“Clap Your Hands”
United Music + Arts Conference Choir feat. Beverly Crawford
High C (release date: May 30, 2025)
By Robert M. Marovich
If you want to add a heaping helping of church into your single, just hire Beverly Crawford.
That’s what the United Music + Arts Conference (UMAC) Choir did on “Clap Your Hands,” a song with a foundation based on the Biblical Gospel Singers’ late 1960s hit, “I Come to Praise Him.” While the choir does a splendid job on this effervescent gospel, Beverly raises the temperature even higher by tearing into the lead vocal like, well, Beverly Crawford. That’s all you need to know to get a sense of the performance, which is excellent but the Biblical Gospel Singers and the Hollins Family, whose equally spirited song propels the arrangement, also deserve credit.
The choir and conference are the vision of Professor Craig Hayes. UMAC’s purpose is to train singers and musicians and provide them with new music to take back to their respective ministries. This effort is similar to another group of which Prof. Hayes has contributed much, the Gospel Music Workshop of America. The most recent UMAC was held in July in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
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.
