From a press release: The National Museum of Gospel Music and Pilgrim Baptist Church invite you to join us for our holiday concert – VOICES OF CELEBRATION & THANKS 2022, hosted by your gospel sister Pam Morris! On December 10 at 7 pm, help us raise the roof during an evening of music. Artists scheduled to appear include: Bishop Leonard Scott. Jason Clayborn, Ruth La’Ontra, Young Men 4 Christ, Pilgrim Baptist Church Choir & others. Advance registration is required and space is limited. Doors open at 6:00 pm. Reservations close Wednesday, December 7. COVID-19 Protocols: Masks are strongly recommended but ...

Watch this minute-long teaser video for Amos Greer’s new single, “Joy,” featuring vocals by Malcolm Williams. The full ten-minute version of the video, directed by Zarko Angel, premieres Friday, November 18. It stars Chicago’s own Dr. LouDella Evans Reid as well as Donald “Buster” Woods, Pastor Julia Maddox, Mark Hubbard, Rev. Dr. Marshall Hatch Sr., Greer, and Woods. Look out Hollywood – Mama Lou is ready for her SAG/AFTRA card!

Best Gospel Performance/Song: • Positive Erica Campbell; Erica Campbell, Warryn Campbell & Juan Winans, songwriters • When I Pray DOE; Dominique Jones & Dewitt Jones, songwriters • Kingdom Maverick City Music & Kirk Franklin; Kirk Franklin, Jonathan Jay, Chandler Moore & Jacob Poole, songwriters • The Better Benediction PJ Morton Featuring Zacardi Cortez, Gene Moore, Samoht, Tim Rogers & Darrel Walls; PJ Morton, songwriter • Get Up Tye Tribbett; Brandon Jones, Christopher Michael Stevens, Thaddaeus Tribbett & Tye Tribbett, songwriters Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song: • God Really Loves Us (Radio Version) Crowder Featuring Dante Bowe and Maverick City Music; ...

From a Press Release: Sheila Wilson, a worship leader who had recorded with her gospel star son Bryan Andrew Wilson, passed away November 9, 2022, at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, GA. She was battling stage 4 cancer when she she suffered a cardiac arrest. She was 65 years old. Wilson was born May 25, 1957, in Danville, IL. Her father Tommy Davis was a quartet singer who grew up with B.B. King in the Mississippi delta. Her mother, Clair Bell Davis, was also a singer, so their household was full of music and church. Although she aspired to become ...

Sondra Busby We Need Your Presence Independent (release date: August 30, 2019) By Robert M. Marovich South Carolina singer Sondra Busby might be a contender for the title of “queen of the vamp.” On her 2019 album We Need Your Presence, she tags several of her songs with a quartet-style vamp, improvising with an evangelist’s zeal over repetitive lines sung by the background vocalists, which are actually Busby, multi-tracked. Among these are “The Place Where You Are Near,” “You’ve Been Good to Me,” and the title track. Busby steps right into the vamp, offering church mantras designed to rouse the ...

Brian Courtney Wilson Transitions Motown Gospel (release date: October 22, 2022) www.motowngospel.com By Robert M. Marovich On Transitions, gospel singer-songwriter Brian Courtney Wilson wraps his honeyed baritone around mostly new selections in an atmosphere set up to simulate a live impromptu jam session. Whether intentional or not, much of Transitions feels like a musical kin of Marvin Gaye’s 1971 What’s Going On, but with the aid of modern production techniques. Not only does Wilson’s vocal delivery evoke Gaye’s earnest crooning, but the loping rhythm of “All I Can Say” and the bongo-like percussion at the opening of “Monday’s Pain” and ...

Brent Jones Nothing Else Matters (Instead of Complaining, Praise Him) JDI Entertainment (release date: October 7, 2022) By Robert M. Marovich Recorded at Greater Bethel Cathedral in Los Angeles, Nothing Else Matters (Instead of Complaining, Praise Him) finds singer-songwriter Brent Jones completely at ease in the live environment, interacting with the audience, kidding around with the Best Life Choir, exhorting excitedly one minute, somberly devout the next. If there is a JDI Entertainment style, and I argue there is, it’s a pleasant R&B bounce with call-and-response between lead and choir, and lyrics built on catchy church aphorisms. Nowhere is this ...

Richie “Ace High” Acevedo Parable HipHopTown USA / Symphonic Distribution (release date: August 30, 2022) www.hiphoptown.us By Robert M. Marovich On Parable, hip hop artist Richie “Ace High” Acevedo chronicles his faith walk by leaning on his secular rap experience, with its emphasis on clever similes and incisive beats. When they are not rapid, Acevedo’s rhymes are severe, thick, and measured. He’s a far better rapper than a singer. Most significantly, he captures the attention of listeners by diving into the pop music playbook, incorporating repetitive hooks, often repeating the same word or line in lock-step fashion. It’s what makes ...

Minister Redeemed So Good Musgrove Music Distribution (release date: April 15, 2022) By Robert M. Marovich The overarching theme of So Good can be surmised from the artist’s moniker: Minister Redeemed. The EP chronicles holy hip hop artist Elder Thaddeus K. Bruce’s redemption from “the dope house” of addiction to crack cocaine to the church house. He’s no longer “kickin’ it with the enemy,” as he details in “That’s Not My Name Anymore,” but is praising the Father for a glorious redemption. As such, So Good is jam-packed with sung and rapped rhymes of praise and worship. To quote a ...

Iconic independent label Readies Release of New Music from 2-time Stellar Award Artist of the Year Pastor Mike, Jr. October 12, 2022 (Nashville, TN) —Today, successful independent label Black Smoke Music Worldwide announces its distribution and label partnership with Motown Gospel and Capitol CMG’s Re:Think. Led by Founder & CEO Kerry Douglas, Black Smoke Music Worldwide is already making way for the release of new music from 11-time Stellar Award winner Pastor Mike, Jr. with the infectious new radio anthem, “Impossible” feat. James Fortune. “I am elated to be an architect in bringing forth the ‘new deal’ in Gospel music,” ...