Jermaine Dolly – The Dolly Express
Jermaine Dolly The Dolly Express DarkChild Gospel / By Any Means Necessary LLC (release date: June 9, 2017) By Bob Marovich The Dolly Express, the main conceit of Jermaine Dolly’s debut full-length album of the same name, bears similarity to the storied [...]
Bigger Than Me – Le’Andria
Bigger Than Me Le’Andria RCA Inspiration (release date: July 21, 2017) By Bob Marovich Bigger Than Me, Le’Andria Johnson’s fifth album, is her best album since her 2011 debut, the chart-topping Music World Gospel release, The Awakening of Le’Andria Johnson. Best because the songs, for the first time since Awakening, feel right [...]
Sherwin Gardner – Greater
Sherwin Gardner Greater Flow Masters / Tyscot Records (global release: May 26, 2017) www.tyscot.com By Bob Marovich Those who follow my reviews know I’m not typically sold on an album's selected single, and often feel other tracks on the CD are far stronger. But “Because of You,” the first American single from Sherwin [...]
JGM Pick of the Week: July 17, 2017
“Grace” Charles Jenkins & Fellowship Chicago feat. Le’Andria Johnson Inspired People, LLC (release date: July 7, 2017) Available from digital media outlets By Bob Marovich Pastor Charles Jenkins & Fellowship Chicago’s “Grace” feels like a quicker-tempo version of Kirk Franklin’s “I Smile” with its plinky piano, chirpy melody, finger-popping rhythm, [...]
Jeanette Jones – Dreams All Come True
Jeanette Jones Dreams All Come True Playback Records (release date: May 19, 2017) www.playbackrecords.net By Bob Marovich The title of Playback’s compilation of every known secular and sacred solo recording by San Francisco singer Jeanette Jones is deliberately ironic. All the more so in that Jones’ beautifully-sung ballad, “Dreams All Come [...]
JGM Pick of the Week: July 11, 2017
Bri photographed at BET's New York studio on April 19, 2017. (Photo: Andre L. Perry/BET) "So Good” Bri (Release date: June 9, 2017) Available from digital music outlets By Bob Marovich When on “So Good” Bri (Briana Babineaux) sings “God’s been so good to me,” there are plenty [...]
CASS: Genesis – Second Season
CASS Genesis – Second Season http://officialcass.com By Bob Marovich Genesis – Second Season is the debut full-length solo album for New Zealand-based Christian singer/producer CASS, aka Cassandra Kanda. It follows on the heels of the Season 1 EP she produced to test the waters of recorded music ministry while completing a [...]
JGM Pick of the Week: July 3, 2017
“Grace & Mercy” Tamika Patton feat. Min. Earl Bynum Available on iTunes and other Digital Media www.TamikaPatton.com By Bob Marovich On the independent single, "Grace & Mercy,” Tamika Patton proclaims her gratitude to God for his unconditional love and forgiveness. Such compassion, given “to a wretch like me,” has inspired [...]
“The Call” – Personal Praise
“The Call” Personal Praise RoBabies Records (release date: March 28, 2017) www.MyPersonalPraise.com By Bob Marovich Close your eyes, and with the exception of the first few seconds of throbbing electronica, you’d swear “The Call” is a record from the ‘80s. Well it is. . .kinda. Originally introduced in the late [...]
Adam Everett – If You Are Weary
Adam Everett If You Are Weary Polytone Records (release date: May 11, 2017) https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/adameverett By Bob Marovich If John Hiatt made a gospel album, it would sound like Adam Everett’s If You Are Weary. This eight-track collection of hymns and newly-composed songs is the product of a new breed of [...]
JGM Pick of the Week: June 27, 2017
“Fly Away” Shonda English feat. Dorothy Norwood Available at digital music stores www.shondaenglish.com By Bob Marovich It might be intimidating to duet with a legend such as Dorothy Norwood, but to Shonda English, The Storyteller of Gospel is “Aunt Dot.” It was “Aunt Dot,” in fact, who brought Bob Jeffreys [...]
De’Leon – Church Boy Soul (EP)
De’Leon Church Boy Soul EP We Here Now Music Group (release date: April 14, 2017) www.deleoncarr.com By Bob Marovich A member of some of the top gospel choirs of their day and now a 2017 Rhythm of Gospel Award winner, De’Leon Carr offers a cornucopia of sounds, styles, and messages [...]
“Trouble in My Way” – New Friendship Anointed Voices feat. Betty Lott
“Trouble in My Way” New Friendship Anointed Voices feat. Betty Lott From the CD A Long Time Coming: Legacy Fulfilled https://www.facebook.com/NewFriendshipMissionaryBaptistChurch/ By Bob Marovich “Trouble in My Way” is not the kind of gospel song you hear on urban radio, necessarily, but it is the kind of gospel song you [...]
Men of God’s Heart (self-titled)
Men of God’s Heart self-titled Independent release; release date: March 24, 2017 Available at digital music retail outlets By Bob Marovich Men of God’s Heart is a six-member contemporary quartet that can easily draw comparisons to the Rance Allen Group, the Mighty Clouds of Joy, and the Winans. In fact, [...]
“He’s My Rock” – Patrick Lundy & Ministers of Music
“He’s My Rock” Patrick Lundy & Ministers of Music (2017) www.plundymom.com By Bob Marovich Birthed more than twenty years ago out of the AME Church, Patrick Lundy & Ministers of Music offers a passionately rendered conventional R&P called “He’s My Rock.” The mid-tempo selection comes complete with the brassy vibrato-laden [...]
William E. Johnson III – One God
William E. Johnson III One God WEJ Music (release date: January 28, 2017) https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/williamejohnsoniii By Bob Marovich The Latin words on the Great Seal of the United States, e pluribus unum (out of many, one), could be the subtitle of William E. Johnson III’s One God. Unified praise by a [...]
JGM Pick of the Week: June 14, 2017
“Alabaster Box” Lillie Nicole McCloud From the album Red Apples (release date: May 27, 2015) https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/lillienicolemccloud By Bob Marovich In 2013, Lillie Nicole McCloud of Orlando, Florida, wowed all four judges and the entire audience on Season 3 of the television competition show The X Factor with her rendition of CeCe [...]
Darrell McFadden & the Disciples – Covering All Areas: Phase One (EP)
Darrell McFadden & the Disciples Covering All Areas: Phase One (EP) DMDMG (release date: April 25, 2017) http://dmdaccess.com/ By Bob Marovich This five-track EP by Brooklyn quartet Darrell McFadden & the Disciples may not, as its title suggests, cover all areas, at least in terms of musical styles. What it [...]
