Beverly Crawford – Live from Los Angeles, Vol. 2

Beverly Crawford
Live From Los Angeles – Vol. 2
JDI Records 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti-qSUU6-cQ

Some sequels work, others don’t. It’s true in film as well as television, books and music.  For every Godfather II and Rocky II, there’s a slough of sequels that don’t live up to the original.

I’m here to report that Beverly Crawford’s follow-up to her successful Live from Los Angeles CD most definitely works.

Live from Los Angeles – Vol. 2 was released on September 14. Just like the first volume, the album showcases the singer’s proclivity for old-school, no-nonsense, wooden church-ready gospel music.

Born and raised in Florida, Crawford belongs in the company of those gospel singers – mostly women – who deliver a song with the ferocity of ten preachers. These include Mahalia, Albertina and all of the Caravans past and present, Lemmie Battles, Jessie May Renfro, Dot Coates, Emily Bram, Ernestine Washington, Kathy Taylor, Angie Spivey, the list goes on. You know them when you hear them, because their voices never leave you.

The first track on Vol. 2 sets the tone. “It’s About Time for a Miracle” is a frenetically paced church steamroller that earns its wings as current single largely through Crawford’s revival-like shouting. She then attacks “It’s So” with similar evangelistic fervor, tossing in bluesy runs and interjections like a twin sister of Shirley Caesar. “Born Again” is a pulse-racing shouter that, in its call-and-response with Tim Bishop Brown and the majestic Miracle Mass Choir, is radio friendly.

The feisty duet between Beverly and Shirley Murdock on “Everything Will Be Alright” works so well you’d think the two had been singing together since kindergarten.

We even get a chance to hear a softer side of Crawford on the quieter praise song “For Who You Are,” but that lasts for only a few moments. By the conclusion, she’s rousing the audience once again with her firebrand vocal delivery.

“I Need a Word” is a special treat written and sung by Crawford’s daughter Latrina. Accompanied by acoustic guitar but an otherwise hushed accompaniment, Trina renders a lovely prayer not for material things, like a home or a car, but simply for the Word. Her song sends the right message to today’s self-absorbed, luxury-addicted society.

Live From Los Angeles – Vol. 2 is such an uplifting listen one wishes there was about 20 or 25 more minutes of singing on it.

NOTE: Be sure to catch TBGB next week for our interview with Beverly Crawford.

Four of Five Stars

gPod Picks: “It’s About Time for a Miracle,” “Born Again,” “Everything Will Be Alright.”

Reviewed by Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.