Bob

From Bob Merz:Philadelphia, PA – Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the pioneering gospel musician and instrumentalist, finally has a gravestone marking her resting place at Northwood Cemetery in Philadelphia.Since her passing in 1973, the gravesite of Sister Rosetta had been a barren plot lacking any memorial. Today, a beautiful, rose-colored monument bears [...]

100% Cotton: The Family Pack Volume 1The Cotton Family100% Cotton Ministries 2001Ever wonder what happened to the Cotton Brothers? The quartet whose independently recorded single, “Remember Me, O Lord,” received so much attention in the early 1960s (including from Otis Redding) that the group landed a recording contract with Don [...]

“Hope Is Born”Desmond PringleFrom the forthcoming CD Fidelity (scheduled release: Spring 2009)www.desmondpringle.com“We’ve already won/Look at how far we’ve come/Let’s fully embrace/This change that is taking place.”From the opening lines, Desmond Pringle’s “Hope is Born” is more than a canticle of personal empowerment. The song resonates with the excitement and anticipation [...]

“Just Once.” “One Hundred Ways.” “Baby, Come to Me.” “Somewhere Out There.” Unless you’re Rip Van Winkle and slept through the Eighties and Nineties, chances are you’ve heard one or all of these songs by Grammy Award-winning balladeer James Ingram. Ingram’s instantly recognizable crooning melts butter on contact. On January [...]

TBGB congratulates Pastor Marvin Sapp. His "Never Would Have Made It" tops the Associated Press' best songs list of 2008.Writes AP Music Writer Nekesa Mumbi Moody (Dec. 12, 2008):"If you want to create a mix-tape of the year's best songs, here are the must-haves for 2008."1. "Never Would Have Made [...]

AwesomeThe Voices of PromiseIMOK Gospel Music 2008www.imokgospelmusic.comThe Voices of Promise. It’s a perfect name for a youth choir. But they could also have been dubbed the Voices of Surprise. The youth choir, which hails from The St. Mary Church of God in Christ in Brooklyn, New York, was a concept [...]

Brian Courtney WilsonJust LoveSpirit Rising Music/Music World Entertainment 2008www.musicworldentertainment.comFrom Matthew Knowles, father and manager of world-famous daughters Beyonce and Solange, and producer of gospel superstars Trin-I-Tee 5:7, comes Just Love, the debut album by soulful gospel balladeer Brian Courtney Wilson. Wilson, a Chicagoan now living in Houston, and not to [...]

Bishop Paul S. Morton presents the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship Mass Choir Cry Your Last Tear Tehillah Music Group/Light Records 2008 www.lightrecords.com Browsing through the music bins, one might think Cry Your Last Tear, with a photo of Bishop Paul S. Morton dominating the front cover, is a new [...]

Pastor Gregg Patrick (currently moving up the charts with his hit single "I Am A Witness"), celebrates at his home with friends Clifton Davis, Felicia Young (Tennesse Titans Quarterback Vince Young's mom) and Shawn McLemore.Earlier in the day, Patrick made a large donation to the NFL Mother's Association to feed [...]

“Did It All For Me”Aaron SledgeFrom the CD Da LightSky High Entertainment 2007www.myspace.com/skyhighdalightAs I mentioned in my review of Chicagoan Aaron Sledge’s full project Da Light, “Did It All For Me” is a fine piece of pop-gospel songwriting. It’s so good, you’ll swear you’ve heard it before...a sure sign of [...]