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Kierra Sheard Honored with the BMI Impact Award at the 2026 BMI Trailblazers of Gospel Music Awards
Multiple award-winning artist and songwriter Kierra Sheard received the BMI Impact Award in recognition of her impressive career and impact on the future of gospel music.
JGM Pick of the Week – March 31, 2026
“Word” Bishop Darrel Petties & Take 2 Independent (release date: November 14, 2025) By Robert M. Marovich “Word,” a declaration to keep the faith by remembering God’s promises during tough times, is a high-octane workout pinned to a contemporary musical foundation. It has the motive force of a locomotive without [...]
Pilgrim Baptist Church to Host April 25 Premiere of Kathryn Kemp’s Documentary on the Birth of Gospel Music in Chicago
Author and gospel music historian Dr. Kathryn Kemp is teaming up with Chicago's historic Pilgrim Baptist Church to host the screening of Jessica Parker picturesMake a Joyful Noise, a documentary about how God used suffering to birth a movement that changed music forever. The Red Carpet World Premiere will be [...]
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Bob Marovich of the Journal of Gospel Music interviews gospel recording artist Lil Prince.
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Recent Posts
Kierra Sheard Honored with the BMI Impact Award at the 2026 BMI Trailblazers of Gospel Music Awards
Multiple award-winning artist and songwriter Kierra Sheard received the BMI Impact Award in recognition of her impressive career and impact on the future of gospel music.
JGM Pick of the Week – March 31, 2026
“Word” Bishop Darrel Petties & Take 2 Independent (release date: November 14, 2025) By Robert M. Marovich “Word,” a declaration to keep the faith by remembering God’s promises during tough times, is a high-octane workout pinned to a contemporary musical foundation. It has the motive force of a locomotive without [...]
Pilgrim Baptist Church to Host April 25 Premiere of Kathryn Kemp’s Documentary on the Birth of Gospel Music in Chicago
Author and gospel music historian Dr. Kathryn Kemp is teaming up with Chicago's historic Pilgrim Baptist Church to host the screening of Jessica Parker picturesMake a Joyful Noise, a documentary about how God used suffering to birth a movement that changed music forever. The Red Carpet World Premiere will be [...]
Sponsored Post:
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.
This episode includes music reviewed on the Journal of Gospel Music between mid-October and late December 2024.
To update his 2007 Christmas song “The Savior Has Come,” gospel singer Bryan Andrew Wilson turned to New Orleans’s GRAMMY Award-winning Rebirth Brass Band to give it appropriate punch.
LATEST 5 STAR REVIEWS
LATEST PICK OF THE WEEK – SINGLES
“Fear is Not Welcome” Brian Courtney Wilson feat. Hilary Scott From the Motown Gospel CD Still (Deluxe) (single release date: July 9, 2021) www.motowngospel.com By Robert M. Marovich While the original version of Brian Courtney Wilson’s “Fear is Not Welcome” was potent enough, for the Deluxe edition of Still, he duets with Hilary Scott, co-lead singer [...]
“Amazing” Pastor Mike Jr. Blacksmoke Music Worldwide (release date: July 30, 2021) www.pastormikejr.com By Robert M. Marovich Pastor Mike McClure Jr., better known as Pastor Mike Jr., the 2021 Stellar Awards Artist of the Year and gospel music's current It Guy, cleverly gospelizes Gnarls Barkley’s 2006 smash hit “Crazy” as “Amazing.” Amazingly, it works. To [...]
“Still Faithful” Christina Bell feat. Fred Hammond From the Malaco Music Group CD Still Faithful (release date: July 30, 2021) www.malaco.com By Robert M. Marovich With or without assistance from gospel legend Fred Hammond, “Still Faithful” is former Z'iel member Christina Bell’s best solo single yet. To a lilting melody, Bell declares on the title [...]
“It’s Time” Mary Glover Independent (released October 20, 2020) By Robert M. Marovich In tone, tempo, and message, Mary Glover’s “It’s Time” commands people to snap out of it, get right, act right, and be joyful in the Lord. Glover’s sassy and declarative alto, honed in the community of quartet singers, is the ideal vehicle [...]
“I’d Rather Have Jesus” True Believers Malaco Music Group / 4 Winds (release date: June 23, 2021) www.malaco.com By Robert M. Marovich From the opening vocal harmony riff and the incessant piano triplets to the ultra-soulful lead vocals by Castro Coleman, “I’d Rather Have Jesus” sounds like a 1960s soul record but it is as [...]
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.
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (February 16, 2021) - GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame member, CARMAN, passed away Tuesday, February 16, 2021, at a Las Vegas, Nevada hospital, after fighting a series of complications resulting from surgery to repair a hiatal hernia. Carman Dominic Licciardello, known to fans worldwide as “Carman,” was 65. Born January 19, [...]
By Robert M. Marovich The Journal of Gospel Music was saddened to hear of the passing of Dr. Douglas Miller, a choir director, singer, songwriter, and contributor to the International Music Department of the Church of God in Christ. The following is a brief bio I wrote for the Malaco Music Group website. UPDATE: Special [...]
