Lee Williams & the Spiritual QCs – Living on the Lord’s Side

Lee Williams & the Spiritual QCs
Living on the Lord’s Side
MCG Records (2011)
www.mcgrecords.com

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.

Lee Williams has turned flatfooted gospel quartet singing into an art form.

Not moving, not even cracking a smile, Williams nevertheless delivers a song with such power that congregants spill into the church aisles, lifting their arms in praise to the Almighty and dancing in the spirit.

Williams is, quite simply, a preacher in a quartet uniform.

So, too, are the other Spiritual QCs. On their new live CD and companion DVD, Living on the Lord’s Side, the group is all no-nonsense gospel singing, and yet they move the audience assembled at Atlanta’s Greater Travelers Rest Baptist Church as if they were running the aisles.

The project reprises Spiritual QCs favorites, including ”I’ve Learned to Lean” and “Good Time,” the former an exceptional up-tempo tour de force with Williams preaching in song during the vamp. The latter, arranged in the traditional gospel blues structure, lives up to its title, celebrating the good times when you “get Jesus on your mind.” “Good Time” was the obvious crowd pleaser, as a growing number of ladies in brightly-colored dresses moved to the front of the church to throw sacred shapes as the quartet sang.

Former Spiritual QC Willie Legon made a guest appearance to sing “Call Him,” a hypnotic selection on which the emotional intensity crept up on the crowd like the product of a well-honed prayer band.

The DVD offers the program in continuity, giving viewers not only a front row seat to the performance, but also an eyeful of the beautiful Travelers Rest Baptist Church. Both DVD and CD are well produced by Jerry Peters and the Gospel Four’s George Dean for James Bullard and MCG.

Four of Five Stars

Picks: “I’ve Learned to Lean,” “Good Time.”