Shekinah Glory MinistryJesusKingdom Records 2007www.kingdomrecordsinc.com Praise (and worship) is what Shekinah Glory Ministry does. On record and video, and in live performance, they are praise and worship’s current gold standard. Visual as well as aural, the troupe from Valley Kingdom Ministries International in south suburban Chicago contains a cast of exalters, standard bearers, minstrels, kingdom horn players, karar dancers, the talented Daniel Weatherspoon as music director, psalmist Phil Tarver and Senior Pastor Apostle H. Daniel Wilson as master of ceremonies. The group’s auspicious debut, Praise Is What I Do (2001), was followed by a succession of single-title hits, namely the ...

God Will Take Care of His OwnPastor Walter W. Matthews, Sr. presents The Pleasant Green Missionary Baptist Church ChoirJR Murray Group 2005www.pleasantgreenmbc.info What better time than Christmas to talk about gospel choirs? This CD, created in 2005, comes from one of the city’s older African American churches, the Pleasant Green Missionary Baptist Church, founded in 1918 toward the beginning of the Great Migration. Located at 7545 South Vincennes since 1972 – a cool four miles south of Ebenezer MB Church and gospel choir Ground Zero – Pleasant Green is alive and well, with Pastor Walter W. Matthews, Sr. the angel ...

From Bill Carpenter: Atlanta: Gospel singer-songwriter Gabriel S. Hardeman is best-known for co-writing Stephanie Mills’ “I Feel Good All Over” which was a #1 R&B smash for three weeks in 1987 and also for penning Mikki Howard’s #2 1990 R&B hit “Love Under New Management” which was originally a gospel song (recorded later on by Kurt Carr). He’s also a respected pastor at the Bellview Circuit AME Churches outside of Atlanta, GA. Now, Hardeman is in the fight for his life. Hardeman is scheduled to have a single-lung transplant on January 12, 2009 at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital in ...

“I Believe”R. KellyZomba Recording 2008(available on iTunes) R. Kelly is not an artist you might expect to occupy TBGB’s Pick of the Week, but think about this: a) His “I Believe I Can Fly” (similar name, different song) has been gospelized so often that many have forgotten it was once included in a Warner Brothers cartoon film; b) R. Kelly’s high school music teacher was Rev. Dr. Lena McLin, niece of the Father of Gospel Music Prof. Thomas A. Dorsey; and c) “I Believe” is a stirring inspirational single. Opening with the voice of President-Elect Obama, “I Believe” is about ...

GiftedI’ve LearnedQuartet Boyz Records 2007www.myspace.com/giftedofbatonrouge Although not new to the quartet scene (they will celebrate ten years together in ‘09), Gifted is a group of young men from Baton Rouge, Louisiana that belts out old-fashioned church rousers one moment and more contemporary sounds with modern harmonies the next. And that’s exactly what you hear on their CD, I’ve Learned, released on Dwight Gordon’s Tyler, Texas-based Quartet Boyz label. The opening hand-clapper, “God is Worthy to be Praised,” invites listeners to put down their brooms and vacuum cleaners and praise the Lord (they don’t have to ask me twice). Other Gifted ...

Dennis Cole and Prof. L. Stanley Davis of the Chicago Area Gospel Announcers Guild reported this afternoon that Mr. William Greenbey, husband of Billie Barrett Greenbey, passed away this week. His homegoing service was today, Saturday, December 19, at Greater Bethel Apostolic Church in Chicago. Billie Greenbey is a member of the world famous Barrett Sisters. If anyone wants to send a letter or card of condolence, hit TBGB offline at bob@gospelmemories.com and we can provide you with an address to send your message. Do keep Ms. Greenbey in your prayers. She and her husband, who was a real estate ...

The Charlotte Chapter of the Gospel Music Workshop of AmericaWorth It AllSelf-Released 2008www.cdbaby.com/cd/tccotgmwa Not long after James Cleveland and a cartel of religious and music industry leaders established the Gospel Music Workshop of America in 1967, and staged its first convention in Detroit, the performances of the mass choir and other ensembles at these annual gatherings were recorded on double-album sets. Directly, the annual GMWA recordings made it possible for thousands more choirs and singers around the world to learn the new gospel songs introduced at the convention. Indirectly, the discs promoted Prof. Thomas A. Dorsey’s concept of the gospel ...

On Wednesday, December 17, the Pilgrim Jubilees did something they had not done in their sixty-four years of performing before audiences young and old. They sang on the stage of Chicago’s venerable roots music venue, The Old Town School of Folk Music. It made sense: both the “Jubes” and the Old Town School are Chicago institutions and national treasures. Both have been around a long while: the Old Town School for fifty years and the Jubes since 1944. And brothers Cleave and Clay Graham, who were the spiritual foci of Wednesday’s show, have been with the Jubes since the mid ...

From Metromodemedia.com: When people mention music in the Motor City, a number of images come to mind, ranging from Motown supergroups to sonic thrash of The White Stripes’ garage rock to Eminem’s fist-pumping hip-hop. The white (or purple) robes of gospel aren’t usually one of musical images associated with the Motor City, but it has been a underrated and all-too-important cog in Michigan’s long-time thriving music scene. A new book by a University of Michigan-Dearborn professor dives into that genre and its impact both locally and nationally. U-M Dearborn English Prof. Deborah Smith Pollard wrote “When the Church Becomes Your ...

From Bob Merz: Philadelphia, PA – Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the pioneering gospel musician and instrumentalist, finally has a gravestone marking her resting place at Northwood Cemetery in Philadelphia. Since her passing in 1973, the gravesite of Sister Rosetta had been a barren plot lacking any memorial. Today, a beautiful, rose-colored monument bears respect to one of America ’s most influential artists of the 20th Century. Sister Rosetta’s monument was partially funded by a benefit concert at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside, PA on January 11, 2008, that featured performances by gospel and spiritual music legends—The Dixie Hummingbirds, Odetta, Marie Knight, ...