The Memphis Harmonizers
Keep Running On
E&J Records (2012)
By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.
George Dean could be named an honorary member of the Memphis Harmonizers. The lead singer for the popular Gospel Four produces, writes, sings lead, and even offers background vocals for his fellow Memphians on their new CD, Keep Running On.
Keep Running On has what quartet enthusiasts expect from their singers: Bible-based testimony, common sense pointers on living, and old-time religion wrapped in meat-and-potatoes masculinity that has more testosterone than most other popular and folk music today.
Then there’s that funky blend of B3, bass and drums that somehow sounds tangier coming from Memphis than anywhere else in the world. I can’t for the life of me figure it out, but the Memphis Harmonizers employ it on songs such as “Power of Christ,” and the hand-clappers “Free at Last” and “Getting Us Ready.”
The final two selections (written by Dean) exhort the listener to “count your blessings” for the things we take for granted, like walking and talking. Revs. Demarcus Smith and Ronnie Wilson make it plain on “Stop Complaining,” as they reference the story of the woman touching the hem of Jesus’s garment as an example of someone who “counted her blessings.” Dean lends his musky voice on the follow-up, “He’s Been Good to Me,” a song that lyrically evokes the Gospel Four’s “He’s Blessing Me.”
In the liner notes, Memphis Harmonizer George McClain wrote that his health problems were such that “I wasn’t sure if I would be able to sing on this project.” Thus, it is most poignant when McClain leads a quartet-dipped version of “Deep River.” His voice wavering but remaining on point, McClain delivers the spiritual and adds some couplets from “Move On Up a Little Higher.” He concludes by singing that “over in Zion…I won’t be sick no more.” Can he get an Amen?
Three of Five Stars
Picks: “Free at Last,” “He Delivered Me.”
The Memphis Harmonizers
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