Shekinah Glory Ministry – Refreshed By Fire

Shekinah Glory Ministry
Refreshed By Fire
Kingdom Records (release date: September 14, 2010)
http://www.kingdomrecordsinc.com/

Apostle H.D. Wilson, co-producers and writers Phil Tarver and Michael Weatherspoon, and the multitudinous worship warriors of Shekinah Glory Ministry are back with Refreshed By Fire, their new two-CD experience.

I don’t use the word “experience” lightly, because that is what it is. From the opening to closing notes, Refreshed By Fire is the dramatic, theatrical, colorful, eclectic and soul-renewing project that gospel music has come to expect from the music ministry of suburban Chicago’s Kingdom Valley Ministries.

Indeed, like past SGM albums, Refreshed By Fire has a distinct pacing. Like James Cleveland’s vintage choir projects, it demands to be heard in its entirety. And if Mattie Moss Clark’s musical accompaniment to sanctification roared with the fury of Mozart, SGM’s accompaniment is the delicate and peaceful Faure. Vigorous opening singing segues into gently whispered conversations with God and continues with the process of spirit renewal. It concludes with songs that release the saved back to the surface. At once hypnotic and soothing, the album is a baptism where the water is not raging but is calm, comforting and welcoming.

Despite the water analogy above, the key transformational element on this project is fire, which burns off the physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological shackles so worshippers can reclaim, literally unfettered, what is rightfully theirs. The eleven-plus minute “Dance” argues this most succinctly, and could be radio-edited as the group’s latest single with a one-word title. As of today, “Just For Me” is the reigning single. On the full project, “Just For Me” weighs in at fourteen minutes and is an effective concluding piece, a musical expression of a people baptized and ready to conquer and reclaim.

Pastor Dan Willis and Lighthouse Church cameo on the rocking “Giant Slayer,” a metaphorical selection on which the “giant” can either be a personal or a societal issue. Like SGM’s “Stomp,” the devil can be in one’s personal details or dabbling in more global concerns.

Most fascinating about Refreshed By Fire is how it blends many different sounds into one seamless performance structure. While ostensibly a praise and worship project, and certainly the lyrics and the service’s pacing bear that out, the album also incorporates elements of classical music and rock, the electric guitarist on “The Minstrel Release” playing with the searing abandon of the Scorpions’ Michael Schenker.

Like the pit orchestra for an opera, the musicians – under Tarver’s and Weatherspoon’s leadership – deserve tremendous credit for supporting the extended opus.

The liner notes identify vocal and musical soloists but not always who sings or plays on what song.  So for example, we don’t know who the lovely female voice is on “Ascending Higher” or the aforementioned Schenker-like guitarist. These mysteries will most assuredly be solved on the DVD, however, which adds SGM’s striking visual dimension of flag and banner bearers, dancers, and the altar filling company.

Refreshed By Fire will appeal to SGM fans and serve as an ideal introduction to the group’s music ministry for the uninitiated.

Four of Five Stars

gPod Picks: “Just for Me,” “Dance,” “Giant Slayer.”

Reviewed by Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.