The New Converted Voices – A New Beginning

The New Converted Voices

Vision Records (2011)

By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.

The New Converted Voices are a quartet from Tupelo, Mississippi.  Organized in 1989 by Rev. Patrick Whitfield, the group benefited from a close working relationship with Lee Williams & The Spiritual QC’s, who helped them travel and sing across the South.

The New Converted Voices’ latest CD, A New Beginning, delivers the goods that quartet enthusiasts want to hear from their heroes: no-nonsense Christian lyrics, impassioned traditional singing, tight harmony, and one or two good ol’ drive-tempo songs with backbeats and extended vamps.

The two drive songs, “Good God” and “He’ll Make a Way,” turn out to be the album’s best selections.  “He’ll Make a Way” recommends bringing to Jesus whatever troubles one has.  The single, “I Call Him Jesus” is another fine track.  It features Lisa Knowles contributing her distinctive quartet-molded vocal delivery to the mix.

“That’s Alright” reworks and gospelizes the Impressions’ hit of the same name.  Lead singer Tobie Blanch acknowledges that although he doesn’t have a fancy car or a home on a hill, and (to add insult to injury) “everywhere we go to sing, sometimes people don’t always know who we are…we got a mansion if we keep doing His will.” 

On the subject of the mansion, the quartet’s ballad “Home with Jesus” imagines the place beyond the sky where the streets are paved with gold and there are no more troubles, including no sugar diabetes.  “Perfect People” admits that none of us are perfect, and there are too many hypocrites to contend with, but “the only time we should look down is when we lend a helping hand.”  Amen.

A New Beginning finds the New Converted Voices putting their best foot forward, so that the next time they go to sing, people will know who they are.

Picks: “Good God,” “He’ll Make a Way.”