Shanon HarrisFaith First
Ashro Records (2012)
www.ashrorecords.com
By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.
For her debut album, Faith First, Shanon Harris from the Second Baptist Church of Joliet, Illinois, delivers a baker’s dozen of love songs to the Almighty with a rhythm and praise sensibility underpinned by electronic dance music beats.
Harris, whose mother and grandmother preceded her as church singers, has a particular gift for rhythmic lyricism. She sings many of the songs on Faith First in the brisk poetic meter characteristic of neo-soul, while Keith Felix multitasks as co-writer, instrument programmer, and vocal arranger.
Much of the variety on Faith First comes from the varying music styles in which the songs are wrapped. These vary from urban AC, as on the opener, “He Gives The Greatest Love,” or the jazz-rock fusion of “Look To The Hills,” which finds its inspiration in Psalm 121 (“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help”).
Harris’s current single, “Worth It,” is the album’s high point. Countering the old adage that everyone wants to go to Heaven but nobody wants to die to get there, Harris eagerly anticipates the hereafter and its promises of eternal joy. Not at all maudlin or melodramatic, “Worth It” is breezy and insistent, its soft and fuzzy harmonies overdubbed by Harris herself. Harris proves capable here and on “Love” of lofting impressive high notes well above her otherwise comfortable middle-stave vocal range.
Faith First is an inspirational security blanket also ready-made for Christian clubs. It is a product of Ashro Records, a newish Chicagoland-based label whose mission is to present music that “embodies the African-American spirit.”
Three of Five Stars
Picks: “Worth It.”
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.
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