Bishop Samuel R. Johnson, Sr. Presents The Sounds of Living Water: Kingdom Keepers

Bishop Samuel R. Johnson, Sr. Presents
The Sounds of Living Water
Kingdom Keepers
NSeason Records/Royalton Records (release date: February 15, 2011)
http://www.nseasonrecords.com/

Reviewed by Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.

It’s been thirty years of toiling in the musical vineyard, from writing and singing R&B (with the Determinations) to moving into the gospel music industry, but Bishop Samuel R. Johnson, Sr. is about to realize his life-long dream.

This month, the pastor and founder of Living Water World Ministries in Dayton, Ohio will release a full-length CD, Kingdom Keepers, featuring the church’s house group, The Sounds of Living Water.

Kingdom Keepers opens with the single, “The Power of God,” which features Bishop Johnson scatting in a husky, smoky preacher’s voice while the group bounces behind him. The praise song “Trust in Him” is an old-fashioned church-wrecker, led ably by Zandra Arnold. The group’s contemporary groove continues with “Through the Storm,” an evocative song about seeing the Lord in the midst of the storms of life.

Then, without warning, Kingdom Keepers makes a 180-degree turn and gives the listener whiplash with “Are You Gon’ Praise,” an urban R&B rocker with hip hop flair to make J Moss grin. It’s done well and is so decidedly different from the preceding tracks that you will think you are hearing another group entirely. In the midst of the beats, we are introduced to the project’s brightest light, female vocalist Toyana Holloway. More about her in a moment.

Shifting gears yet again to reach “the young, old, saved and unsaved,” Kingdom Keepers ladles out a sax-led Latin beat on “Pray,” then moves into a full-bodied praise song with Funkadelic-style performance attributes and the world’s shortest title: “I.” “Something in the Air,” about the rising of the spirit, changes the funk beat to an ‘80s Gap Band groove.

The Sounds of Living Water settle back into the contemporary gospel milieu towards the end of the CD with “I Wanna Be Loved,” a solo, and a well-deserved one, for Toyana Holloway. Holloway renders this love song to Jesus with a sacred sensuality that never crosses the line but gets so close as to make every man wish she was singing it to him. “I Wanna Be Loved” is not only the finest track on the CD, but one of the best gospel songs I’ve heard this new year. It’s a five-star performance that proves Holloway deserves a solo project.

Bishop Johnson and The Sounds of Living Water fare best when they work within the contemporary gospel groove, but to say that Kingdom Keepers has something for everyone – “for everyone who has an ear to hear” says Johnson – is an understatement.

Four of Five Stars

Picks: “I Wanna Be Loved,” “The Power of God,” “Trust in Him.”

P.S. Here’s a Black History Month trivia question: what does Bishop Samuel Johnson have in common with the late Miss Roberta Martin? They both enjoy riding horses.