From Saguaro Road Records:(Fairfax, VA) January 15, 2009 – The Blind Boys of Alabama will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by The Recording Academy as part of the 51st Annual Grammy Awards this February. The prestigious honor comes just weeks after the quartet was nominated for a Grammy [...]
Candi StatonI Will Sing My Praise to YouEmtro Gospel/Beracah Records 2008www.emtro.comAs a teenager, Canzetta “Candi” Staton sang gospel with her sister Maggie and the Harrison girls Naomi and Nettie Mae as the Jewell Gospel Singers. They recorded for Aladdin in 1953, and two years later shifted to the mid-South’s Excello [...]
The following information, summarized from an AP article by John Gerome, comes from Marc Lindy via Lindon Jones:Dolly Parton, Michael W. Smith, Dr. Bobby Jones, the Dixie Hummingbirds and producer Lari Goss will be inducted into the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame next month. The ceremony will be held [...]
Willa Dorsey. Rev. Claude Jeter. Tommy Ellison. Elmo Franklin. Paul Arnold. Rev. Lawrence Roberts. Margaret "Babe" Allison. Mr. Ira Tucker. Irma Gwynn. Michael Cook. Charles Ashley Craig. Robert Wooten. Junious Norfleet. Hulah Gene Dunklin Hurley.And so on.What goes through my mind when I see these names is the saying, "When [...]
From an article by Nancy Haught, The Oregonian Monday January 12, 2009, 9:40 PMThe music that fills a Northeast Portland church Wednesday will honor Willa Mae Dorsey, 75, whose gospel-singing career lasted 56 years, filled five albums and won her a Grammy nomination. Dorsey died Jan. 5 in a Portland [...]
“I Desire More”Crystal AikinFrom her self-titled Verity CD (released Jan. 13, 2009)www.verityrecords.comCrystal Aikin, winner of BET’s inaugural “Sunday Best” competition, sings every ounce of glory out of “I Desire More,” demonstrating why she won the program’s top prize. From its dramatic opening to the stirring conclusion and fade, “I Desire [...]
Chuck & the Guiding CloudsAfter All These YearsQuartet Boyz Records 2008www.myspace.com/chuckandtheguidingcloudsEver wonder where the sweet soul sound of the seventies went? It’s being preserved by some gospel quartets.Proof positive: Chuck and the Guiding Clouds’ release After All These Years offers up hearty helpings of quartet spirit wrapped in the bright, [...]
BreakthroughPilgrim Missionary Baptist Church Choirs “Live”Independent release 2008(708) 237-3779I’m not certain exactly when churches recognized the fundraising, membership development and public relations potential of producing records of their gospel choirs, but my guess is it took hold in the early 1950s.The earliest known progenitor of this practice was the St. [...]
Cynthia JonesGotta SoulKingdom Records 2008www.kingdomrecordsinc.comYou may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but sometimes you can judge a CD by its cover.Especially in the case of Cynthia Jones’ Gotta Soul. On the cover (above), Jones is bedecked in an ultra-hip top and earthy jewelry, and coiffed [...]
From The State, Thursday, January 8, 2009:Viewing, funeral to celebrate life of Tommy EllisonBy OTIS R. TAYLOR JR. - otaylor@thestate.com Like James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Sam Cooke, Tommy Ellison got his start as a singer in church. But unlike them, he stayed there.The Salley native was lead vocalist of [...]
