Whosoever South Come On In Elevate Entertainment (released October 7, 2014) www.whosoeversouth.com By Bob Marovich Whosoever South is one of the most innovative Christian groups of the decade. The trio’s self-proclaimed “country crunk” style blends elements of rootsy Americana and country with deep groove bass, gospel, and hip hop. Think Mumford and Sons meets Arrested [...]

Various Artists When I Reach That Heavenly Shore: Unearthly Black Gospel 1926-1936 Tompkins Square (released December 9, 2014) www.tompkinssquare.com By Bob Marovich Tompkins Square continues its stretch of quality black sacred music reissues with the three-CD When I Reach That Heavenly Shore: Unearthly Black Gospel 1926-1936. Using 1926 as a starting point is not a [...]

Fred Hammond I Will Trust RCA Inspiration (release date: November 17, 2014) www.rcainspiration.com By Bob Marovich One thing’s for sure: listen to Fred Hammond and you can't help but have a good time praising the Lord. His latest album, I Will Trust, is packed to the CD's brim with bracing musicianship, creative melodies and arrangements, [...]

Various Artists Motown Christmas Motown Gospel (2014) www.motowngospel.com By Bob Marovich Motown Christmas is the best yuletide album I have listened to in years.  Gifted executive producer Aaron W. Lindsey (who also plays, writes, and sings on the album) seamlessly blends the old and the new with the sacred and secular to create an overall [...]

Bessie Jones with the Georgia Sea Island Singers and Others Get In Union: Recordings by Alan Lomax 1959-1966 Tompkins Square (released, October 28, 2014) www.tompkinssquare.com By Bob Marovich Students of ethnomusicology and folk music enthusiasts fortunate enough to hear the two or three LPs of Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers can tell [...]

“Jesus Knows” Lisa Knowles-Smith and the Brown Singers EvoWorld Music (release date: May 13, 2022) By Robert M. Marovich For their new single, Lisa Knowles-Smith and the Brown Singers draw on key lyrics from the folk spiritual, “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen.” But that’s where the comparison ends. Whereas the spiritual is slow and [...]

“Proud of Me” Treva Chezmusique (release date: June 18, 2022) www.trevajones.com By Robert M. Marovich Treva Jones is no stranger to gospel music or to the Journal of Gospel Music. Written by the premier songwriter V. Michael McKay, “Proud of Me” is Jones’s latest single. Her warm, resonant alto curls around a lyric that expresses [...]

“Grace Over Me” Mike Geo Independent (release date: July 8, 2022) www.MikeGeoMusic.com By Robert M. Marovich What Staten Island CCM artist Michael Giordano, aka Mike Geo, offers in “Grace Over Me” is a fizzy, energetic outpouring of gratitude for salvation. When the walls are closing in, Geo closes his eyes and remembers that God’s grace [...]

“Take Me to the River” VAA’DAM KJ Productions (release date: March 8, 2022) By Robert M. Marovich The last time JGM heard from Dallas, Texas-based female duo VAA’DAM, they were featured on Kisha Grandy’s 2021 album Epitome. Trina and Quita are back with “Take Me to the River,” a laidback and soulful paean to the [...]

“That Name Is Jesus” Beloved St. John Evangelistic Church Independent (2022) www.BelovedStJohn.org By Robert M. Marovich As long as Pastor Clement M. Lumpton III and the Beloved St. John Evangelistic Church of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, keep on singing, the church choir will remain relevant. On its latest single, “That Name is Jesus,” the choir celebrates the [...]