TBGB Pick of the Week: August 8, 2011

“He Didn’t Have to Do It”
Carla Tolbert Taylor
From the EP He Didn’t Have to Do It
Available at http://www.cduniverse.com/

Memphian Carla Tolbert Taylor and her background vocalists put on their shouting shoes and offer up some good old-fashioned church on “Didn’t Have to Do It.” It is, for all intents and purposes, an old-school medley anchored by “When I Think of the Goodness of Jesus” (aka “Thank God for Saving Me.”). Taylor sings, shouts and ends with a gospel-bluesy run evocative of Dottie Peoples and Evelyn Turrentine-Agee.

There’s so much Pentecost in Taylor’s delivery, it’s no surprise she was once a soloist for the late Presiding Bishop G.E. Patterson of the Church of God in Christ…and that she was the National Winner of the 2008 Allstate Gospel Superfest Opening Act Contest.