Sandra McCracken God’s Highway Independent release (release date: September 9, 2016) www.sandramccracken.com By Bob Marovich Modern day hymnist Sandra McCracken’s latest CD, God’s Highway (also available on vinyl), continues where her 2015 Psalms left off: new songs based on Biblical texts and that sound as if they came from the Primitive Baptist Church hymnbook. McCracken’s beguiling voice combines the cry of Beth Nielsen Chapman and the world-weariness of Emmylou Harris. Her lonesome singing combined with an understated combo and songs with heavy chords but bright melodies give listeners a sense of eavesdropping on the prayers of someone emerging, victorious but ...

“Light Up the Darkness” Andre Byrd Independent release (March 2016) www.andrebyrdonline.com With “Light Up the Darkness,” Stamford, Connecticut, singer-songwriter Andre Byrd injects into song his call for direct social action. To a hook-laden pop melody that shimmers with Shellback-style blasts of electronica, Byrd appeals to us to stop acting like mannequins, going along with whatever society tells us, and let our little light shine to make the world a better place. Andre Byrd is a product of Jamaican-born parents who fostered within him a love for reggae as well as of traditional gospel. Growing up in the U.S., Byrd soaked ...

Carolyn Traylor The Best of My Story Traylor Made Music Group (release date: March 31, 2017) By Bob Marovich Working in the traditional-or-die mode of such artists as Dottie Peoples, Beverly Crawford, and Lemmie Battles, Carolyn Traylor of Greenville, Texas, flexes her vocal muscles on her latest album, the thoroughly enjoyable The Best of My Story. Recorded live at Shreveport’s Peaceful Rest Baptist Church, the album finds Traylor, called the “Texas Powerhouse” in Derrell Hobdy’s introduction, varying from sweet to squall on eleven selections of mostly churchy fare. I say mostly, because “Victory” and “He Did It All” have a ...

Judy Jacques The Sixties Sessions Playback (2016) www.playbackrecords.net By Bob Marovich In the early 1960s, while teens were swooning over the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, Judy Jacques, an Australian youth, was soaking up whatever American gospel records she could get her hands on. At the same time, Australia’s Yarra Yarra New Orleans Jazz Band was introducing Melbourne audiences to traditional American Dixieland style jazz. Combined, Jacques and the Yarras gave Australians a bracing and remarkably authentic taste of black gospel and spirituals. In the process, Jacques became Australia’s Queen of Gospel and Trad Jazz. A comprehensive survey of Jacques’s 1960’s ...

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“Victorious” Ernest Billups & Tribe of Levi feat. Bishop Eric McDaniel E’mazin Entertainment (released August 2016) www.emazinentertainment.com “Victorious” is a spirited litany of positive affirmations from Ernest Billups and his sprightly vocal group Tribe of Levi. It is also Billups’s testimony of how God has granted him victory over personal challenges–that no matter how bad things are, God will help you overcome them. Using the “no weapon formed against you shall prosper” Scripture for support, Billups & Tribe of Levi tell the enemy what they really think of him. Then Bishop Eric McDaniel, pastor of The Lord’s Church in the Bronx and North ...

Sharon Moore Jesus Wants to Bless You Heavenly Calm Records By Bob Marovich Those who attended the 2016 Rhythm of Gospel Awards weekend in Memphis, Tennessee, heard the singer and songwriter Sharon Moore perform “Jesus Wants to Bless You,” the title track of her latest album, in a number of showcases. With a beat and melody evocative of A Taste of Honey’s 1978 disco hit, “Boogie Oogie Oogie,” Moore sings that Jesus doesn’t just want to bless you, he wants to “press down, shake it together” your blessings.  That’s the songs hook.  So many blessings you won’t have room to ...

Dave Bass The Welcome Table DNB Associates (1997) www.cdbaby.com/davebass By Bob Marovich Although he recorded The Welcome Table twenty years ago, gospel singer and songwriter Dave Bass is promoting his quartet-inspired album to a new generation of listeners. The eight radio-sized selections on The Welcome Table sound like nostalgic reflections by a revivalist vocal harmony group, the kind that appears on TJ Lubinsky’s PBS specials. The songs have a latter-day Soul Stirrers vibe, with Bass channeling Sam Cooke’s elastic tenor but without his trademark yodel. Bass is accompanied by an uncredited quartet and contemporary musical backdrop. The title track as ...

“Testify” James Douglas feat. LeJuene Thompson From the forthcoming project Still I Praise https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jamesdouglas42 It could be intimidating for some artists to have a fiery singer like LeJuene Thompson on their single, but James Douglas proves an equally effective vocalist on “Testify.” “Testify” is as it sounds: despite having his name scandalized, despite going through the fire and the flood, and even despite the prospect of “throwing in the towel,” which in context sounds like a contemplation of suicide, Douglas declares that every time, God “made a way somehow.” Moaning her way into the song’s vamp, Thompson gives her testimony ...

By Bob Marovich Cadillac James of the Cotton Family informed JGM that Tommy Cotton, founder and lead singer for the Cotton Brothers of Macon, Georgia, passed away February 9, 2017. Tommy Cotton was born September 24, 1937, in Marshallville, Georgia, the oldest boy in a family of 16 children. The Cottons worked share and provided field labor wherever needed. Some of the sons started an a cappella quartet group in the mid-1950s. Tommy, who was eventually named the group’s manager, was friends with fellow high school basketball team member Sylvester “Vessy” Huckaby, who served as a bodyguard for Otis Redding. ...