“Trust In You” Anthony Brown & Group TherAPy From the forthcoming album A Long Way from Sunday www.tyscot.com Anthony Brown & Group TherAPy burst onto the gospel scene in 2012 with their self-titled album for Tyscot, but really raked in the accolades with their second album, Everyday Jesus.  It took home ten trophies at the 2016 Stellar Awards, including State Farm Song of the Year for “Worth.” The group just released “Trust in You,” the first single from its forthcoming next album, A Long Way from Sunday. The Brown-penned single doesn’t waste any time getting its message of faith across. Within a couple ...

“Step Back, Watch God Move” Minister R. L. Taylor and the Sons of the Father Independent (release date: November 1, 2015) www.cdbaby.com/Artist/MinisterRLTaylorandtheSonsofth A song that just aches for quartet choreography. To a loping backbeat, “Step Back, Watch God Move” teaches that when problems get too tough for you to handle, just let God take over. The chorus hook, “step back, just wait, and watch God move,” offers an ideal pantomime opportunity for the Sons of the Father to do in live performance, especially at the end of the song, when the group and Minister Taylor engage in some slightly syncopated ...

“How Deep the Father’s Love for Us” Out of the Dust Discovery House Music (release date: March 7, 2017) www.outofthedustmusic.com I’m inclined to think that English songwriter Stuart Townend is a nineteenth-century hymnist reincarnated. His 1995 composition, “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us,” as covered by the husband-and-wife duo Out of the Dust on their self-titled debut album, sounds like it comes straight outta the Southern Harmony, a shaped-note hymnal, or a Shaker hymnbook. Its beautiful simplicity, honored by Chris and Stephanie Teague’s delicate reading, makes it a keeper, suitable for singing in all types of worship services and ...

“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 ...

“It Could Have Been Me” Dorothy Norwood feat. Dorinda Clark-Cole From the Echo Park JDI album An Incredible Journey Available on iTunes, Amazon.com The old-school hand-clapper “It Could Have Been Me” brings together Dorothy Norwood and Dorinda Clark-Cole, two female vocalists representing two different generations but equally powerful when it comes to singing the glory down. The two are “grateful to God to still be “in the land of the living,” because at any point, they declare, it could have gone very differently. And as the hook expresses, “other people have been through what I’ve been through and they didn’t make ...

“Outpour” Lynn McCree featuring Judah 1st www.igaraa.com/lynn-mccree.html Songs that open with hushed piano and vocal never fail to get my attention. Lynn McCree’s “Outpour” got my attention. It’s a lovely ballad, lovingly sung, a prayer closet pleading to the Lord for a pouring out of blessings. “Pour out your joy / I don’t want to cry no more,” McCree and her Judah 1st singers express. The song is as passionate and delicate as the blessings they seek, and it feels as if it could even extend beyond its 3:42 length. The production expertly focuses on the singing, with the piano taking a secondary but ...

“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 ...

“When I Stopped Playing with Jesus” LaTonya Earl (private release, 2014) To purchase a copy, email Latonyaearl1@gmail.com Houston gospel singer LaTonya Earl gets transparent on “When I Stopped Playing with Jesus.” After “playing with,” or not fully accepting, the Lord, Earl “plants her feet” in church and sees the light. She cleverly interpolates the gospel hymns “I Saw the Light” and “Jesus, the Light of the World” to reaffirm her conversion message. The handclapping rhythm and whirling organ give the song a traditional feel, and a call-and-response with the background vocalists is like a quartet vamp, but an R&B bounce throughout ...

“God’s FreqWincey” Wincey From God’s FreqWincey (released in 2015) www.winceycomusic.com On her new single, “God’s FreqWincey,” Wincey Terry-Bryant plays off her first name to testify about how prayer gives her a clearer focus on her past, present, and future. The song has a breezy California vibe and Wincey’s singing has the light touch of fellow Newark native Dionne Warwick. Wincey has healthy doses of performing experience, having worked in the television and film industries, and even recorded with jazz great Grover Washington Jr. Being on “God’s FreqWincey” certainly enables Wincey to do plenty of important work. She runs a nonprofit called Nanababies ...

“My Brothers” Brotha Mike From the EP Second Chance (released December 2016) www.cdbaby.com/cd/brothamike1 Gospel music is made for such a time as this. On “My Brothers,” Detroit’s Brotha Mike defends those who haven’t had the same opportunities as others and those who deserve a second chance. “They didn’t make us,” he sings, “so they can’t break us.” As a saxophone wails and the arrangement gets progressively bluesier, Brotha Mike moves from empathy to encouragement: “Keep your head high / You don’t have to look down.” By the end, he is enjoining everyone to come together “to make a better world.” ...