Meka King Believe. The Live Recording Sonflower Joy Music (rel. October 28, 2014) www.mekaking.com By Bob Marovich Those who attended Praise & Worship Leader Meka King’s live recording session at The Gathering Place Church in Sanford, Florida, on February 18, 2012, entered a gospel concert but exited a church service. Believe. The Live Recording is King’s sophomore CD and the product of the February 2012 recording session. The two-disc set is brimming with bold, dramatic P&W arrangements.  Most were recorded live, with a few final tracks sounding as if they were made in a studio. After a theatrical spoken word intro, the ...

J Moss Grown Folks Gospel PAJAM (released November 25, 2014) www.pajam-music.com/jmoss.html By Bob Marovich The next generation of Detroit’s Clark-Moss gospel dynasty is growing up. For J Moss, son of Bill and Essie Moss, that doesn’t mean he’s embracing his parents’ traditional gospel style.  His music is just settling down, embracing a soft R&B quiet storm kind of pacing, and his lyrics becoming more contemplative. Thus, it should come as no surprise that Grown Folks Gospel is J Moss’s most mainstream effort to date. It grapples with a world in which there are more questions than answers.  Album cuts such as ...

Whosoever South Come On In Elevate Entertainment (released October 7, 2014) www.whosoeversouth.com By Bob Marovich Whosoever South is one of the most innovative Christian groups of the decade. The trio’s self-proclaimed “country crunk” style blends elements of rootsy Americana and country with deep groove bass, gospel, and hip hop. Think Mumford and Sons meets Arrested Development. Whosoever South is husband-and-wife team Rowdy and Sarah Eunice, and Mike Mitchell; all hail from Georgia. Vocally, Rowdy delivers the country feel, Sarah raps, and Mike sounds like Darius Rucker.  The group’s sophomore effort, Come On In, is equal parts evocation of southern country ...

Eddie James Shift Fresh Wine Records (2012) www.ejworship.org By Bob Marovich Back in the day, recorded black sacred music was restricted by its medium. The brittle 78 rpm and its cooler cousin, the 45 rpm record, gave singers and musicians about four minutes per side to get their message across. The LP expanded things a little, offering as much as an hour of music. Today, a two-disc CD set enables artists to provide nearly three hours of almost uninterrupted listening. The latter is what singer-songwriter and minister Eddie James has employed for Shift. This 2-CD pocket-sized worship service is produced in the ...

Blind Boys of Alabama & Taj Mahal Talkin’ Christmas Sony Masterworks (2014) www.sonymasterworks.com By Bob Marovich Like the Chieftains, the Blind Boys of Alabama have been embraced by some of today’s hippest rock and roots musicians. On Talkin’ Christmas, the gospel quartet that is now an American icon celebrates the holidays with musical polymath Taj Mahal. Mind you, this is not the first time the Blind Boys have tackled the Christmas canon. That was 51 years ago, when the group was on Vee Jay Records. They and then-label mates the Swan Silvertones, Charles Taylor, and others delivered fairly standard versions of ...

Marcel Anderson Still Living Marcel Anderson Music (2014) www.marcelanderson.com By Bob Marovich You’ve heard the saying, “I don’t look like what I’ve been through.” Marcel Anderson doesn’t look or sound like what he’s been through. The title of Anderson’s CD is not hyperbole. His story, starkly presented in the accompanying book of the same title, is one of surviving a brutal attack that included severe sexual abuse. Despite the scars, he does not dwell on the past but lofts hallelujahs, in a handsome, elastic baritone voice, for surviving, and focuses on moving forward in his personal and spiritual journey. Still ...

Yancy y Amigos Pequena Fiesta de Alabanza (Praise Party) Elevate Entertainment (2014) www.yancynotnancy.com By Bob Marovich Christian singer-songwriter Yancy began writing kid-friendly songs for the littlest congregants at Church on the Move in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her “Little Praise Party” series of compact disc and DVD song collections caught on so well that she has, with able assistance from Christian music stars Jaci Velasquez and Nic Gonzales (two of the “amigos”), translated some of them into Spanish. Thus was born Pequena Fiesta de Alabanza. This Spanish-language collection will certainly satisfy its intended demographic. It contains fifteen short, punchy songs bursting with ...

Various Artists When I Reach That Heavenly Shore: Unearthly Black Gospel 1926-1936 Tompkins Square (released December 9, 2014) www.tompkinssquare.com By Bob Marovich Tompkins Square continues its stretch of quality black sacred music reissues with the three-CD When I Reach That Heavenly Shore: Unearthly Black Gospel 1926-1936. Using 1926 as a starting point is not a random decision. That year saw the release of debut recordings by two seminal artists: Church of God in Christ powerhouse Arizona Dranes (who has already received a handsome Tompkins Square retrospective) and Baptist minister Rev. J. M. Gates of Atlanta, who became a bestselling recording ...

Fred Hammond I Will Trust RCA Inspiration (release date: November 17, 2014) www.rcainspiration.com By Bob Marovich One thing’s for sure: listen to Fred Hammond and you can’t help but have a good time praising the Lord. His latest album, I Will Trust, is packed to the CD’s brim with bracing musicianship, creative melodies and arrangements, rich singing, and demonstrative lyrics. The opening selection, “Festival of Praise,” could easily have been an alternate title for the CD, as the entire album is a musical festival, a cornucopia of praise and worship, Fred Hammond style. Hammond shifts effortlessly from an appropriately Brazilian ...

Various Artists Motown Christmas Motown Gospel (2014) www.motowngospel.com By Bob Marovich Motown Christmas is the best yuletide album I have listened to in years.  Gifted executive producer Aaron W. Lindsey (who also plays, writes, and sings on the album) seamlessly blends the old and the new with the sacred and secular to create an overall vibe that feels cozy and familiar. First off, the duet couplings are inspired. For example, Kierra Sheard (gospel) and Chrisette Michele (pop) give “Angels We Have Heard On High” a beautifully traditional reading while injecting just enough of their own vocal personalities to make it ...