JGM Pick of the Week: February 2, 2015
“He Steps In” Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Mass Choir From the CD Oh To Be Kept By Jesus (Anniversary Edition) If you like gospel choir singing like it was done in the 1980s, you will love the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Mass Choir’s new single, “He Steps In.” This Houston church, [...]
Katherine Burton – The Lord is On My Side
Katherine Burton The Lord is On My Side New Dawn Music (2014) www.KatherineBurton.com By Bob Marovich The violin has had a dalliance with gospel music throughout the genre’s history, although more so as of late, due to the cross-pollination of musical styles in the inspirational/gospel category. Brooke “Viosocalist” Alford and [...]
L. Spenser Smith – Unstoppable
L. Spenser Smith Unstoppable Smithworx/eOne (2014) www.lspensersmith.com By Bob Marovich Recorded live on September 21, 2012, to an aurally appreciative audience at Northview Christian Church in Montgomery, Alabama, Unstoppable is singer-songwriter Bishop L. Spenser Smith’s debut as a solo artist. It's a strong debut, too. Smith is among the new [...]
JGM Pick of the Week: January 26, 2015
“Storms” Donald Malloy From LIVE. . .Finally Home www.donaldmalloyministries.com Recorded live a couple of years ago in Donald Malloy’s hometown of Cheraw, South Carolina, “Storms” leads the audience down the “don’t be discouraged” path about the storms of life. Just when you anticipate that Malloy will follow with, “but God [...]
Soul Stirrers – Joy in My Soul: The Complete SAR Recordings
Soul Stirrers Joy in My Soul: The Complete SAR Recordings ABKCO Records (release date: January 27, 2015 www.abkco.com By Bob Marovich The first ABKCO compilation of Soul Stirrers recordings on the legendary SAR Records was released more than a decade ago. With sixteen tracks, the Stirrers had the lion’s share [...]
Reflections – Ryan D. Rutley, B.A.
Ryan D. Rutley, B.A. Reflections Psalms Group (2014) www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RyanDRutleyBA By Bob Marovich Ryan Rutley’s Reflections is an album of mostly instrumental smooth jazz, or call it inspirational jazz, if you prefer. Rutley’s band consists of Charles “Chuck” Clark on drums, brother Darick on bass, Darryl Bebee on saxophone, and Levi [...]
Noreen Crayton – Divine Radiance
Noreen Crayton Divine Radiance Angel Star Music (release date: January 2015) www.noreencrayton.com By Bob Marovich Divine Radiance is the third sacred music album from New York-native Noreen Crayton. While her career includes significant musical stage work in the U.S. and overseas, Crayton has gospel roots and sings with the praise [...]
JGM Pick of the Week: January 19, 2015
“You Are” Virtue www.virtuegirls3.com Who said America has lost its Virtue? Nearly a decade has lapsed since their last release, but the Dove Award-winning and Grammy-nominated sister ensemble Virtue has returned with a new single, “You Are.” Set in the same rich urban AC groove that marked the group's prior [...]
BMI Honors Houghton, Pace Sisters, at 16th Trailblazers of Gospel Music Awards
Pictured above: The Anointed Pace Sisters and Israel Houghton (center) with BMI Executive Director, Writer-Publisher Relations Wardell Malloy (far left), BMI Vice President, Writer-Publisher Relations Catherine Brewton (center), and BMI Director, Writer-Publisher Relations Byron Wright (far right). (Photo Credit: Arnold Turner) ATLANTA, January 18, 2015 – Broadcast Music, [...]
Reverend Charlie Jackson – Lord You’re So Good
Reverend Charlie Jackson Lord You’re So Good: Live Recordings, Vol. 2 Fifty Miles of Elbow Room #6 www.50milesofelbowroom.com By Bob Marovich In 2003, Kevin Nutt’s CaseQuarter label issued the first comprehensive collection of vintage recordings by the guitar-toting Louisianan preacher Reverend Charlie Jackson. The CD compilation of impossibly rare 45 rpm [...]
Mighty Men of Faith – Nothing But Grace
Mighty Men of Faith Nothing But Grace N2L Records (2014) www.mightymenoffaith.com By Bob Marovich Nothing But Grace is the latest album by California’s Mighty Men of Faith, a quartet that rolls contemporary, musically and lyrically. Musically, the quartet paints a smooth patina—like an aural Dippity-Do—on their harmonies, giving the overall [...]
JGM Pick of the Week: January 12, 2015
“Brand New Day” 21:03 From the PMG Gospel CD Outsiders (release date: February 24, 2015) www.pajam-music.com What better way to start the new year than to celebrate a brand new day? That is what the two who now comprise 21:03—Evin Martin and Torrence Greene—do on “Brand New Day.” An energetic [...]
Stryper – Live at the Whisky
Stryper Live at the Whisky Frontiers Records (rel. September 23, 2014) www.stryper.com By Bob Marovich Jesus is the rock that makes Stryper roll. I wish I could take credit for such a clever line, but it is actually a paraphrase of a song title on Live at the Whisky by Stryper, [...]
Brian Courtney Wilson – Worth Fighting For
Brian Courtney Wilson Worth Fighting For Motown Gospel (release date: January 6, 2015) www.motowngospel.com By Bob Marovich Some singers are songwriters and some songwriters are singers. Brian Courtney Wilson is a songwriter—more appropriately a hymnist—who also sings. But make no mistake: the Stellar Award winning and Dove Award nominated Wilson [...]
“Thicker Than Water” Season Two Opens with More Life than Lifestyle
“Thicker than Water” Season Two begins Sunday, January 4, 2015, 9:00 p.m. ET/PT Bravo Media www.nbcunv.com/bravo By Bob Marovich If last season’s premiere of the Tankard Family’s reality television show, “Thicker Than Water,” was about lifestyle, the opener of the second season is about life. The opening episode, to air [...]
foreverJONES – Prayer Tools, Vol. 1
foreverJONES Prayer Tools, Vol. 1 (released November 11, 2014) www.prayerproject.foreverjones.com By Bob Marovich With its latest release, Prayer Tools, Vol. 1, foreverJONES may well have heralded a new subgenre of black sacred music: ambient inspirational. It is the Shreveport, Louisiana-based family band’s first project after departing EMI Gospel and first on [...]
“Amazing” – Rev. Julian Turner feat. the Turner Family
“Amazing” Reverend Julian Turner feat. the Turner Family Available on iTunes Reverend Dr. Julian Turner follows his exercise-inspired single, “Let’s Move for Jesus,” with another mover, “Amazing.” Produced by Michael Sutton and recorded with Rev. Turner’s family on harmonies, “Amazing” is a brassy praiser with a pop melody propelled by [...]
Meka King – Believe. The Live Recording
Meka King Believe. The Live Recording Sonflower Joy Music (rel. October 28, 2014) www.mekaking.com By Bob Marovich Those who attended Praise & Worship Leader Meka King’s live recording session at The Gathering Place Church in Sanford, Florida, on February 18, 2012, entered a gospel concert but exited a church service. [...]
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