesus and celebrate the gospel through my music. I was around 15 or 16 when I started rapping Christian. It started in my church, and the Lord kept opening doors for me from there.”

One was the backstage door at a Da T.R.U.T.H. concert, where Lee met Lecrae. “Da T.R.U.T.H. was my favorite artist,” Lee said. “I went to the concert with someone who knew him, and we went backstage. Lecrae was there because he opened up for T.R.U.T.H. that night. So I talked to Lecrae a little bit, bought his CD and reconnected with him after a couple of weeks. We just built a relationship from there.”

The relationship turned into a full-blown mentorship. Eventually other artists poured into Lee’s music ministry. “I’m grateful for all of them in my life: Lecrae, Tedashii, Sho [Baraka] and BJ, another guy who was around. God used them to mature me during that time.”

Lee signed with Reach Records and in 2006 released his debut album, If They Only Knew. The album was described as having a “southern sound.”

"Southern sound has always been a little less polished,” Lee explained. “It has heavier bass, and is more about the delivery than the lyricism. I grew up in the south, but I love east coast music too, so I have the southern sound with east coast lyricism.”

Lee’s second album, 20/20 (2008), reached as high as #4 on the Billboard Top Gospel Albums chart.  His third, Between Two Worlds, went all the way to number one.  Trip Lee and Lecrae are the first Christian rap artists to top the Billboard Top Gospel Albums chart.

“On my first album, there was a line where I said, ‘I don’t care if I ever get a Billboard hit,’" Lee said. "I meant it, because I thought there was no possible way I would ever have an album that would do anything on anybody’s chart. I was one hundred percent surprised and shocked! The real reason I was excited was because so many people were hearing the truth I worked so hard to put into the album.”

Lee’s inspiration “comes from a lot of different places. Content wise, it happens when I’m in the Scriptures, or when I’m reading a book that refers back to the Scriptures. There’s a weight on my heart that says I have to help people understand this. Sometimes I’ll be out somewhere and see a situation in my life, or in the lives of my friends, and I think, ‘What does the Bible have to say about this?’ I want to understand this and I want other people to understand it.”

Musically, “I’m a music junkie, I’m always listening to music, always buying new music from jazz to pop to hip hop to R&B to soul – I’m always listening and learning, never copying, just learning from the people who do it well.”

Regarding the state of Christian hip hop, Lee commented, “I think Christian hip hop is becoming better known. More people are buying the music. But I also think Christian hip hop is still kind of marginalized. Nobody knows where to put it. Mainstream hip hop doesn’t want to have much to do with us. Christian and gospel music, a lot of the time, doesn’t know what to do with us. There’s still a ways to go before we are accepted by both mainstream hip hop and the Christian and gospel world. But God keeps doing things and we’re grateful.”

Lee added. “I think there are a lot of people who do not attend church because it doesn’t fit them. They don’t like choirs, they don’t like the rhythm that preachers speak in, they just can’t connect with it. But then they hear us and say, ‘These dudes look like me, they speak my language.’

“On the other hand, we love the church. We are involved in our local churches and believe church is the primary way God plans to reach the world and spread the gospel. There’s a movement of churches that look more like us and that’s a good thing, because God wants the gospel to go to all nations and all cultures.”

Speaking of church, Lee is taking five months off in early 2011 to complete a pastoral internship. “I’m also working on an EP, just five songs. I will release one song each month while I’m away, and then release the EP in its entirety in May or June. I’m also gearing up for the release of a full-length album in the fall.

“At the end of the day, what we really want more than anything is for more people to know Christ. So if we never hit a chart again and our platform never gets any larger, we live in faith that God is using us to help people know Christ.”

For more information about Trip Lee, visit http://www.reachrecords.com/.

TBGB Pick of the Week: January 10, 2011

“You Can’t Hurry God”
Rev. John Wilkins
From the CD You Can’t Hurry God
(Big Legal Mess/Fat Possum Records 2010)
www.biglegalmessrecords.com

Rev. John Wilkins’ unhurried drawl, his soulful doo-wop guitar picking, and the soft purr of Adam Woodard’s organ make "You Can’t Hurry God” sound like Toussaint McCall produced by Willie Mitchell.

The comparison is not far off: Wilkins learned a thing or two from the Memphis soul scene. He also picked up a satchel full of guitar techniques from his father, Robert, a popular blues and gospel songster from the North Mississippi Hill Country.

Employing the well-trodden theme of the “on-time God,” “You Can’t Hurry God” has a soul-stirring rootsiness, thanks in large part to Amos Harvey’s superb production.

Arthur Lee "Bob" Beatty, Gospel Quartet Pioneer, Dead at 96

Matthew Knights Willams informed TBGB today that Arthur Lee "Bob" Beatty passed away.  Michele LaLand added (below) that Mr. Beatty passed away yesterday evening, January 8th, in Spartanburg, SC. He was 96.

Beatty was a member of legendary quartet groups the Heavenly Gospel Singers, Violinaires, Trumpets of Joy and Four Gospel Knights. He was inducted into the International Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2008.

Our sympathies to Mr. Beatty's family and friends.

Bishop Manning and the Manning Family - Converted Mind

Bishop Manning and the Manning Family
Converted Mind – The Early Recordings
Big Legal Mess Records/Fat Possum Records (2010)
http://www.biglegalmessrecords.com/

Reviewed by Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.

On “If You Miss Me,” Bishop Dready Manning delivers his life testimony while firing off sparkling rockabilly licks from his electric guitar. Between riffs, he quips, “I used to do this all night long for the devil/I used to have white and colored shaking a leg.” But, he concludes, he is saved now and plays only for the Lord.

The converted Bishop Manning and the Manning Family made many recordings in the 1970s for labels such as Memorial and Hoyt Sullvan’s Su-Ann. They even released their own discs on homemade labels such as Peatock and Nashbrand, blatant but tongue-in-cheek ripoffs of then-popular labels Peacock and Nashboro. Most of the recordings have slipped into undeserved obscurity.

Coming to the rescue, John Glassburner and Bruce Watson have lovingly gathered the family’s history and early recorded output from their own archives, from the Manning’s collection, and from those of fellow gospel collectors and historians. The result is the 28-track CD Converted Mind.

One could argue that Manning’s lyricism and performance style make him one of the last guitar evangelists. On their records and presumably in live performance, Manning, his wife Marie and their children ruminated about what was wrong with the world. Nothing escaped their scope: troubled race relations, two-faced church folk, wayfaring preachers, loose ways among men and women, and even uncomely dress and hairstyles. In fact, the group’s “What the People Gonna Do,” reprised three times on the set with as many titles and from as many labels, is the ensemble’s quintessential response to life’s problems.

Their response is to receive the Lord and be saved. Bishop learned that lesson well: once a blues musician and a lover of whiskey and clubs, Manning gave it all to the Lord after being miraculously cured of an affliction that baffled his doctors. Using music henceforward as a force for good, Manning organized his wife Marie and young children into a singing group, based in their hometown of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina.

The first track on the collection, “Manning Family Theme Song,” is the group's calling card. They sing out their telephone number and address…“and if you write us, we will come.”

Converted Mind features Bishop Manning’s barrelhouse rockabilly guitar and bluesy harmonica playing. His chugging harp is especially notable on “The Gospel Train,” where he channels Little Walter in propelling the train down the track. “The Jealous Men and the Jealous Women” contains echoes of 1920s sermon recordings.  Overall, the musicianship and genuine singing give the collection what the liner notes call a “down home sincerity.”

While Bishop Manning sings lead on the majority of the tracks, his wife Marie’s hard-charging vocals on a few of them are among the CD’s most interesting selections, especially "I Believe I’ll Run On,” one of the two bonus tracks.

Gospel researcher and author Alan Young, who wrote, among other volumes, the biography of the Pilgrim Jubilees, composed the fascinating and well illustrated liner notes, which detail the life and times of a man who wanted to make sure others didn’t make the same mistakes he had.

During a time when gospel music is moving along speedily on the interstate, it is soul-satisfying to hear collections like Converted Mind explore the genre’s well-traveled blue highways.

Four of Five Stars

Picks: “The Gospel Train,” “If You Miss Me,” “I Believe I’ll Run On.”

Todd Dulaney - Pulling Me Through

Todd Dulaney

Pulling Me Through

Goldstreet Gospel (2010)

www.goldstreetgospel.com

Reviewed by Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog. 

As a background vocalist for Smokie Norful, former professional baseball player Todd Dulaney studied the Stellar Award-winning singer’s melismatic runs and adopted some as his own, all the while maintaining a smooth, crooning style distinct from his mentor.

Dulaney puts it to the test on his debut CD, Pulling Me Through, for the new Goldstreet Gospel label. 

Dulaney is among a new generation of sacred songsters who set praise and worship lyrics to CCM melodies and arrangements, and voice them with gospel runs, blue notes and strong emotional expression.  Call it contemporary, call it P&W -- you know it when you hear it.

The title track, and current single, of Dulaney’s debut project is emblematic of this style and of the album.  “Pulling Me Through” is a song of thanksgiving sung with a pop sensibility.  Possessing a theme and style similar to “Pulling Me Through” is “Wouldn’t Trade,” an energetic track with potential to cross over onto the Christian Song chart.  “I’ll Keep Praying” reminds me of V. Michael McKay’s “Corinthian Song” in its simple, anthemic eloquence.

Some tracks, such as “Te Amo,” include swatches of techno, auto tune and other hip augmentations to accentuate the project’s youthfulness, and although they are compelling, Dulaney’s voice alone is sufficient.

To this point: the finest moment on Pulling Me Through comes at the conclusion, on the hypnotic and meditative “My Everything.”  Here the handsomeness of Dulaney’s tenor is given free rein to explore its range unfettered by rhythm and heavy instrumentation.  It is a gorgeous selection and the most illustrative of Dulaney's capabilities.

Four of Five Stars

Picks: “Pulling Me Through,” “Wouldn’t Trade,” “My Everything.”

Sullivan Pugh, 85, of the Consolers Died Dec. 30

Anthony Heilbut informed TBGB this evening that Sullivan Pugh of the Consolers passed away.

Here is the obituary (note that viewing starts tomorrow, Jan. 6):

Brother Sullivan S. Pugh, 85, gospel recording artist best known for such hits as “May The Work I’ve Done,” “Give Me My Flowers,” “Waiting For My Child” and “Somewhere Around Gods Throne,” died Dec. 30, 2010, at home surrounded by his wife and family.

Services: Abundant Favor Mortuary, Inc. 115 E. 30th St., Bradenton

First viewing: 5-9 p.m. Jan. 6 at Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church, 6316 S.W. 59th Place, South Miami

Second viewing: 5-9 p.m. Jan. 7 , United Christian Fellowship, 2310 N.W. 58th Street, Miami

Funeral: 11 a.m. Jan. 8, Bethel Apostolic Temple, 1855 N.W. 119th Street.

TBGB mourns the loss of one of gospel's great pioneers, but is comforted to know that Brother Sullivan is now reunited with his wife and singing partner Iola.

The Provo Gospel Choir Wants You!

Rehearsals are held at Wilkinson Student Center (WSC) at Brigham Young University.  For more information, email provogospelchoir@gmail.com. 

Gospel Music Center and Museum Planned for Birmingham

Joseph Bryant of the Birmingham News writes about the development of a new center and museum to honor Alabama's gospel music history. 

If everything goes as planned, it will be housed in a ninety-year-old church, the former McCoy United Methodist Church, on Eighth Avenue West.

Learn more here: Alabama Gospel Center.

Photo Credit: Hal Yeager, Birmingham News

TBGB's Best of 2010 - Gospel Music Albums and Singles

Here is The Black Gospel Blog's "Best Of" for 2010.

As in prior years, the lists are not necessarily based on a song or album's popularity or sales but on the sound, vision, talent and feeling. Also, only projects serviced to TBGB during the year are considered.

Singles:

1. "The Best in Me" – Marvin Sapp (Verity)

Marvin Sapp’s “The Best in Me” was sort of a follow-up hit to his mega-smash, “Never Would Have Made It.” It wasn't as strong as Sapp's career-topping hit, but it was far truer to the transcendent spirit of gospel than many other singles in 2010. It's main lyric lines entered into the African American church lexicon and the honesty of the song tugged at the heart in the same way as its antecedent. The performance was made all the more immediate and captivating by Sapp’s intimate and pleading vocals.

The rest of the list (in alphabetical order):

“Awesome God” – Brian Courtney Wilson (Music World Gospel)

“Corinthian Song” – Micah Stampley (Music World Gospel/Interface Entertainment)

“God is God (He Won’t Change)” – Rev. F.C. Barnes feat. Darrell Luster (AIR)

“Hallelujah to the Lamb” – James Hall Presents Voices of Citadel (Musicblend Records)

“I Believe” – James Fortune, Shawn McLemore, & Zacardi Cortez (Blacksmoke Music Worldwide)

“I Found Love (Cindy’s Song)” – BeBe Winans (Malaco Records)

“I Wanna Know” – JAIA (JAIA)

“It’s About Time for a Miracle” – Beverly Crawford (JDI Records)

“Krazy Praize” – April Nevels (7 Places Indie)



Albums:

1. Various Artists: Bishop Morton Celebrates 25 Years of Music (Light Records/Tehillah Music Group)

Gospel music is best when performed before a live audience – that’s where it all began – and this project is a passing parade of gifted singers paying tribute to another gifted singer. From Pastor Shirley Caesar to Mary Mary to Kurt Carr, PJ Morton and others, the energy never lets up; it keeps getting better and better.

The rest of the list (in alphabetical order):

Rance Allen Group – The Live Experience II (Tyscot Records)

Forever Jones - Get Ready (EMI Gospel)

Deitrick Haddon Presents Voices of Unity - Blessed & Cursed: The Soundtrack (Tyscot)

VaShawn Mitchell - Triumphant (EMI Gospel)

Elaine Norwood – Released (Highly Favored Music)

Vetrea Slack Ruffin & the Ruffin Family – House of Worship (Heavenly Spirit Music)

Soul Seekers – Soul Seekers II (My Block Records/Malaco Music Group)

Totally Dedicated – QuarTemporary (Totally Dedicated)

Various Artists – WOW Gospel 2010 (Verity Gospel Music Group)

Best Gospel Compilation:

There Breathes a Hope: The Legacy of John Work II and His Fisk Jubilee Quartet, 1909-1916 (Archeophone Records)

There's something surreal and supremely thrilling about hearing recordings made a century ago and feeling just as uplifted as if they had been performed yesterday. Listening to a crisp reissue of Edison cylinders featuring John Work II and Roland Hayes in the Fisk University Jubilee Quartette is like riding an aural time machine.

Charlie Brown of the Violinaires on Life Support

The quartet community needs your prayers:

Mama Curtis contacted TBGB with the news that Rev. Charlie Brown of the Violinaires was put on life support at a hospital in Conyers, Georgia.  He went into the hospital last Friday night.

Meanwhile, Rev. Andrew Cheairs was hospitalized after he was in an automobile accident just before Christmas.  Mama Curtis notes that he is currently in therapy.

Please keep these two gentlemen, and their family and friends, in your prayers.  The path may be rugged, but prayer changes things.

TBGB Pick of the Week: January 3, 2011

“My Heart Says Yes”
Troy Sneed
From the forthcoming Emtro CD My Heart Says Yes
(estimated release: 2nd Qtr, 2011)
http://www.emtro.com/

On “My Heart Says Yes,” Emtro Records owner and gospel artist Troy Sneed reaches up into an off-the-stave falsetto to express his complete love for Jesus.

Supporting Sneed is a simple, delicate ostinato melody with a Brazilian beat led by acoustic guitar and muted percussion. Understated and hushed, ideal for that moment in a worship service when easy does it.

Pierre Walker - Project: Sanctified - A Celebration of 19th Street

Pierre Walker and Various Artists
Project: Sanctified
Reunion Communion: A Celebration of 19th Street
Admatha Records (2009)
http://www.myspace.com/projectsanctified

Reviewed by Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.

Speaking of the Walker Family…

In 2002, Pierre Walker, Rev. Clay Evans' organist and St. Sabina's associate minister of music, paid tribute to the family's Chicago roots on Rev. Clay Evans Presents Project: Sanctified.

Two years later, Pierre recorded a second Project: Sanctified, this time as a loving acknowledgment of the church he grew up in, Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Philadelphia, where the pastor is his father, Rev. Charles Walker.

Nineteenth Street has served the City of Brotherly Love for more than a century.  In the past forty years alone, its pulpit has welcomed such honored guests as Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr., Dr. Howard Thurman, Bishop O.T. Jones and Dr. Fred Shuttlesworth.

The mix of music on the 2004 Project: Sanctified, released in 2009, is steeped in the African American church tradition. Eschewing the now-standard practice of combining P&W, contemporary, traditional and urban on a gospel release, Project: Sanctified instead offers a soundtrack of an historic Old Landmark.

Opening with the somber strains of a snippet of Rev. Walker’s Requiem for Brother Martin, a classical tribute to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the album also features deacon-led congregational singing (“Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand”), nineteenth-century hymnody (“I Need Thee”), traditional gospel (“Just to Behold His Face”) and a couple of choir-led pulse-racers, including "Grace," J.C. White’s hit for the Institutional Radio Choir.

The album's track order follows the standard order of service, with devotionals; a sermon song with Rev. Walker, who also provides the lesson; an altar call; and the benediction.

The Walker Family is all-in: Pierre is joined by his talented vocalist brother Jason and the angel of Nineteenth Street, their father, Rev. Charles. The project pays homage to the family’s Chicago heritage, with Windy City-based artists such as the Brown Sisters, Gus Lacy and Joey Woolfalk assisting with the recording.  

The project’s high point is Pierre’s stunning rendition of Lucie Campbell’s “Just to Behold His Face.” In Pierre’s voice one hears a measure of Donald Gay’s muscular jazz phrasing as the dynamics build to such high tension that only a praise break provides release.

Gospel music today has a polished, musically complex sensibility in keeping with a world captivated by iPods and enraptured by multi-media praise services and megachurch celebrations. Project: Sanctified reminds us that in the midst of musical evolution, thousands of Old Landmarks in cities large and small sound just like Nineteenth Street. They embrace the future without abandoning the rich, textured intensity of the songs that carried their forebears through.

Four of Five Stars

Picks: “Grace,” “Just to Behold His Face.”