Donald Malloy Live: Finally Home (2012) www.donaldmalloyministries.com By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog. There’s something about old-fashioned, good-time gospel music that alleviates troubles by its very presence.  It does not need complex, mind-altering, or heavy riffing to ease the burdens. That’s what Donald Malloy’s sixth CD, Live: Finally Home, is about.  Offering a live performance in his hometown of Cheraw, South Carolina, Malloy gives traditional gospel just enough of a beat to keep in step with the times.  Stellar Award-winning Isaiah D. Thomas produced the album and wrote and arranged some of the songs. Malloy gets the audience ...

  The Virginia Aires Live Dove Records, Inc. (2009) href=”http://www.myspace.com/thevirginiaaires”>www.myspace.com/thevirginiaaires By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog The last time TBGB reported on the Virginia Aires was in 2008, when the Chesapeake, Virginia quartet was waging war on drugs with their single, “Drugs are a Trick of the Enemy.”  Their cautionary tale about addiction as a devil’s deal had a hopeful ending: “You’re gonna be free.” The single is included on the Virginia Aires’ recent CD, Live.  Recorded at TCC Roper Performing Arts Center in Norfolk, Live includes another warning song, “Part Time Christian.”  In a retreading of the “what’s ...

  Wincey Time to Say Winceyco Music (2012) www.winceycomusic.com By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog. “I’m musically inclined to sing the songs that glorify.” So croons singer-songwriter Wincey Terry-Bryant on the title track of her self-produced Time to Say, an album she began recording in 2008. The songs, she writes on her website, were birthed out of a time of “heartbreaks and disappointments in and out of the music industry” that led to a disillusionment that sounds straight out of Emily Dickinson: “Resigning myself to accept the consolation prize that I considered to be my life.”  Wincey continued to ...

Charles Jenkins & Fellowship Chicago The Best of Both Worlds EMI Gospel/Inspired People (2012) www.emigospel.com By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog. It could not have been easy for Charles Jenkins to succeed the iconic Rev. Dr. Clay Evans as Pastor of Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago. Evans, a Civil Rights leader and founder of “The Ship,” had taken his church from very humble roots to one of the nation’s most significant religious institutions. Fellowship’s radio choir was no less celebrated than the church it represented. Directed at the beginning by Willie Webb and later by Evans’ sister, ...

Preashea Hilliard Live Out Loud Blacksmoke Music Worldwide (2010) www.preshmusic.com To Preashea Hilliard, “LOL” means Live Out Loud. And loud – in energy, enthusiasm, volume and message – is exactly what her debut project, Live Out Loud, exudes. The Houstonian vocalist is the youngest daughter of Bishop I.V. and Lady Bridget Hilliard of Houston’s New Light Church, where the CD was recorded live in April 2010. Preashea smartly assembles songs from talented writers such as Deitrick Haddon, Israel Houghton and Kurt Carr, and contributes a few of her own compositions, to create an impressive debut album, produced by Grammy Award-winning ...

Chris Jasper Invincible Gold City Records (2007) http://www.goldcitymusic.com/ Reviewed by Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog. Some deliver the Word with fire and brimstone, others with flatfooted, melismatic vocal power, and yet others with honey-sweetness so the message goes down easy. Chris Jasper falls into the latter category. On Invincible, the former member of the R&B group Isley-Jasper-Isley and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee bathes messages of hope, faith, encouragement and reliance on the Almighty in the cool, sweet soul that was the soundtrack of the mid-1980s. For example, on “A New Life in Christ,” Jasper exhorts ...

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 ...

Kassandra McGhee Completely (2007) http://www.mypower4living.com/ Singer-songwriter Kassandra McGhee of Forest Park, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago, has sung background or shared the stage with such notable contemporary gospel and praise and worship artists such as Edwin Hawkins, Phil Tarver and Vanessa Dukes of the Brown Sisters. Not surprisingly, given McGhee’s performance experience and service as a praise and worship leader, her self-produced debut CD Completely is an assemblage of P&W songs she composed. Her sweet, breathy soprano reminds me of Deniece Williams, who started singing gospel as a member of the COGIC church in Gary, Indiana before moving into ...

Frontlynaz Game Over Frontlynaz, Inc. 2008 www.frontlynaz.com Say what you will about Holy Hip Hop, but the Stellar-nominated HHH group Frontlynaz spits rhymes and drops beats with the power and urgency of a brakeless freight train. Their Game Over grabbed my attention and held it with clenched fists from beginning to end. Captivating and compelling, Frontlynaz has a lot to say about today’s state of affairs and how grace can transform a person from spiraling downward to an upwardly mobile (i.e., positive, not materialistic) life that means something and is, in itself, transformative. Just as importantly, the album dresses the ...