Dr. Claybon Lea, Jr. – It’s About Time

Dr. Claybon Lea, Jr.
It’s About Time
4 Leavites Entertainment Group (2011)
www.claybonlea.com

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.

It’s About Time is a great tongue-in-cheek title for a debut CD, especially for an artist such as Dr. Claybon Lea, Jr., who until now had set aside his solo singing career in favor of being a musician and preacher.

On the album, you discover that when Lea is not at the pulpit or the piano, he has a rich and resonant baritone singing voice not unlike BeBe Winans on the sacred side and Peabo Bryson on the secular side. “You Press On,” for example, is a lovely ballad of encouragement and determination that Lea sings with sizable passion. He croons on “I Have a Plan,” an acoustic ballad that benefits from the sweet vocal assistance of Niya Cotton.

Although the album’s dozen tracks cycle through P&W, contemporary and traditional gospel, Lea shines brightest as a traditional singer. He delivers “At the Name of Jesus” with a preacher’s practiced cadence and pacing, singing and testifying to send the saints into fits. The recording engineer could have kept the tape rolling, because at the fade, Pastor Lea was clearly still enveloped in the spirit. “Think and Thank (Having Church)” is a live sermonic moment, the fever pitch high among the congregants. “I’m Still Here” is a hand-clapping quartet style rouser that also falls within the traditional category.

 The single, “We Worship You,” is a super-charged P&W anthem, a style popular on the radio these days.

It’s About Time offers a variety of sacred styles (check out the R&B treatment given C.A. Tindley’s “Stand By Me”), but Dr. Claybon Lea, Jr.’s sweet spot is traditional singing. For his sophomore release, he should consider a live album of exclusively traditional songs, or contemporary songs sung in the traditional style. It would raise the rafters.

Three of Five Stars

Picks: “At the Name of Jesus.”