“You Should Have Been There” Virginia Aires www.VirginiaAires.com The Virginia Aires’s new single is a mid-tempo rouser with a backbeat that exudes the sheer joy of personal salvation. The before and after effects of being saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost is a familiar narrative in gospel music. It nearly always receives the spirited vocal and musical treatment that the Virginia Aires employ, and for good reason.  When “your feet get light,” it’s no time for contemplation or drama. About midway through the vamp, the quartet shifts from the personal to the communal, asking how many in the ...

Carla Martin One Word The Cloud Music (2014) http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/carlamartin1 By Bob Marovich Although Carla Martin has been singing for the better part of ten years, One Word is her debut album. Martin possesses a pleasant, power pop alto with a tight vibrato and the ability to get down into Toni Braxton’s lowest register when necessary. All songs on the CD are original compositions written by Martin and her producer, Larry Wilson.  Although the album opens and closes with high-energy praise songs energized by thumping drums, roaring guitars, and waves of electronica, Martin shines best on the tracks in the middle ...

Tonya Lewis-Taylor Delayed but Not Denied EARS Entertainment Group (2014) www.tonyalewistaylor.com By Bob Marovich Tonya Lewis-Taylor may be the most generous gospel artist when it comes to sharing the microphone with others. On her mostly live debut solo CD, Delayed but Not Denied, the former background singer for pop artists and one-time publicist for Roc-a-Fella Records (Jay Z, Kanye West) solicits solo turns from each background vocalist, her children, her youngest (Jaden), her mother, and, for all I know, even total strangers. Most of the solos occur during extended pieces “The Great I Am” and especially during the twelve-plus-minute “Holding ...

“Alright” Tony Mclendon From the forthcoming The Music Church CD I’m a Winner Available on iTunes Taking his cue from a snippet of the vamp from Kool and the Gang’s “Ladies Night,” Tony Mclendon, along with a party of equally enthusiastic supporters and a relentless disco beat, offer up spiritual reassurance that “I got a feeling everything’s gonna be all right.” No heavy religious content, no deep theosophy, just a feel good reminder that “He never let you down” so hang loose and don’t give yourself an ulcer worrying about your problems. McLendon is pursuing the family business. His parents, ...

“My Son” Okey Sokay From the forthcoming Orangeville Music album Revealed https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/my-son-single/id1042589852 This week’s pick takes us to the Ebonyi State of Nigeria and an artist named Okechukwu Dickson, who goes by the stage name of Okey Sokay. “My Son” is a tuneful, piano-driven solo on God’s fatherly compassion, written in an American contemporary gospel style and sung in English. If you “open up the door to your heart,” sings Okey Sokay in the guise of the Lord God, “I will never let you fall, I’ll catch you…because I love you…I know how you feel right now, but I promise ...

By Bob Marovich Gospel music has been an international phenomenon for more than sixty years, enjoyed in nearly every corner of the world. This includes Western Australia, where the Joyful Noise Gospel Choir will present Gospel Music @ the Rocks #2.  The program (above) will take place November 7, 2015, at the Quarry Amphitheater in City Beach, a beautiful suburb of Perth.  I can’t think of a more lovely place to be than Perth in November, when Australia will be reveling in late springtime weather. Incidentally, music runs in the DNA for event producer Jade-Lori Haggis (below, left).  Her father, Clarence ...

Alexis Spight Dear Diary Uncle G Records / eOne Music (2015) www.unclegpromo.com By Bob Marovich On the opening track of her new album, Dear Diary, the blazingly red haired Alexis Spight declares she comes from the old church and commences to sing a medley of congregation classics as an “old school song with a new school twang.” From there, however, Dear Diary offers mostly new school twang, with modern beats and instrumentation, flashes and chortles of electronica, and percussive piano quarter notes as intros on a few tracks. The instrumentation, in fact, is as much of a presence on the ...

Appointed2 This Journey (2014) www.appointed2.com By Bob Marovich Husband-and-wife music evangelists Randy and Amy Nichols are part of a tradition going back nearly a century, and perhaps longer. The difference is that back in the day, evangelists sang and played stringed instruments on street corners. The Nichols’s, known as Appointed2, perform at pulpits and on stages, just as they did at the recent Rhythm of Gospel Awards, where they took home two honors, including CCM Artist of the Year. Their ten-track, thirty-minute album This Journey provides a flavor for Appointed2’s down home evangelism. Again, like their forebears, Randy and Amy ...

Sue Roseberry Magnificent God (2013) www.sueroseberry.com By Bob Marovich The notes from the Hammond B3 sounded like Reveille in the morning fog. The organ’s beckoning warble at the opening of track six, “I’m Blessed,” was a sign that we were about to hear the “Mama Sue” Roseberry of BET Sunday Best fame, the solid singer who successfully portrayed her inspiration, Mahalia Jackson, on the stage. That’s not to take away from the handful of songs preceding “I’m Blessed” on Roseberry’s live album, Magnificent God, recorded at the 2013 Gospel Music Workshop of America Board Meeting. They are professionally produced expressions ...

“The Story of Love” 6th Day Made www.6thdaymade.com Wonder what U2 would sound like as a Christian rock band? Look no further than “The Story of Love” by 6th Day Made. Mark Maggard’s thickly layered guitar, Jason Eaton’s tenor vocals hurled skyward, and the marching band rhythm of Randy Healy and Jeff Trent bring the Dublin dynamos vividly to mind. Lyrically, the Michigan band paints a portrait of love as arms stretched outward on a cross and offers an apocryphal message by imploring the listener to “let the world hear, let the world know….it won’t be long.” This is the ...