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"View the City" -- Rizen 2003 On CD Rizen (Light Records) Their official website (www.rizen.biz) calls Michigan-born Rizen a “retro gospel girl group.” That makes perfect sense. Shades of the Caravans, Davis Sisters, Ward Singers and Gospel Harmonettes spring to mind upon hearing Rizen – Adriann and Aundrea Lewis, Kanika [...]

For a long time, gospel music and what is now termed contemporary Christian music were disparate genres. Today it seems as if each is picking up some of the qualities of the other: CCM is getting rootsier and funkier, and gospel is incorporating some of the lovely melodies that have [...]

A native of Durant, Mississippi who now serves as senior pastor of Victorious Christian Worship Center in Rockford, Illinois, Cornelius “Neal” Roberson is a talented minister, singer, songwriter, and a very funny master of ceremonies. I had the good fortune of seeing him in action a couple of times at [...]

This well-written article, posted on PopMatters (www.popmatters.com), is at once a succinct history of Golden Era gospel quartet singing and a poignant tribute to an African American migrant -- "as old-school and country as they come" who moved from Georgia to Harlem after the Second World War in search of [...]

A former member of the Grammy-nominated Gospel Hummingbirds, quartet singer Roy Tyler is going in a new direction. After a musical hiatus, Tyler is ready to reclaim his stake in gospel music. This time, his contribution is steeped in a music he calls, most appropriately, “swamp gospel.” On Three Way [...]

Turn to Hymn #... "Forgotten Hymns of the Church" featuring Vickie Woodard's Melodious Praise Gospel artist Vickie Woodard set out to celebrate the beauty of the old hymns in her latest project, Turn to Hymn #.... Her vocal tribute to these revered Christian songs is accompanied by piano, organ, and [...]

"I Believe" -- Sons of Wonder Honey-B-Recording Co. 1045 Early 60s I have heard plenty of syrupy-sweet or just plain bad versions of the gospel/country chestnut "I Believe" to make me want to abandon hope of ever fully appreciating the composition. Until recently, only Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelle's glass-shattering [...]

Week 115: "No Love is Sweeter" Echoes of Harmony ca. early 1970s (Savoy LP 14280) I could not find definitive information on the Echoes of Harmony, and that's a shame, because they are superb! If, however, this quartet is the same as the Echoes of Harmony of Jersey City, NJ [...]

Samuel Patterson, known as "Saint" Samuel Patterson, left this world for his eternal reward on Thursday evening, September 16, 2004. According to information generously supplied to me by Chicago COGIC and gospel music historian Mack Mason, Patterson was memorialized at the church he founded, St. Samuel Temple COGIC, 8749 South [...]

NOTE: Gregory Gay, the son of Donald "Preacher" Gay, wrote this brief history of the Gay Sisters, a family that gospel music historian Anthony Heilbut once wrote "is worth a longer study; they provide in microcosm a history of black migration." ################################################################################### The church and gospel music has long played [...]