Jawn Murray Presents UNTAPPED

Various Artists
Jawn Murray Presents UNTAPPED
EMI Gospel (2011)
http://www.emigospel.com/

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.

Last February, Jawn Murray, the popular Washington DC-based on-air entertainment reporter for the Tom Joyner Morning Show and a columnist for AOL Black Voices, called all unsigned gospel artists to participate in his UNTAPPED competition.

Produced in partnership with EMI Gospel, UNTAPPED would give unsigned artists a chance to remove the “un” from the adjective in a major way.

The promotion received more than 300 entries from gospel artists, each of whom submitted a single recording for review by an all-star panel of judges. Ten finalists would be placed on a CD compilation and one grand prize winner would, as the legalese stated, be “entitled to enter into an exclusive physical and/or digital recording deal with EMI Gospel.”

Although the grand prize winner will not be announced until next year, the compilation, Jawn Murray Presents UNTAPPED, was released in mid-September.

Among the ten young contemporary gospel artists putting their best audio foot forward on UNTAPPED, the ladies are the shining stars. Detroiter Tasha Page-Lockhart’s “The Love of God” is among the album’s jewels. It’s the kind of bracing, bright, and catchy pop-infused piece that one expects from a Detroit singer. Minneapolis resident Tonia Hughes’ nuanced and intense “Rest on Me” is a gripping praise and worship workout. Madelyn Berry sings the Chris Tomlin P&W anthem “How Great is Our God” with the urgency of South Africa’s Queen of Gospel, Rebecca Malope.

Speaking of Berry, TBGB readers will recognize three finalists on the project. Berry, Brian C. Reeves & Heart After God and F’Lana have each graced the blog in the past.

UNTAPPED is full of youthful energy and creativity, and it will be exciting to find out who is selected as grand prize winner, though EMI Gospel can’t go wrong with any of the ten. Meanwhile, a lyric from F’lana’s “2nd Chance,” which closes the comp, articulates what the finalists must be thinking: “If not now, then when? If not me, then who?”

Four of Five Stars

“The Love of God,” “Rest on Me.”