TBGB Reviews….Kelly Price

The gorgeous platinum selling RnB composer and songstress who introduced the blockbuster RnB smash “Friend of Mine” in 1998 is really a PK (preacher’s kid) at heart. Kelly Price grew up in the Church of God in Christ and celebrates her holiness roots on her debut gospel project, This is Who I Am.

Possibly in an effort to ensure that the uninitiated wouldn’t shun Price for hopping from pop to gospel, the executive producers, including Vicki Mack and Claude Lataillade and Max Siegel, threw the book at the project. They provided it with big, bold production values and a live, stadium gospel sound, complete with ground-numbing bass and percussion. They also invited a stage full of gospel household names – specifically Richard Smallwood, Donnie McClurkin, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, and Joe Ligon – to perform with Price on one track each.

Kelly more than holds her own on this project, however, which integrates seamlessly her exquisite, well-disciplined vocal style into holy text and melody. “This Is Who I Am” is the radio-friendly track, though the explosive duet with Bell Armstrong on “Nobody But Jesus” ought to get the radio play, as it is an absolute earth-scorcher and the project’s finest moment.

Price is joined by McClurkin and shouts with Vickie Winans intensity on “God is Faithful.” “Heaven’s Best” incorporates an acknowledged snippet of Rev. Al Green’s 1970s hit “Love and Happiness,” and “God Is Not Dead” features Price out-singing quartet great Joe Ligon, who doesn’t quite seem himself on the track, his voice raw with fatigue.

This Is Who I Am is a marvelous project. It will undoubtedly capture the attention of the gospel awards cognoscenti as well as encourage legions of young people to shuffle this CD in with their well-worn copies of Tonex and Kirk Franklin.