Gospel Music

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”Melinda WattsAvailable on iTunes.comHere’s a lovely Christmas offering from Melinda Watts, the Stellar and Dove Award-nominated gospel singer and winner of Gospel Music Channel’s Gospel Dream talent search. It’s her first new recording in more than two years.Watts delivers a cozy reading of the Holiday [...]

Archie Swindell, Jr. informed TBGB today that Jessie B. Swindell of the famous Swindell Brothers quartet died of liver cancer December 8, 2011 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.Bro. Jessie was the bass singer and manager of the Swindell Brothers from 1954 until the group disbanded in 1999.We will post homegoing details [...]

Tallie RogersTry JesusOverboard Records (2011)By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.Tallie Rogers, sister of quartet singer Pastor Tim Rogers (of Tim Rogers and the Fellas), was recently introduced to a wider gospel audience on the power of her indie single, “Try Jesus.” Try Jesus is the album from whence the [...]

Hart RamseyMy Next HeartbeatN-Coded Music (2011)www.hartramseymusic.comBy Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.The popularity of jazz keyboardist Hart Ramsey’s debut CD, Charge It to My Heart, surprised even the artist himself, and undoubtedly played no small role in encouraging him to release another album, the appropriately-titled My Next Heartbeat.Pastor Ramsey’s [...]

“I Command My Soul”The Spring Into Praise Mass ChoirFrom the CD Under His Wingshttp://www.springintopraise.org/“Gospel music is alive and well in the Seventh-day Adventist Church,” exclaims National Gospel Announcers Guild chair Al “The Bishop” Hobbs. He has a point. SDA is not a denomination well-known for gospel music, but the 300-voice [...]

“Sanctified Mabel”Rickie Byars BeckwithFrom the CD Let My Soul Surrender: Grace Notes of a Journeywww.letmysoulsurrender.comWhat most intrigues me about Rickie Byars Beckwith’s “Sanctified Mabel” is its Memphis soul mojo, Beckwith’s raw-edged vocals and her characterization of Sister Mabel, a product of another day and age.  The singer describes Mabel and [...]

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.They don’t call the gospel highway a rough road to travel for nothing. Amber Bullock can attest to that. It hasn’t been an easy road for the Season Four champ of BET’s Sunday Best.Originally from St. Louis, Bullock and her baby daughter Amya [...]

“No Words”Valerie Woodard Whole Armor Recordings (2011)(available on iTunes, CD Baby & her website)www.ValerieWoodard.comShe can’t put it in words, but she must. To a mesmerizing Middle Eastern-meets-R&B-meets-African-percussion arrangement, Valerie Woodard sings about how she can’t describe how much she loves the Lord. To acknowledge the contradiction, she launches into lovely [...]

“Jesus is the Reason 4 the Season”Spirit 2 SpiritTate Music Group (2011)www.reverbnation.com/spirit2spiritOn their new Christmas song, Spirit 2 Spirit stays true to its mission of providing "message music" by reminding listeners that Jesus is not only the “reason 4 the season,” but is the reason for every day of the [...]

On the PCC Network Community Forum, Rev. Harold Bailey, formerly of the Harold Bailey Singers, talks with Bob Marovich of The Black Gospel Blog about Chicago gospel music history.  Marovich is currently working on a history of the birth of gospel music in Chicago.Watch the broadcast here: PCC Network Community [...]