TBGB Pick of the Week: July 17, 2006

“On Broken Pieces”
Bishop Paul Morton and Bishop James Dixon II
From the album On Broken Pieces – A Hurricane Relief Project
Blackberry Records 2006
www.blackberryrecords.com

“On Broken Pieces” is a somber but optimistic recording about the resilience of the human spirit in the face of great tribulation – Hurricane Katrina specifically. The song has plenty of street cred: Morton’s Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church in New Orleans suffered significant and crushing damage when the levees broke.

Bishop Morton is joined by Bishop James Dixon II (Hymns to Hang On To), whose native Houston, Texas played no small role in the evacuation of the Crescent City.

“On Broken Pieces” is part of a tribute project with the same title, released this past April by Blackberry Records, from which 100 percent of the proceeds will go to help hurricane victims. But when the singer’s voice breaks a little at the end of the line, “We lost houses and banks, churches, too…even family and friends,” you are reminded of the losses that no proceeds can ever bring back.