Ellen Hayes
Behind My Eyes
Independent (release date: October 9, 2026)
By Robert M. Marovich
Since the late 1950s and Charles Craig and the Voices of Tabernacle, Detroit gospel artists have displayed an almost impish fascination with blending traditional and contemporary gospel. Detroit’s native daughter Ellen Hayes continues that tradition on her new album, Behind My Eyes.
Unlike some of her fellow Detroiters, however, Hayes incorporates vocal flowers and frills only when necessary. Nevertheless, she is still capable of turning up the temperature whenever she wants, as during the vamp of the invigorating opening track, “I Tried Him for Myself.” It comes from her experience growing up singing as well as serving as minister of music at the Word of Truth Baptist Church, led by her uncle and godfather, Pastor Rufus Hayes.
Indeed, the album comes to life on the traditional-flavored tracks. When the warbling organ enters the intro of “Been So Good to Me,” listeners know what’s in store: a bluesy beat, old school lyrics of gratitude, and Hayes’s churchy belting. Its nearly six-minute length sounds as if it could have tumbled into a praise break if a live audience were present for the recording session. Likewise, Hayes sings “The Old Account” to a smoldering rhythm section and a team of background singers. She uses Prof. Thomas A. Dorsey’s “Precious Lord” as a chance to showcase her vocal proclivities—again with studied moderation and reverence, like a veteran church soloist, not an over-exuberant contestant on American Idol.
Despite the churchy tunes, “Another Chance,” recorded with the Word of Truth Mass Choir, has the simple message and production polish that radio relishes. It has the most radio potential of all other selections on the album.
The expressive title track, Hayes explains, is about the problems people hide behind their smiling faces and that our responsibility is to help heal them with kindness. She wrote the song twenty years ago but it is still relevant today. It reminds me of the line from Jewel Kilcher’s 1998 hit “Hands:” “In the end, only kindness matters.”
Four of Five Stars
Top Tracks: “Been So Good to Me,” “Another Chance”
Written by : Bob Marovich
Bob Marovich is a gospel music historian, author, and radio host. Founder of Journal of Gospel Music blog (formally The Black Gospel Blog) and producer of the Gospel Memories Radio Show.
