CD Review:Mega 3 CollectionsLight Recordswww.lightrecords.comBox sets have been a music industry staple for some time now. Not to be left out, Light Records added their own variation on the multi-disc set to the mix a few years ago by launching a series called the Mega 3 Collection. The 3-CD packs [...]
by Sheilah Belle of The Belle Report (www.thebellereport.net):Fire early Tuesday, January 16, 2007 destroyed a home belonging to gospel singer Ricky Dillard, who was out of town.The six-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot house was "completely burned to the ground, from my understanding," said Dillard's manager, William Bogle. "It was certainly unfortunate but, more [...]
“The Lord’s Prayer”First Church of Deliverance Choirand Bishop Otto T. Houston, IIIOn the CD God CanF.C.D. 2006Former First Church of Deliverance Minister of Music Julia Mae Kennedy's dramatic arrangement of Albert Hay Malotte’s “The Lord’s Prayer” finally gets the audio engineering it deserves. “The Lord’s Prayer” closes First Church’s latest [...]
Shout, Sister, Shout! The Untold Story of Rock-And-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta TharpeGayle F. Wald Beacon Press 2007www.shoutsistershout.netDespite Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s celebrated position as a gospel music pioneer, no author has taken on the role of her biographer until now. Thanks to Gayle Wald, Professor of English at George Washington University, [...]
The larger record buying public might think Dion's lachrymose "Abraham, Martin and John" was one of the few songs recorded to pay tribute to Martin Luther King. However, the black gospel music community knows there are more tributes and references to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in gospel music than [...]
“Worldwide God”Prenestine Williams-PorterMotor City Praise Records 2006www.motor-city-records.comPrenestine Williams-Porter called on the estimable talents of fellow Detroiter “Queen of Quartet” Evelyn Turrentine Agee and Queen of Gospel Albertina Walker to accompany her on “Worldwide God,” the radio single and title track from her full-length project for James Render's Motor City Praise [...]
“Troubled”James Cleveland and the Cleveland SingersFrom Savoy LP MG142111968/69If life is a ball game, as Wynona Carr sang, then James Cleveland was life’s great utility player. James was a creative composer, director, keyboardist, producer, preacher, m.c., and vocalist – whether solo, with a choir, or with a group. He even [...]
Still StandingBishop Paul S. MortonLight Records/Tehillah Music Group 2006www.fullgospelbaptist.orgStill Standing is a collective sigh of relief and exultation set to music and lyrics, recorded a fragile year after Hurricane Katrina and the levee breach destroyed Bishop Paul S. Morton’s flagship Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church in New Orleans. [...]
GMWA – Live in Milwaukee 2005GMWA Mass ChoirLight 2006www.lightrecords.comEvery year, the Gospel Music Workshop of America Mass Choir showcases a stack of new songs, often penned by up-and-coming composers, for convention participants to take back home and teach to their church choirs. Since the early years, the GMWA has also [...]
The Ramada SingersCheck out the new website, developed by Karl Tsigdinos & John Glassburner, for 20 gospelized versions of secular songs by artists known and unknown (including a quartet called "The Mighty Unknowns"). Awesome photos, label shots, high quality mp3s. Future chapters will continue exploring the musical interrelationship between the [...]
