Marvin L. Winans Presents: The Praise & Worship Experience

MLW Productions (street date: June 26, 2012)

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By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.

“Fear not what people do, and even less what they say, for it will be okay.”

Pastor Marvin L. Winans must feel as if his lyrics from “For I Have Heard Your Cry,” a selection off of his new CD, The Praise & Worship Experience, are prophetic, given his recent carjacking and robbery.  Hopefully, he can also appreciate other lines from the song, such as “you have so many tears, but you’re gonna reap in joy.”

Reaping in joy is what The Praise & Worship Experience is all about. 

The album was recorded live at Perfecting Churchin Detroit, the church Winans co-founded in 1989.  It is his first full-length CD in five years and his debut offering on MLW Productions, a company he founded and runs with his son, Marvin Winans, Jr.

The album opens to a gentle piano accompaniment as Winans sings the prayerful “Draw Me Close.”  The selection transitions into “Thy Will Be Done,” as the Perfecting Praise mass choir and praise-and-worship team build in intensity with the musicians.  This ultimately sets the tone for ten or so mellow to mid-tempo tracks designed with the Sunday morning worship service in mind. 

The CD features a sizable roster of gospel stars, such as Marvin Sapp, who wraps his trademark husky voice around the aforementioned “For I Have Heard Your Cry.”  Other equally robust male vocalists/preachers such as Pastor Donnie McClurkin and Bishop Paul Morton add their touches to the program.  Mary Mary’s buoyant vocals lift the already-upbeat “That’s the Love of God.”

Outstanding operatic vocals on “Influence My Heart” from Jacqueline Echols and Rod Dixon (Cook, Dixon & Young) take listeners back to a time before gospel, when deliberative churches in the urban North sang anthems and oratorios on Sunday mornings, and classically-trained singers and musicians led the music department.

For me, the high point of the live performance happens toward the conclusion, when an Elder Utah Smith-like fuzz guitar signals the start of a traditional hand-clapper, “The Lord Is With Me,” featuring Adrian“Agee” Smith.  The ensemble marches straight into revival mode or, as Pastor Winans says, to the little church of his childhood at 2135 Mack Avenue.  A medley of “music from the old church” injects COGIC into the performance, and “Just Another Day,” sung by Delores “Mom” Winans and Pastor Donnie McClurkin, is quintessentially flatfooted gospel.  The B3 warbles as if Twinkie Clark is working the pedals.

Marvin L. Winans Presents: The Praise & Worship Experience opens with introspection and concludes with audience and artists alike reaping their joy.

Picks: “Draw Me Closer/Thy Will Be Done,” “The Lord Is With Me.”

NOTE:  Below is a video of Pastor Winans discussing the new project and reflecting on 2012 thus far.