“Never Give Up” Tasha Cobbs Leonard From the Motown Gospel CD Royalty: Live at the Ryman www.motowngospel.com By Bob Marovich Although the gospel-meets-country selections on Tasha Cobbs Leonard’s new album, Royalty: Live at the Ryman, are the most fascinating, none of them surpasses the beautiful ballad, “Never Give Up.” Leonard moves from poignant to passionate, from vulnerable to victorious, as she relates how she had her doubts with “the walls closing in” and  while “so many others gave up on me,” but “you waited for me with your arms wide open.” “Never Give Up” offers some of Leonard’s most expansive singing ...

Fisk Jubilee Singers Celebrating Fisk! (The 150th Anniversary Album) Curb (release date: August 10, 2020) www.fiskjubileesingers.org By Bob Marovich On the eve of the sesquicentennial of its founding, the Fisk Jubilee Singers have released an album more musically and culturally diverse than any of its other recordings, going back more than a century. Founded in 1871 to raise funds for a young and financially-struggling Fisk University, the Fisk Jubilee Singers toured the U.S. and Europe, ultimately raising the needed funds but also triggering a jubilee-singing phenomenon emulated by other HBCUs as well as by commercial troupes. Jubilee singers also gave ...