Robert E. Person Classic Covers (EP) REP Music (release date: June 1, 2018) www.roberteperson.com By Bob Marovich Washington DC singer Robert E. Person has peppered his previous projects with songs representing a variety of genres. His latest release, Classic Covers, is more of a jazz than a sacred EP, though it includes his very fine recent single, a collaboration with Richard Smallwood on the latter’s 1989 “I Give You Praise.” Among the classic covers Person offers are the Stylistics’ social commentary piece “People Make the World Go Round,” and “My Favorite Things,” from The Sound of Music. Both benefit from deft ...

Shyne On Me Barmonies: The Long Fall (release date: December 1, 2017) https://shyneonme.bandcamp.com/album/barmonies-the-long-fall By Bob Marovich Barmonies: The Long Fall by Shyne On Me is one of those albums best listened to in its entirety than as individual tracks. On his latest project, Washington, DC-based Christian “city soul” singer and rapper Shyne On Me shares with the listener his personal journey from darkness to light. He does not leave out the temptations, discouragements, and the harsh realities of life along the way, but he reminds us that we will make it through the grace of God. The album’s opener, “Running to You,” begins as a ...

New Heart Band A Spirit Journey First Love Publishing (2017) www.newheartband.com By Bob Marovich A Spirit Journey, the independently-produced album by the New Heart Band, evokes the folk music I used to listen to on the Ozarks-based radio program Sing Out! It contains confident, laidback string band interpretations of Christian themes. The style is sometimes referred to as country gospel, a style that goes back, at least commercially, to the earliest recordings of the Carter Family. Hailing from the State of Washington, the New Heart Band consists of singer-songwriters Gregg and Elaine Christenson, producer and multi-instrumentalist Gary Ballard, singer Tina Jones, and fiddler Paul Elliott. Gregg ...

Norris Garner Don’t Stop the Praise Norris Garner Music (2015) By Bob Marovich A North Carolinan by birth but a resident of California’s Bay Area, Norris Garner is a choir man. He has written, sung with, accompanied, directed, and taught choirs at the Gospel Music Workshop of America, the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, and in Europe. So while Garner’s 2015 Don’t Stop the Praise is billed as a solo album, it features a talented background vocal ensemble that supports Garner and his guest soloists with plenty of polish. The ensemble consists of Tony and Toni McFarland with Blessed Union from ...

Patrick Lundy & the Ministers of Music By Faith New Day Distribution (release date: October 27, 2017) www.plundymom.com By Bob Marovich By Faith, the latest full-length release by Patrick Lundy & the Ministers of Music, contains the group’s finest work to date. The quality of the MOM vocalists, individually and collectively, make By Faith strong, but so does the selection of songs and songwriters. While Lundy contributes original compositions, such as “It’s On the Way,” a powerfully-rendered ballad of encouragement, other songwriters include top-shelfers V. Michael McKay (“Rest”), Byron Cage (“From the Rising”), and Stephen Manders (“Under His Wings”). The songs dip frequently into ...

By Bob Marovich The Journal of Gospel Music is saddened to hear of the passing of Kenny Taylor, one of gospel music’s finest and most professional consultants and promotional men. Kenny was someone you could trust that if he said he would do it, he would do it. Dependable, honest, and with integrity…that’s how I describe Kenny Taylor. Each year, he and his Teemade Productions of Washington, DC, would treat the Gospel Announcers Guild with a themed musical at the annual Gospel Music Workshop of America convention. He showcased the artists he was promoting but with a twist that put a ...

“No Rivals” Alyce Metallo www.AlyceMetallo.com Available at digital outlets Singing “My heart is yours / There are no rivals / You have no rivals, Jesus,” Alyce Metallo makes it clear who holds her heart for real. The pop melody is equal parts solemn and ear candy. It benefits from a soaring production courtesy of Nathan Walter, formerly of the Christian band Plus One. Metallo, a Washington, DC, singer-songwriter, wrote this song after the loss of her father, who disappeared on the snowy streets of DC for ten days and did not survive the cold.  It served as both catharsis and ...

By Bob Marovich In 1970, Evangelist Myrna Summers burst on the gospel music scene on the strength of “God Gave Me a Song,” a composition she wrote and performed with the Interdenominational Youth Choir of Washington, DC and Maryland. It was so popular, Atlantic Records handed her a recording contract. The song earned a Grammy nomination. Summers is now parlaying her more than forty years of success as a music minister to help fellow church musicians and singers understand that music ministry is “More than a Song.” “Music people, that’s where my heart is,” Summers told the Journal of Gospel ...

“Empty Me” Javon Inman www.javoninman.com Set for release on July 7, “Empty Me” is the latest single from award-winning independent gospel artist Javon Inman. Performed with background vocalists, “Empty Me” is a passionate and bracing mid-tempo ballad on which Inman cries out for divine intervention because “the plans of men,” aka a person’s own agenda, does nothing but cause problems. “I’m placing my life in your hands,” he pleads. “Empty me of me.” Inman’s high note leaps are mini shouts as the song’s dynamic tension builds. Born in Ohio but now a Washington, DC, area resident, Inman came to the ...

The Gospel Angels I Still Remember Next Level Publishing (2004) www.thegospelangelsdc.com By Bob Marovich I Still Remember has been around for more than a decade—it was released the year the Journal of Gospel Music was born, in fact—but this album by the Gospel Angels of Washington, DC, is worth revisiting because it is emblematic of how much musical fun saving souls can be. First, of the eleven tracks, five are up-tempo selections, more hip-slapping than just about any gospel quartet CD I’ve heard in a long while. One might conclude that the high percentage of “drive tempo” songs is because ...