Journal of Gospel Music Editor-in-Chief Bob Marovich has written the definitive history of gospel music from Chicago, the genre's birthplace. Available from the University of Illinois Press starting in April 2015. Read more here: UI Press | Robert Marovich | A City Called Heaven: Chicago and the Birth of Gospel Music. [...]
Rev. Joe Williams informed the Journal of Gospel Music yesterday of the passing of Charles Johnson. Johnson was a gospel quartet singer and recording artist who worked with the Sensational Nightingales and Gospel Consolators, and fronted his own group, Charles Johnson & the Revivers. Johnson died of a massive heart [...]
“The Greater” J. Grant Thompson Available on iTunes and other digital outlets on October 7, 2014 “The Greater” is the debut single from Washington, DC singer, songwriter, producer, and PK J. Grant Thompson. A notable debut it is. It is the gorgeous arrangement that imbues this lyrically and musically uncomplicated [...]
Minister C.L. Johnson Favor Doowgam Records (2011) http://wreg.weebly.com/index.html By Bob Marovich Given Minister Craig L. Johnson’s career as a member of several gospel quartets, most notably the Pilgrim Wonders of Toledo, the Revelations of Cincinnati and, most recently, his reformation of the Flint Cavaliers, it’s not surprising his solo album, [...]
Nash Shaffer, Jr. By Bob Marovich Bro. Nash Shaffer’s friends and loved ones said he needed no special invitation to sit in the front row of a gospel musical or service. He would proceed to the front of the church, choose his seat, and sit down. In his [...]
Swanee Quintet returns to Augusta for 75th anniversary show | The Augusta Chronicle.
The New Converted Voices New Day - Live in Tupelo, MS (2014) www.newconvertedvoices.org By Bob Marovich “You may have come in with your head hung down, but you go ahead and lift it up and smile.” This is how the New Converted Voices opens the title track of their new [...]
“It’s Our Time” Dr. Vera Goodman & Anointed Praise First Lady Productions (2014) Anointedpraise2011@yahoo.com The ensemble from Jacksonville, Florida, that gave us the flowing, dramatic “I Believe” offers “It’s Our Time,” a tough-talking staccato declaration of war on the devil. “He don’t fight fair, but we ain’t scared,” the group [...]
Malope to mesmerise Macufe | The New Age Online.
Various Artists The Best of Revelation Records: 1959-1962 Narro Way Records (released September 16, 2014) www.cityhallrecords.com www.gospelfriend.com By Bob Marovich Mention the name Bobby Robinson to popular music historians, and you will hear how he founded a number of New York-based record labels, including Whirling Disc, Fury, Enjoy, and Red [...]
