Trisha Alicia – Pieces
Trisha Alicia Pieces New Day Christian Distributors (2016) www.trishalicia.com By Bob Marovich Martrisha Atkins (aka Trisha Alicia) is a singer-songwriter and spoken word artist whose album, Pieces, is a string of selections designed to tell a story—her story—not so much to achieve personal catharsis, though I’m sure it does, but [...]
JGM Pick of the Week: October 10, 2016
“Walking in Victory” Angela “Missy” Billups E’Mazin Entertainment (2016) www.cdbaby.com/cd/angelamissybillups6 New York-based singer Missy Billups returns to her traditional roots on her latest single, “Walking in Victory.” This uptempo call-and-response piece, which Billups introduced at gospel conventions this summer, contains a calypso-sounding chorus that offers a vivid image of Billups [...]
Mahalia Jackson – Moving On Up a Little Higher
Mahalia Jackson Moving On Up a Little Higher Shanachie / Spirit Feel (release date: September 30, 2016) www.shanachie.com By Bob Marovich Moving On Up a Little Higher may well be the finest collection of Mahalia Jackson selections ever released, and ranks among Anthony Heilbut’s best produced music projects to date. It’s [...]
Don Frost: Silk Suits and Raggedy Underwear
Don Frost Silk Suits and Raggedy Underwear NBA and NFL Players Publishing, Inc. (246 pages, illustrations) http://donfrostbook.com By Bob Marovich If books on gospel music remain woefully underrepresented in the pantheon of American music writing, the number of volumes chronicling the white Southern Gospel experience is smaller still. Not if [...]
Rev. Luther Barnes & the Restoration Worship Center Choir – The Favor of God
Rev. Luther Barnes and the Restoration Worship Center Choir The Favor of God Shanachie Entertainment (release date: September 9, 2016) www.shanachie.com By Bob Marovich Decades ago, Luther Barnes breathed the Red Budd Gospel Choir into life at the church his father, the late Reverend F. C. Barnes, founded in Rocky [...]
Best of Proverb & Gospel Corner Records: 1959-1969
Various Artists Best of Proverb & Gospel Corner Records: 1959-1969 NarroWay Records (2016) www.gospelfriend.com By Bob Marovich Gospel music has had many multi-taskers, chief among them the late Brother Henderson of Los Angeles, California. In the late 1950s, Sylvester C. “Duke” Henderson forsook his R&B singing career, hung up his [...]
JGM Pick of the Week: September 26, 2016
“Keep on Praising” Jewell & Converted Independent; release date: September 23, 2016 www.cdbaby.com/cd/jewellconverted The fiery female quartet Jewell & Converted score their second JGM Pick of the Week with “Keep On Praising.” To a handclapping tempo, lead singer Jewell Taylor offers hypothetical personal challenges as Converted responds by chanting “What [...]
Christopher Williams – Stepping Out
Christopher Williams Stepping Out (private release, 2015) www.cdbaby.com/cd/christopherwilliams24 By Bob Marovich Stepping Out by Christopher Williams, a Jacksonville, Florida, singer, songwriter, worship leader, and Rhythm of Gospel Award nominee, showcases a contemporary gospel stylist with more than a dash of smooth jazz in his veins. Most of the album's ten songs contain pop melodies [...]
Northern Delaware Chapter GMWA Recording Choir: God Be Glorified
Northern Delaware Chapter GMWA Recording Choir God Be Glorified (self-produced; release date: May 14, 2016) www.ndcgmwa.com By Bob Marovich Gospel choirs trained under the Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMWA) umbrella possess a certain style that non-GMWA choirs do not necessarily have. It’s spit-polish combined with passion, thunderous voices that [...]
JGM Pick of the Week: September 19, 2016
"I Give You Praise, Lord" Chicago Mass Choir From the New Haven Records CD I Give You Praise (2016) www.chicagomasschoir.com On their latest single, "I Give You Praise, Lord," the celebrated Chicago Mass Choir delivers P&W with P&D (power and drama). The song begins with the sopranos singing delicately, like [...]
JGM Pick of the Week: September 12, 2016
“God’s Got My Back” TaMyya J MM Music Group (release date: September 2016) www.tamyyaj.com Set to an urban AC arrangement, “God’s Got My Back,” the thought-provoking single from radio host and gospel singer TaMyya J of New Jersey, is about flipping one’s thinking from negative to positive. It’s a call [...]
Puchi Colon – Forever I Will Worship (EP)
Puchi Colon Forever I Will Worship EP Jovi Music (2016) www.puchicolon.com By Bob Marovich To my ears, Puchi (pronounced POO-chee) Colon is the reigning king of Latin Praise & Worship music. He established this position in the P&W field 20 years ago with his Spanish-language Christian albums and Salsa Worship [...]
Lift Me Up: Chicago Gospel Keyboard Masters
Various Artists Lift Me Up: Chicago Gospel Keyboard Masters The Sirens (release date: July 11, 2016) www.thesirensrecords.com By Bob Marovich Those who think traditional gospel music is dead, hapless victim of today’s P&W and urban AC influences in sacred music, The Sirens’ new release, Lift Me Up: Chicago Gospel Keyboard Masters, [...]
Joel Houston and Director Michael John Warren Discuss Hillsong Film “Let Hope Rise”
By Bob Marovich Hillsong - Let Hope Rise, the music documentary about the history and phenomenon that is Sydney, Australia’s Hillsong, "the biggest band you've never heard of," hits U.S. theaters September 16. JGM spoke by telephone recently with Joel Houston of Hillsong UNITED and the film’s director, Michael John [...]
JGM Pick of the Week: September 5, 2016
“Faith Can” Debbie Cochran From the album Faith Can (single released September 2, 2016) www.cdbaby.com/cd/debbiecochran5 There’s nothing like country music to evoke the angst of heartbreak. When combined with spirituality and faith, country music can turn heartbreak into inspiration. That’s what you get with “Faith Can,” a country ballad composed and [...]
Crowns of Joy – Back to the Basics
Crowns of Joy Back to the Basics (private press – 2015) www.cdbaby.com/cd/thecrownsofjoy By Bob Marovich The Pheba, Mississippi-based Crowns of Joy’s Back to the Basics album promises “old school—new flavor.” It delivers on its promise, largely through its “Trumpology” medley of drive-tempo hits of the past. The Rhythm of Gospel [...]
Denise Josiah – Songs For the Heart
Denise Josiah Songs For the Heart JoDah Ministries, LLC (2016) www.jodahministries.org By Bob Marovich Denise Josiah titled her debut album Songs For the Heart, but it could easily have been titled Songs From the Heart. The ten lovingly intimate sacred selections on the CD were penned or arranged over a [...]
“Favor of God” – K’metris Hunt
“Favor of God” K'metris Hunt Available from digital media outlets www.kmetrishuntmusic.com The debut single of Chicago’s K'metris Hunt showcases a controlled, confident voice delivering a lovely and melodic P&W ballad with deliberation but without unnecessary embellishment. Her sound has that unimpeachable genuineness that you hear in singers such as Janice [...]
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