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The McCrary Sisters on Gospel Memories
Click on the image to hear "Words and Music" with the McCrary Sisters!
Lynda Randle – By the Riverside
By the Riverside is a 10-song house wrecker that comes straight out of the country church.
RIP: Jo Jo Wallace, Guitarist, Singer with the Sensational Nightingales; also wrote “The Twist”
Jo Jo Wallace, the famed guitarist and quartet singer, passed from earthly labor to heavenly reward on May 7, 2025, at age 98.
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Recent Posts
The McCrary Sisters on Gospel Memories
Click on the image to hear "Words and Music" with the McCrary Sisters!
Lynda Randle – By the Riverside
By the Riverside is a 10-song house wrecker that comes straight out of the country church.
RIP: Jo Jo Wallace, Guitarist, Singer with the Sensational Nightingales; also wrote “The Twist”
Jo Jo Wallace, the famed guitarist and quartet singer, passed from earthly labor to heavenly reward on May 7, 2025, at age 98.
Sponsored Post:
“Church Doors” Yolanda Adams Epic Records (album release date: September 13, 2024)
A country-fried intro swings into a powerful mid-tempo testimony to the power of faith on Tamela Mann’s new single, “Working for Me.”
By Robert M. Marovich The Journal of Gospel Music was saddened to learn of the passing of the Reverend Dr. Janice Brown-Stephens. She transitioned from earth to glory on August [...]
First Lady Wanda Wilson Fielding submitted this homegoing information: We will celebrate Quincy‘s amazing God ordained life in the blessed facility of: Faithful Central Bible Church 400 W Florence Avenue, [...]
South Africa’s Jessica Dalla Torre is a CCM singer-songwriter whose voice has a sunshiny spirit, though she can, on occasion, belt lines with the passion of a Broadway doyenne.
There’s a full day’s dose of vitamin D in Chicago singer Cortez Lake’s “Grateful Melody.”
LATEST 5 STAR REVIEWS
Sallie and Cora Martin Just A Little Talk with Jesus Gospel Friend (release date: September 16, 2014) www.cityhallrecords.com By Bob Marovich Sallie Martin, the Mother of Gospel Music, paved the way for those who paved the way. A no-nonsense singer, group leader, choir director, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, Martin helped Thomas A. Dorsey sell his catalog [...]
Various Artists The Soul of Designer Records Big Legal Mess (2014) www.biglegalmessrecords.com By Bob Marovich In the days before YouTube and other social media outlets, before mp3s and CDs and music maker software for home computers, gospel artists looking for greater promotion but without a major label deal sought out the expertise of bootstrap entrepreneurs [...]
Smokie Norful Forever Yours Tre Myles Music / Motown Gospel (2014) www.motowngospel.com By Bob Marovich Grammy Award-winning vocalist Smokie Norful burst upon the national stage in 2002 with the breakout hit, “I Need You Now.” The song, featuring Norful’s trademark melismatic tenor, not only garnered significant gospel radio airplay, but also made the playlist of [...]
Ricky Dillard & New G Amazing Light Records/eOne Entertainment (release date: June 10, 2014) www.rickydillard.net By Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel Blog Ricky Dillard was once the young turk on the gospel block. Beginning in the late 1980s, Dillard and the New Generation Chorale, a Chicago gospel choir steeped in the full-throated tradition [...]
Pastor David Wright & the N.Y. Fellowship Mass ChoirNext GenerationGodfather Records (released February 2014)godfatherrecordsinc@gmail.comBy Bob Marovich for The Black Gospel BlogRecorded live at Brooklyn’s historic First Church of God in Christ, Pastor David Wright and the N.Y. Fellowship Mass Choir’s Next Generation does more to preserve the legacy of Bishop Timothy Wright than any of [...]
LATEST PICK OF THE WEEK – SINGLES
“My Faith & My Fight” (unplugged) Tina Nelms Boson Independent (release date: February 4, 2022) By Robert M. Marovich Of the orchestrated and unplugged versions of “My Faith & My Fight” by Tina Nelms Boson, my money is on the unplugged, piano-only version. It’s here that Ms. Boson shows herself as a triple threat—songwriter, singer, [...]
“God Bless the World" Siobhan Maher Kennedy (release date: May 6, 2022) By Robert M. Marovich While not a gospel or religious song per se, “God Bless the World" is nonetheless a prayer for unity in a world where people have separated from each another on account of race and ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, sex [...]
“It’s On the Way” Gia Wyre 141st Lane Music (release date: May 6, 2022) By Robert M. Marovich Peace, joy, and happiness is coming, sings Miami songstress Gia Wyre at a breathless pace, on “It’s On the Way.” Near the vamp, Wyre lets loose with some good old quartet-style moaning and shouting as the musical [...]
“Never Stop Trusting God” Lemmie Battles DAF Entertainment Group (release date: June 17, 2022) By Robert M. Marovich Every song Lemmie Battles sings sounds like her personal testimony. Probably because every song is. Same with “Never Stop Trusting God.” Written by Percy Gray and produced by Jeral Gray Sr., the single features that Chicago-style pew-burning [...]
“With Joy We Draw Water” The Bishop’s Choir feat. Kyle Sanders Enon Music Group (release date: April 15, 2022) www.enonmusic.com By Robert M. Marovich The Bishop’s Choir gives the original John Howard Caravan classic, “With Joy We Draw Water,” a full-throated rendering, complete with impassioned lead by Min. Kyle Sanders. From the Sim Wilson Jr. [...]
By Robert Marovich
In A City Called Heaven, gospel announcer and music historian Robert Marovich shines a light on the humble origins of a majestic genre and its indispensable bond to the city where it found its voice: Chicago.
By Robert Marovich
In A City Called Heaven, gospel announcer and music historian Robert Marovich shines a light on the humble origins of a majestic genre and its indispensable bond to the city where it found its voice: Chicago.
By Bob Marovich Not that she would have called it her bucket list, but a young Janice Gaines had three childhood aspirations. “As a little kid,” she told the Journal of Gospel Music, I would play like was a teacher, and I would play like I was a singer, and I would play like I [...]
A. Jeffrey LaValley; Credit: Facebook Get the details behind the creation of some of gospel music's most popular songs at JGM's Genesis of a Gospel Song. A. Jeffrey LaValley: “Revelation 19” (Hallelujah, Salvation and Glory) A. Jeffrey LaValley, as told to JGM’s Bob Marovich I was born in Milwaukee and brought up at the [...]
By Bob Marovich In July, Voorhies Hanniboheez of Detroit received the 2015 Rhythm of Gospel Award for Best Performance by a Christian Hip Hop Artist. It was his first public honor and confirmation of a journey that has taken a decade to crystallize. “[This award] means everything to me,” Voorhies told JGM. “I never really [...]
Sheila Wilson, a worship leader who had recorded with her gospel star son Bryan Andrew Wilson, passed away November 9, 2022, at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, GA. She was battling stage 4 cancer when she she suffered a cardiac arrest. She was 65 years old.
September 30, 2022 - One of the current kings of gospel quartet music, Keith “Wonderboy” Johnson, has died suddenly at the age of 50. Johnson was found dead in his Atlanta, GA, home this morning. An autopsy is scheduled. Johnson was known for big gospel radio hits such as “Let Go and Let God Have [...]