"My Momma Song"Cadillac JamesGospel artists have delivered more odes to mother than have been heard since the Victorian era. Praying mothers, singing mothers, shouting mothers, dying mothers. Even the absence of the family matriarch (aka "Motherless Child") is a cause for tuneful remembrance."Cadillac James" Cotton of the famed Cotton Brothers [...]
Dr. W.L. Mobley, Sr. and the Gospel Truth ChoirGive Me the Gospel Truth(private press) 2008Dr. Wealthy L. Mobley is my newest role model for healthy living.At 89, Mobley is fit and trim, looking like he's preparing for the Olympics. He runs a successful church on Chicago’s far south side, sings, [...]
West coast quartetter Roy Tyler is no stranger to The Black Gospel Blog. Tyler sent us a video from the October 2009 Mill Valley (California) Film Festival, on which he leads New Direction on "A Better Home." It's a song he recorded back in the day with the Gospel Humming [...]
“Still Got Work”Totally DedicatedFrom the forthcoming album QuarTemporarywww.totallydedicated.netQuarTemporary. The title of Totally Dedicated’s forthcoming album describes the group’s sound perfectly (and it's a better term than "ConTet"). The group's latest single, “Still Got Work,” offers the vocal smoothness of the Christianaires, but with a funkier beat and a more soulful [...]
Pastor Ray Berryhill & the Evangel Celebration ChoirCelebration Live, Volumes One and Twowww.evangelchicago.orgOh, if only every church had a choir like the Evangel Celebration Choir.Listening to Celebration Live, two privately-pressed CDs by Evangel World Outreach Center on Chicago’s north side, it’s no surprise that the Evangel Celebration Choir was selected [...]
Many know the name Margaret Aikens from her songwriting ("Stranger in Galilee," "Brighter Days Ahead," "Thy Grace is Sufficient for Me"); her publishing work with Ollie Lafayette (Aikens and Lafayette); her record label (Mag-Oll); or her singing (Ladies of Song, Meltones). Margaret was a Chicago mover and shaker who moved [...]
Go, Tracy, Go!From a press release:Black Entertainment Television (BET) is celebrating Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 9, 2010 at 11:00 AM EST when the Sunday morning staple “Video Gospel” premieres new videos that every mother will love.A very poignant moment will be when the show broadcasts the premiere of Tracy Worth’s [...]
Victory Cathedral ChoirSmokie Norful Presents Victory Cathedral ChoirEMI Gospel (2010)www.emigospel.comAlthough the Victory Cathedral Choir, from Pastor Smokie Norful’s Victory Cathedral Worship Center in west suburban Chicago, is comprised of the church rank-and-file, it certainly sounds as professional as they come. The members represent a range of ages, but together, the [...]
"It's All God"Soul Seekers feat. Pastor Marvin WinansFrom the My Block Records CD SS2 (2010)www.facebook.com/thesoulseekersmusicThe eight-member Soul Seekers quartet blends lovely harmonies with a message and old-school singing from Pastor Marvin Winans on the live "It's All God." The collective suggests on this lulling ballad that when "just anybody" has [...]
Laymetha Cornerstone(private press) 2009www.laydsingproductions.comLaymetha Reed-Guy of Chester, Virginia pursued a pop career, writing and performing her own songs. She won a major competition and even had a Capitol Records contract in hand nearly twenty years ago, but nothing ever happened. She turned to singing gospel almost immediately, and hasn’t looked [...]
