Don Rutherford – Chronicles 16
Don Rutherford Chronicles 16 Thousand Generations Records (release date: January 19, 2019) www.donrutherfordmusic.net By Bob Marovich Hearing Don Rutherford’s Chronicles 16 reminded me of the concept albums produced in the 1970s by Canadian rock band Rush. This was confirmed with the one-two punch intro to the album’s “Canaan / The [...]
JGM Pick of the Week: November 19, 2019
“Happy” Edward “Busta” Fields & Friends DarkChild Gospel / BF Sounds Music (release date: April 21, 2019) By Bob Marovich Edward “Busta” Fields & Friends’ new single “Happy” is not a gospelized version of the Pharrell Williams hit from 2013 but a declaration that “holiness is right” and that all [...]
Whosoever South – Backroads & Small Towns
Whosoever Sourh Backroads & Small Towns Pit Bull Productions (release date: October 3, 2019) www.whosoeversouth.com By Bob Marovich Backroads & Small Towns, the new album by Whosoever South, the self-proclaimed “country crunk” trio from Southeast Georgia, pulls few punches as it expresses quintessentially American Christian values like hard work, faith [...]
JGM Pick of the Week: November 11, 2019
“Leave It Alone” Alvin Darling From the Emtro Gospel CD Leave It Alone (release date: September 20, 2019) By Bob Marovich From singer, songwriter, pastor, and Stellar and Dove Award nominee Alvin Darling comes “Leave It Alone,” a quartet-flavored roof-raiser. The verses string together familiar church aphorisms while the chorus [...]
Various Artists – No Other Love
Various Artists No Other Love: Midwest Gospel 1965-1978 Tompkins Square (release date: November 8, 2019) www.tompkinssquare.com By Bob Marovich Its playlist culled from the seemingly-limitless catalog of indie artists and labels, Tompkins Square’s various artists collection No Other Love is full of honest, unbridled soulfulness. There is no large record [...]
Ray Holland & the New Boyz of Triumph – Keep on Running
Ray Holland & the New Boyz of Triumph Keep On Running Sharp Records (release date: May 23, 2019) www.sharprecordsusa.com By Bob Marovich With notable exceptions (e.g., Thomas Spann of the Brooklyn All Stars), bass voices in gospel quartet have been gone for quite a while. That’s why it’s a delight [...]
JGM Pick of the Week: November 4, 2019
“Saved” April Hall Enon Music Group (release date: March 27, 2019) By Bob Marovich The featured soloist on Damon Little’s 2016 Billboard-charting “I Won’t Be Defeated,” April Hall returns with her own single, “Saved.” This new take on a traditional song finds Hall singing with austerity while the musicians and [...]
Jesse Cann – A New Song
Jesse CannA New SongJordan Line Music (2019)www.jessecann.com By Bob Marovich At the Rhythm of Gospel Awards this summer, a distinguished-looking bearded gentleman named Jesse Cann sat down at a keyboard. In the midst of a musical program featuring thunderous choirs, ecstatic groups, and spirited singers, he offered up an unassuming [...]
Out of the Dust – Now More than Ever
Out of the Dust Now More than Ever Independent (release date: September 13, 2019) www.outofthedustmusic.com By Bob Marovich If the Swell Season’s Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova made a Christian album, it would sound like Out of the Dust’s Now More than Ever. The sophomore release for the husband-and-wife duo [...]
Travis Greene – Broken Record
Travis Greene Broken Record RCA Inspiration (release date: November 1, 2019) www.rcainspiration.com By Bob Marovich Broken Record is Travis Greene’s fourth full-length album and continues the youthful sacred fusion of his previous work. Against convention, the album opens with a slow, introspective song called “The Breaker.” It is only after [...]
“Arise” – Jason Williams
“Arise” Jason Williams Paper City Records (release date: October 9, 2019) By Bob Marovich “Arise” by Jason Williams is an easy-to-learn worship song suited for church praise teams. Though on the single, an almost breathless Williams and his background vocalists are accompanied by bumping bass, grinding guitar, flashes of organ, [...]
JGM Pick of the Week: October 28, 2019
“I’ve Decided to Make Jesus My Choice” Marcel McManus Sr. Independent (release date: September 4, 2018) By Bob Marovich Sometimes you just need to hear gospel done the old fashioned way, like they used to do in church: solo voice and piano. A young man with an old soul, Marcel [...]
Joseph Price & the Prince of Peace Choir – Do You Know
Pastor Willie E. Kirkpatrick Presents Joseph Price & the Prince of Peace Choir Do You Know Prince of Peace (release date: August 2, 2019) www.princeofpeacechurchstl.com By Bob Marovich Though Prince of Peace Baptist Church in Berkeley, Missouri, has served the St. Louis area for nearly a century, its choir just [...]
“Praying and Believing” – Erica Campbell
“Praying and Believing” Erica Campbell My Block Records (release date: August 25, 2019) By Bob Marovich On this quintessential “coming to Jesus” song, Mary Mary’s Erica Campbell recognizes that the problems and complications she’s experiencing (first verse) and society is facing (second verse) are ours to accept but not to [...]
JGM Pick of the Week: October 21, 2019
“All In His Plan” PJ Morton feat. Le’Andria Johnson and Mary Mary Morton Inspiration/Tyscot (release date: September 20, 2019) www.tyscot.com By Bob Marovich “All In His Plan” addresses the issue we all grapple with: why do bad or hurtful things happen to us when God has the power to wipe [...]
Kirk Whalum – Humanite’
Kirk Whalum Humanite’ Mack Avenue Music Group (release date: October 11, 2019) www.mackavenue.com By Bob Marovich If music is a universal language, the jazz idiom seems particularly equipped to express the essence of every culture. In doing so, it has the power to unify the world. I suspect saxophonist Kirk [...]
Put the Whole Armour On: Female Black Gospel – The 1940s and 1950s
Various Artists Put the Whole Armour On: Female Black Gospel – The 1940s-1950s NarroWay (release date: October 18, 2019) www.gospelfriend.se By Bob Marovich (as originally featured in Living Blues) “If it wasn’t for the women, you wouldn’t have church.” This quote, which accompanies a vintage photograph of three African American [...]
JGM Pick of the Week: October 14, 2019
“He Loves Me” Yael Hilton Light Records / eOne Music (release date: August 30, 2019) By Bob Marovich Light Records was very fortunate to sign Yael Hilton, one of the most talented female vocalists to emerge from today’s galaxy of independent gospel artists. Her newest single, “God Can,” released in [...]
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