Various Artists – ilovegospelmusic Traditional

Various Artists
ilovegospelmusic Traditional
ILG Records 2009
www.ilovegospelmusic.com

We’ve been reviewing a number of various artist reissue compilations recently, and here’s another.

ilovegospelmusic Traditional is a collaboration between ILG Records, Central South Distribution and several record labels, most prominently MCG and Blackberry.

The twelve track CD includes previously issued tracks from the stoic Lee Williams and the Spiritual QCs and Keith “Wonderboy” Johnson – the young man with an old quartetter’s soul – to Norman Hutchins and Juanita Bynum.

While the compilation is designated as traditional, William Murphy and Nicole Binion’s lovely and emotional “I Will Rejoice” and Myron Williams’ “Made to Worship” might more properly be classified as praise and worship. A nice surprise on the project, and one of the album’s highlights, is “More Like Jesus,” a driving uptempo quartet track by the Racy Brothers.

The project benefits from many live selections and extended workouts that possess that spontaneous electricity that distinguishes gospel from other forms of music. Great lyric lines abound, too. On “I Just Want to be Right,” Keith “Wonderboy” Johnson declares, “Now how many know the devil doesn’t have any new tricks, he just has new faces?” And the Canton Spirituals note of their music ministry on “Strugglin’ and Strainin’”: “I have never received a Grammy but I hope somebody was saved.”

ilovegospelmusic Traditional ends, appropriately, with an altar call, courtesy of “We Offer Christ” from Bishop Paul Morton and the Greater St. Stephen Mass Choir. From the sounds of the warm applause punctuating the singing, the call was successful.

Four of Five Stars

gPod Picks: “More Like Jesus,” “I Just Want to be Right.”

Reviewed by Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog.