“Just What He Said”Joel BrileyClark Music Group (2013)www.cdbaby.com/cd/joelbrileyTwenty-two-year-old Joel Briley may be a praise and worship singer for The Love Center Church in Dunn, North Carolina, but on “Just What He Said,” he demonstrates the vocal prowess of a hard quartet lead. This single about God making a way out [...]
By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog. Much has happened since TBGB last checked in with Pastor Charles Jenkins of Fellowship Chicago a year ago. Along with the choir’s performance at the 2013 Stellar Gospel Music Awards last January, the group was one of the two most honored artists [...]
Mr. DelFaith WalkaDMG/Universal Christian Music Group (release date: June 18, 2013)www.mrdel.comBy Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel BlogMemphian Mr. Del, born Delmar Lawrence, is a former member of the Three 6 Mafia, the first African American rap group to win an Oscar for Best Original Song (“It’s Hard Out Here [...]
David Wright & the DW ProjectHeavenGodfather Records (2011)By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel BlogAnother ensemble featuring the progeny of gospel royalty is David Wright and the DW Project. Wright’s father, Godfather of Gospel Music Rev. Timothy Wright, met an untimely end in April 2009, the result of a tragic [...]
The McCrary SistersAll the WayMcC Records (released April 30, 2013)www.mccrarysisters.netBy Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel BlogThe acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree, as the saying goes.In the McCrary Sisters’ case, the spark doesn’t travel far from the flame.The sisters—Ann, Deborah, and Regina McCrary and Alfreda McCrary Lee—come from [...]
TBGB provides more info on this year's Chicago Gospel Music Festival. Click here: Gospel Fest.
“Release Me”Hope Askew (2013)www.cdbaby.com/cd/hopeaskew32“Release Me” is a pleasant, satisfying contemporary ballad from Hope Askew of Portsmouth, Virginia, who sings about being an empty vessel that seeks filling from the Most High. “I’ve tried the pleasures of this world, but the hurt still remains.” In a voice brimming with honesty and authenticity, [...]
Erica ReedSold OutEden Recordswww.ericareed.orgBy Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel BlogSold Out, the latest full-length CD from St. Louis gospel singer (and restaurateur) Erica Reed, traverses some of the same musical and lyric territory as her 2009 offering, The Time is Now. Once again, Reed sings urban AC melodies in [...]
“Worshiper In Me”Javen feat. Jonathan NelsonFrom the forthcoming Tyscot CD Worship in the Now - Livewww.tyscot.comPraise leaders Javen and Jonathan Nelson form a strong duo on "Worshiper In Me," an elegant, well-developed P&W piece about tapping into the worshiper inside. The graceful melody backed ably by smooth background vocalists is [...]
To Do This, You Must Know How: Music Pedagogy in the Black Gospel Quartet TraditionLynn Abbott and Doug SeroffUniversity Press of Mississippi, 458 pages, illus.www.upress.state.ms.usBy Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel BlogVenerable gospel music historians Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff decant the contents of their sizable notebooks into To Do This, [...]
