Amazing Grace – New Converted Voices of Tupelo, Mississippi

New Converted Voices of Tupelo, Mississippi
Amazing Grace
Myleshouse Music (released July 9, 2024)

By Robert M. Marovich

On their latest offering, Amazing Grace, the New Converted Voices of Tupelo, Mississippi, sing with a confidence that confirms their veteran status in the music business.

The album is a family affair. Lead singer Tobie Blanch not only dedicates the mid-tempo title track to his late father, but pays an even higher compliment to him by opening the album and introducing the song with a two-minute snippet from a crackly 1968 single of his father’s Blue Star Juniors singing “Amazing Grace.” Joining his father on the Statue side is Blanch’s sister Irene Mabry and recently-deceased brother, Larry P. Middlebrook. The side may have been recorded in ’68 but it sounds twenty years older in style.

Blanch’s nephew, the silky-voiced Sedarian Berry, leads the mellow “Count on Him,” a paean to the Lord’s constancy. “Take Care of It All,” written and led by another nephew, Lamar Mabry, concludes that no matter how many problems we endure on earth, the Lord will take care of it all when we cross “the separation line.” There will be “no more crying, no more suffering” because there will be no more sickness, senseless killing, or general lack of respect. Amen to that.

Eschatology figures prominently on other tracks, as well. “Trying So Hard,” an instruction manual on how to make it to one’s eternal home, moves to the same medium-drive tempo as “Amazing Grace,” and has a similarly bluesy vamp tagged onto it. “Promise Land,” which the group recorded originally in 1993 and now features Blanch’s second cousin, Minister Darius Brown, is a prayer for heavenly assistance to get to the pearly gates. This new version has an appropriately contemporary rhythm section.

The album finishes with “Just a Little Talk,” a languid, organ-drenched, and downright countrified version of Cleavant Derricks Sr.’s classic gospel song. It’s here where the quartet’s harmonies impress the best. In true form, they add what Derricks’ original didn’t have—a vamp.

Four of Five Stars

Picks: “Amazing Grace,” “Trying So Hard”