The Journal of Gospel Music

Steven Cermele HealThy Heart SLC Records (release date: December 8, 2017) Available from Amazon.com By Bob Marovich Although a professional singer and drummer in secular music for more than 25 years, Steven Cermele has spent the past decade focused exclusively on singing and playing in church. In other words, he’s “divinely rearranged,” as he sings on the title track of his new album, HealThy Heart. Eleven self-penned selections combine the simplicity of southern gospel with the electric drive of country rock. Cermele’s best offerings on HealThy Heart are straight-ahead, no-nonsense southern gospel selections such as “If I Don’t Have Jesus.” The melody, ...

Todd Dulaney Your Great Name Entertainment One Music (release date: January 19, 2018) www.eonemusic.com By Bob Marovich Todd Dulaney was nervous the evening of his live recording at Calvary Church of Naperville, Illinois, that produced Your Great Name. He had been struggling with an illness that was threatening his voice. He kept on praying, he told the audience, that this, too, shall pass. It did pass. Dulaney suddenly and dramatically retained the full range of his voice. He went on to finish the recorded worship experience. Like all worship experiences, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and that’s mostly the ...

GMA FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES AND HONORS RECIPIENTS FOR 5TH ANNUAL GMA HONORS AND HALL OF FAME CEREMONY Ceremony will take place Tuesday, May 8, 2018 at Lipscomb University’s Allen Arena NASHVILLE, Tenn. (February 16, 2018) – The GMA (Gospel Music Association) Foundation announced its inductees and honorees for the 5th Annual GMA Honors and Hall of Fame Ceremony set for Tuesday, May 8, 2018 at Lipscomb University’s Allen Arena. This year’s GMA Hall of Fame inductees include CCM artist Carman, award-winning Southern Gospel artist Karen Peck Gooch, legendary Gospel family group The Staple Singers and acclaimed producer ...

The Divine Souls Favor Independent (2017) https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/thedivinesouls2 By Bob Marovich “Out in the West Texas town of El Paso” is a gospel quartet named the Divine Souls. Their album, Favor, is a solid collection of ten songs that combine traditional lyrics and themes with modern musical accompaniment. Most pronounced about the Divine Souls is their harmonies. When other quartets are going high above the stave with their harmonizing, a la the Violinaires, the Divine Souls go low. The result is a meatier, more traditional baritone sound. In addition, while some quartet CDs prominently feature the lead singer while the rest of ...

Shyne On Me Barmonies: The Long Fall (release date: December 1, 2017) https://shyneonme.bandcamp.com/album/barmonies-the-long-fall By Bob Marovich Barmonies: The Long Fall by Shyne On Me is one of those albums best listened to in its entirety than as individual tracks. On his latest project, Washington, DC-based Christian “city soul” singer and rapper Shyne On Me shares with the listener his personal journey from darkness to light. He does not leave out the temptations, discouragements, and the harsh realities of life along the way, but he reminds us that we will make it through the grace of God. The album’s opener, “Running to You,” begins as a ...

“You Will Win” Jekalyn Carr Lunjeal Music Group (release date: September 15, 2017) www.iamjekalyncarr.com By Bob Marovich Twenty-year-old singing sensation Jekalyn Carr extends her string of inspirational hit songs with “You Will Win.” Defeating the enemy means believing in God and taking control of one’s life in thought and action, Carr sings.  She and her background vocalists and musicians build the intensity of the song from melancholy introduction to dramatic denouement. “You Will Win” is among the selections on Carr’s fourth album, One Nation Under God, available February 23.

New Heart Band A Spirit Journey First Love Publishing (2017) www.newheartband.com By Bob Marovich A Spirit Journey, the independently-produced album by the New Heart Band, evokes the folk music I used to listen to on the Ozarks-based radio program Sing Out! It contains confident, laidback string band interpretations of Christian themes. The style is sometimes referred to as country gospel, a style that goes back, at least commercially, to the earliest recordings of the Carter Family. Hailing from the State of Washington, the New Heart Band consists of singer-songwriters Gregg and Elaine Christenson, producer and multi-instrumentalist Gary Ballard, singer Tina Jones, and fiddler Paul Elliott. Gregg ...

By Bob Marovich While CeCe Winans was racking up Grammy Awards for Let Them Fall in Love, her 2017 album with the retro-looking cover, her brother and erstwhile singing partner BeBe Winans was promoting his new single, “He Promised Me.” Co-produced by Daniel Weatherspoon and featuring sister act Tobbi & Tommi and emerging soloist Kiandra (Richardson), “He Promised Me” is a song about binding what God has promised He will do with what we must believe. The ladies provide the response to BeBe’s call, their collective voices building to crescendos and then falling back obediently into place. The singular melody line feels like it ...

Angelo Breeden and Archie Swindell Jr. informed JGM that Dr. James C. McLean, a founding member of the Bethlehem Gospel Singers, passed away in a Charlotte, North Carolina, hospital yesterday evening, February 5, 2018. Hailing from Laurinburg, North Carolina, the Bethlehem Gospel Singers were organized in the late 1950s by Dr. McLean and Archie Swindell Sr. The group enjoyed recording success on Hoyt Sullivan’s HSE label starting in 1969, making noise in 1972 with their two-part “My Bible is Right.” Listen to the track below and please keep Dr. McLean’s family, friends, and fans in prayer.

Todd Dulaney’s new album, Your Great Name, arrived January 19, 2018.  Click on the link below to see a video from the album and to order a copy from one of many online retail outlets.