Pianist Eric Scott Reed informed TBGB that composer and conductor Dr. Wesley A. Boyd, formerly of the Richard Smallwood Singers and founder of the Wesley Boyd Gospel Music Workshop, died Sunday, October 4, 2009.Funeral Arrangements for Dr. Boyd will be held Monday, October 12th at 10:00 am at the Union [...]
Shirley SmithIn Hymn I TrustThe Sirens Records 2009www.thesirensrecords.comIn Hymn I Trust, singer-pianist Shirley Smith’s debut recording for The Sirens Records, is a sweet album of sing-along hymns and congregational gospel songs straight from the proverbial little wooden church on the hill. Raised in Detroit, Smith can play and sing in [...]
“I Feel Like Going On”Marvin L. WinansFrom the World Wide Gospel albumThe Gospel Music Celebration, Part I: Tribute to Bishop G.E. Patterson www.gospeltruthmagazine.comAfter a grand flourish from a Hammond B3, Marvin Winans delivers “I Feel Like Going On,” a lovely and powerful traditional gospel song in memory of COGIC Bishop [...]
Gospel singer Jerry Boose took time from a busy schedule, including pastoring a Toledo, Ohio church and serving as a fireman, to tell TBGB about his gospel group, First Creation.Boose organized First Creation in Toledo during the mid-1980s. “I had been singing around Toledo all my life, in different choirs [...]
Micah StampleyRansomedInterface Entertainment/Central South Distribution 2009www.micahstampley.orgI first became acquainted with praise and worship singer Micah Stampley when he crooned the soothing “Take My Life” on T.D. Jakes’ 2004 He-Motions project (EMI Gospel/Dexterity Sounds). The components of this single – silky smooth, warm and impassioned singing; lovely, uncomplicated melodies; and gently [...]
Carl Whittaker & Exhortation Afterwhile BOG Records 2009 www.bogrecords.biz “I am Elder Abraham Isaac Jacob Swanson the Twelfth.” Yes, it is THE Pastor Abraham Swanson XII who introduces Carl Whittaker and Exhortation during the opening moments of the group's Afterwhile, a full-length live recording from Pastor Swanson’s historic Bibleway COGIC [...]
on winning "Song of the Year" at the Gospel Choice Awards in Atlanta last night!
Leah SmithBeautifully Made EP (Release Date: October 21, 2009)www.myspace.com/leahsmithmusic1Earlier this month, TBGB reviewed the title track of twenty year-old singer/songwriter Leah Smith’s forthcoming EP, Beautifully Made. We had a chance to hear the entire six-song project from the former Israel & New Breed vocalist, and find it every bit as [...]
“I Love the Lord”Phillip Carter & SOVFrom Songs from the Storm (2009)www.sovministries.comOn “I Love the Lord,” Phillip Carter & his fifteen-member ensemble SOV from Maryland combine “Amazing Grace” with a couple of standard Doc Watts congregational songs. Instead of lining them out like wizened Baptist deacons, however, they deliver them [...]
“Free”Restine Jackson From the Wondrous World Records album Live at Living Waters (2007)www.restinejackson.comOn “Free,” multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Elder Restine Jackson and his group sing and rap about the joy of having the shackles of sin removed, all to a happy, chugging beat that is urban with a dash of [...]
