CD Single Review: “‘Til I Die” – Madame Mary L. Flake-Haynie

“’Til I Die”
Madame Mary L. Flake-Haynie
from the forthcoming CD God’s Got an Answer
Madame Haynie Music 2004
www.MadameHaynieMusic.com

Madame Mary L. Flake-Haynie is certainly no stranger to gospel music. A Winston-Salem native who sang with the Gore Family (with whom she made a 45 rpm recording), the Ebernette Gospel Singers and the Tommiettes of High Point, NC, she is currently Representative of the Winston-Salem Triad Chapter of the GMWA and can be heard on the GMWA Mass Choir’s Live in Minneapolis CD (2001). Madame Haynie has shared the stage with gospel stars from the late Rev. James Cleveland to Vanessa Bell-Armstrong, and today performs with the Victory Praise Ensemble as the group ministers to the imprisoned.

“’Til I Die,” from Madame Haynie’s promotional EP for her upcoming God’s Got An Answer, starts out as old-time Baptist congregational singing: that spontaneous burst of musical melancholy that in his uniform ebb and flow chills the body but not the soul. About three minutes in, however, the accompaniment picks up the pace and the song finishes as an uptempo church rouser.

It’s gratifying to know that recordings like “‘Til I Die” are still being released.