The Showers – (self titled)

The Showers
The Showers
A&P Records/Habakkuk Music/INgrooves (release date: April 21, 2015)
www.theshowers.org

By Bob Marovich

The Showers is the national debut album for the Showers Family of Hammond, Louisiana, siblings who have been singing together since knee pants and recording since 2009.

The octet pulled out all the stops, too, inking a distribution deal with Habakkuk Records and signing an all-star lineup of producers, notably Bruce Robinson, Deon Kipping, Myron Butler, and Dave Geeter. Robinson and Kipping also contributed many of the album’s songs, as did gospel singer Regina Skeeters. Butler assists with vocal production on the punchy “Praise Your Way Through,” the song that landed the Showers on Bobby Jones Gospel and paved the way for the group’s national exposure.

What you hear starting with the opening track, appropriately titled “Immediately,” are close, creamy harmonies that only a family group with years of experience singing together can create. The harmonies are complemented by demonstrative lead vocals from several family members who sometimes trade lead duties within a song.

The best, most buoyant selections come during the first half of the CD. This includes the aforementioned “Immediately” and the group’s hit single, “Better,” a song of optimism and change cloaked inside a prayer. A version of “Better,” featuring Canton Jones, is available digitally. “Fighter” has a thick, insistent beat that is appropriate to its tale of a prayer warrior fighting for victory over sin.

The album’s arrangements have a pop sensibility reminiscent of BeBe and CeCe Winans and fellow Louisianans foreverJONES—fresh and bright, eternally optimistic, and holding a persistent belief that change will come, things will get better, as long as you call upon God.

Note: Check out JGM’s recent interview with Regina Showers.

Four of Five Stars

Picks: “Better,” “Immediately.”