“God is With Us”Carrol HallFrom the CD Songs that Sing You to Silence (2011)Email contact: hallc333@yahoo.com.auSouth African-born singer-songwriter Carrol Hall immigrated with her family to Perth, Western Australia in the 1980s to escape the oppressive apartheid government. Since the fall of apartheid, Hall has returned time and again to minister [...]
Shree Newman-IsabellLife of a Worshipper (2011)http://www.shreeisabell.com/By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.Recorded live at the Gallatin Campus of Long Hollow Baptist Church, Life of a Worshipper is the debut CD for singer-songwriter Shree Newman-Isabell, the Tennessee native known as Nashville’s “best kept secret.” The first few songs on the [...]
“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 Rogers Try Jesus Overboard 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 [...]
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 [...]
“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 [...]
