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RIP: Judy Cheeks – Singer, Daughter of Rev. Julius Cheeks
Judy Cheeks, daughter of Reverend Julius Cheeks and a singing star during the disco era, passed away on November 26 at the age of 71.
Grammy-winner Erica Campbell Is Rewriting the Gospel Playbook with “Laugh, Cry, Heal”
(September 19, 2025, Los Angeles, CA) — Erica Campbell is no stranger to the spotlight. As a six-time GRAMMY® Award-winning artist, bestselling author, and morning radio host, she’s graced stages around the world. But this fall, she’s stepping onto a new kind of stage, one designed not just for applause, [...]
Quartet Music Awards® Announce 4th Annual Celebration Honoring Gospel Quartet Excellence
Charlotte, NC – The Quartet Music Awards® (QMA®) is proud to announce its 4th Annual Awards Show, set to take place on Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Charlotte, North Carolina. This highly anticipated event will once again bring together gospel music lovers, artists, and industry leaders for an unforgettable weekend [...]
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Melba Moore's new memoir, "This Is It," is available now through Amazon Books.
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Recent Posts
RIP: Judy Cheeks – Singer, Daughter of Rev. Julius Cheeks
Judy Cheeks, daughter of Reverend Julius Cheeks and a singing star during the disco era, passed away on November 26 at the age of 71.
Grammy-winner Erica Campbell Is Rewriting the Gospel Playbook with “Laugh, Cry, Heal”
(September 19, 2025, Los Angeles, CA) — Erica Campbell is no stranger to the spotlight. As a six-time GRAMMY® Award-winning artist, bestselling author, and morning radio host, she’s graced stages around the world. But this fall, she’s stepping onto a new kind of stage, one designed not just for applause, [...]
Quartet Music Awards® Announce 4th Annual Celebration Honoring Gospel Quartet Excellence
Charlotte, NC – The Quartet Music Awards® (QMA®) is proud to announce its 4th Annual Awards Show, set to take place on Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Charlotte, North Carolina. This highly anticipated event will once again bring together gospel music lovers, artists, and industry leaders for an unforgettable weekend [...]
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Journal of Gospel Music presents its Best of List for 2024
Given the unexpected success of, and critical acclaim for, the 2023 release Parchman Prison Prayer – Some Mississippi Sunday Morning, GRAMMY Award-winning producer and author Ian Brennan flew back to the Mississippi penitentiary to do a second album, Parchman Prison Prayer - Another Mississippi Sunday Morning.
MAVERICK CITY MUSIC LANDS NOMINATION ALONGSIDE GLORILLA FOR #1 BILLBOARD DIGITAL GOSPEL SONG “RAIN ON ME” TRIBL RECORDS SCORES MOST NOMINATIONS ACROSS ALL CHRISTIAN & GOSPEL LABELS (ATLANTA, GA) – [...]
Gospel Diaries Golden Memories is a series of musical moments captured by historian Eric Maurice Clark during his visits with vocalists and musicians, most of whom have direct links to gospel’s earliest days, especially in Chicago, the genre’s birthplace city.
Mervin Mayo, the Richmond, Virginia, policeman whose gospel singing was caught on video in 2020 and subsequently went viral, sings “In This Place” with a gritty and instantly-compelling R&B-style vocal delivery.
Trading truisms with a full-throated choir, Bishop Norman Hutchins reminds the listener in his boisterous new single that God has brought his people a mighty long way.
LATEST 5 STAR REVIEWS
Various Artists The Best of Revelation Records: 1959-1962 Narro Way Records (released September 16, 2014) www.cityhallrecords.com www.gospelfriend.com By Bob Marovich Mention the name Bobby Robinson to popular music historians, and you will hear how he founded a number of New York-based record labels, including Whirling Disc, Fury, Enjoy, and Red Robin, and released classic hits [...]
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 [...]
LATEST PICK OF THE WEEK – SINGLES
“God is Great” | Kara Nichole | Independent (release date: September 5, 2022)
“Impossible” | Pastor Mike Jr. | Black Smoke Music Worldwide (release date: October 22, 2022)
“Do You Know the Man” | Harlem Gospel Travelers | Colemine Records (release date: October 18, 2022)
“Jesus I’ll Never Forget” | Zak Williams & 1/Akord feat. Lowell Pye | Enon Music Group (release date: October 7, 2022)
“View the City REMIX” | RiZen | DAF Entertainment Group (2022)
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 [...]
Wednesday, August 2, 2023, saw the passing of two towering figures in the history of African American gospel music: musician and educator Kenneth Woods Jr. and Professor L. Stanley Davis.
Kenneth Woods Jr. transitioned from labor to reward this morning, August 2, 2023. He was 94.
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