“I Believe”R. KellyZomba Recording 2008(available on iTunes)R. Kelly is not an artist you might expect to occupy TBGB’s Pick of the Week, but think about this: a) His “I Believe I Can Fly” (similar name, different song) has been gospelized so often that many have forgotten it was once included [...]
GiftedI’ve LearnedQuartet Boyz Records 2007www.myspace.com/giftedofbatonrougeAlthough not new to the quartet scene (they will celebrate ten years together in ‘09), Gifted is a group of young men from Baton Rouge, Louisiana that belts out old-fashioned church rousers one moment and more contemporary sounds with modern harmonies the next. And that’s exactly [...]
Dennis Cole and Prof. L. Stanley Davis of the Chicago Area Gospel Announcers Guild reported this afternoon that Mr. William Greenbey, husband of Billie Barrett Greenbey, passed away this week. His homegoing service was today, Saturday, December 19, at Greater Bethel Apostolic Church in Chicago.Billie Greenbey is a member of [...]
The Charlotte Chapter of the Gospel Music Workshop of AmericaWorth It AllSelf-Released 2008www.cdbaby.com/cd/tccotgmwaNot long after James Cleveland and a cartel of religious and music industry leaders established the Gospel Music Workshop of America in 1967, and staged its first convention in Detroit, the performances of the mass choir and other [...]
On Wednesday, December 17, the Pilgrim Jubilees did something they had not done in their sixty-four years of performing before audiences young and old.They sang on the stage of Chicago’s venerable roots music venue, The Old Town School of Folk Music.It made sense: both the “Jubes” and the Old Town [...]
From Metromodemedia.com: When people mention music in the Motor City, a number of images come to mind, ranging from Motown supergroups to sonic thrash of The White Stripes' garage rock to Eminem's fist-pumping hip-hop.The white (or purple) robes of gospel aren't usually one of musical images associated with the Motor [...]
From Bob Merz: Philadelphia, PA – Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the pioneering gospel musician and instrumentalist, finally has a gravestone marking her resting place at Northwood Cemetery in Philadelphia. Since her passing in 1973, the gravesite of Sister Rosetta had been a barren plot lacking any memorial. Today, a beautiful, rose-colored [...]
100% Cotton: The Family Pack Volume 1The Cotton Family100% Cotton Ministries 2001Ever wonder what happened to the Cotton Brothers? The quartet whose independently recorded single, “Remember Me, O Lord,” received so much attention in the early 1960s (including from Otis Redding) that the group landed a recording contract with Don [...]
“Hope Is Born”Desmond PringleFrom the forthcoming CD Fidelity (scheduled release: Spring 2009)www.desmondpringle.com“We’ve already won/Look at how far we’ve come/Let’s fully embrace/This change that is taking place.”From the opening lines, Desmond Pringle’s “Hope is Born” is more than a canticle of personal empowerment. The song resonates with the excitement and anticipation [...]
“Just Once.” “One Hundred Ways.” “Baby, Come to Me.” “Somewhere Out There.” Unless you’re Rip Van Winkle and slept through the Eighties and Nineties, chances are you’ve heard one or all of these songs by Grammy Award-winning balladeer James Ingram. Ingram’s instantly recognizable crooning melts butter on contact. On January [...]
