By Bob Marovich “I always did love music,” Jonathan McReynolds told the website isportJournal of Gospel Music, “but I don’t think I ever envisioned a music career to come out of it.” Nevertheless, McReynolds, a rising star on the gospel music circuit, is poised to release his sophomore album, Life [...]
By Bob Marovich President Yvonne Seabrooks of the Chicago Area Gospel Announcers Guild informed JGM that Bishop Jerry D. Goodloe, pastor and overseer of Lighthouse Baptist Church of Chicago, has passed away. Born January 17, 1923, in Nashville, Tennessee, Bishop Goodloe moved at age four to Detroit, and then to [...]
Karen Clark Sheard Destined to Win Karew Records (2015) www.karewrecords.com By Bob Marovich “Can I take some time to talk to you? / To share a message to encourage you?” Karen Clark Sheard asks in “The Who Doesn’t Matter,” the opening of her new CD, Destined to Win, and a [...]
By Bob Marovich In some ways, it was like attending a gospel music hall of fame event wrapped inside a live recording session. The Clark Sisters were seated in the front row. Richard Smallwood sat behind them. Rows of gospel announcers, gospel music producers, and popular singers were to their [...]
“The Promise” Tiff Joy Tyscot Records/Walkway Music Group/VMan Entertainment Chicagoan Tiffany Joy McGhee, known as Tiff Joy, wrote and was featured on “Amazing,” the title track of Ricky Dillard & New G’s latest, and arguably most popular, album. “Amazing” earned her a Stellar Award for Song of the Year. We [...]
“But God” Pastor Judge Gardner Jr. presents The Voices of Testimony Ensemble Twitter: @LTMCHICAGO Who can resist a hand-clapping choir rouser, Chicago style? I sure can’t. “But God” by the Voices of Testimony Ensemble from the Living Testimony Church on Chicago’s Southeast Side (Judge Gardner Jr., Pastor) satisfies the appetite [...]
From a press release: Bill Duke (left) brings his years of talent and experience to direct and executive produce The Mahalia Jackson Story, a music biopic chronicling the life of the woman who rose from poverty and obscurity to become the world's greatest gospel singer and a music icon and [...]
The Journal of Gospel Music learned from Ron Barrett that Rev. Dr. Johnnie Colemon, founder of Christ Universal Temple in Chicago, died December 23. Here is a link to the church's website: http://cutemple.org/?page_id=2457 Colemon founded Christ Universal Temple (CUT) in 1956 and expanded her New Thought Church concept into a ministerial empire called [...]
Journal of Gospel Music Editor-in-Chief Bob Marovich has written the definitive history of gospel music from Chicago, the genre's birthplace. Available from the University of Illinois Press starting in April 2015. Read more here: UI Press | Robert Marovich | A City Called Heaven: Chicago and the Birth of Gospel Music. [...]
