JGM Pick of the Week – March 21, 2022

“You’ve Been Good to Me”
Zacardi Cortez
Blacksmoke Music Worldwide (release date: January 27, 2022)

By Robert M. Marovich

“You’ve Been Good to Me” is a song with simple lyrics and a singable melody—essentially a chorus and pounding vamp—but it’s the aggressive, hard-charging way in which Zacardi Cortez and his background singers render it that brings the live recording audience within a hair’s breadth of a praise break.

Among the blessings Cortez identifies are those that rescued him from depression and from suicide ideation. “Have you ever been there?” he asks the congregation then turns back to his praise. “When I almost lost my mind, you were a mind regulator.” It’s a Sunday School-style song transformed by the  passionate conviction of a grateful soul whose life was saved by the intercession of the Lord.