(Nashville, TN) – February 10, 2022 – Globally-acclaimed label Motown Gospel (a division of Capitol CMG/Capitol and Universal Music Group) is honored to announce the signing of legendary 4-time GRAMMY-winning singer, musician, songwriter, entrepreneur, and First Lady of COGIC (Church of God in Christ) Karen Clark Sheard, in partnership with Karew Records, with plans to release her first new album in over half a decade later this year. It will follow Clark Sheard’s 2015 live album Destined To Win, her highest-charting album in her solo career and her 2010 studio album All In One, which earned GRAMMY, Stellar, Dove and ...

Christina Bell Still Faithful Malaco Music Group (release date: July 30, 2021) www.malaco.com By Robert M. Marovich There’s no place like home. So that’s just where Christina Bell went, to her hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana, to record a live worship service and package it as Still Faithful. Bell’s star has risen from her days in the youth choir at Shreveport’s Bright Star Baptist Church, to membership in the popular female gospel group Zie’l, to solo artist, and then actress, playing Twinkie Clark in Lifetime’s Clark Sisters biopic. Although Bell demonstrates dramatic flair on Still Faithful, it’s all about the singing. ...

Congratulations to the nominees and winners at the 36th Annual Stellar Awards, held Saturday, July 10, at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Jonathan McReynolds, Pastor Mike Jr. Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Jekalyn Carr, Kierra Sheard, and the Clark Sisters were among the evening’s top awardees. The youngest host in Stellar Awards history, Jekalyn Carr shared emcee duties with Tye Tribbett. BET will air the program on August 1. Here is a partial list of winners, posted originally on the Get Up! Mornings with Erica Campbell website: Artist of the Year: Pastor Mike Jr. Song of the Year: “Something Has ...

(DETROIT, MI) March 30, 2021— Karew Entertainment celebrates a major win at the 52nd Annual NAACP Image Awards. The legendary gospel group The Clark Sisters won “Outstanding Gospel/Christian Album” for their album, The Return. This is the group’s second NAACP Image Award win (first one being Outstanding Gospel Artist in 1983). The album has received praise from fans across the globe, and their current single “His Love” with Snoop Dogg, is charting top 5 on Billboard. “His Love” was written by group members Karen Clark Sheard and Dorinda Clark Cole, along with J. Drew Sheard II (producer), Kierra Sheard, R&B singer ...

By Robert M. Marovich Marcel West of Detroit informed JGM of the passing of Mother Ora Watkins-Jones, stalwart lead vocalist for the Southwest Michigan State Choir of the Church of God in Christ, under the direction of Dr. Mattie Moss Clark. Of a choir with more than 100 members, a few names stood out from the pack. Rose Marie Rimson-Brown. LaBarbara Whitehead. Vanessa Bell Armstrong. The Clark Sisters. Donald Vails. And Ora Watkins-Jones. Mother Watkins-Jones is perhaps best known for her vocal contribution, with Rimson-Brown (who passed away earlier this year), on the Southwest Michigan State Choir’s first radio hit, ...

PJ Morton Gospel According to PJ Morton Inspiration / Tyscot (digital release date: August 14, 2020; physical release date: November 27, 2020) www.tyscot.com By Bob Marovich Much is being made about Gospel According to PJ being PJ Morton’s return to gospel. But like the Reverend C. L. Franklin said of his GRAMMY-winning daughter Aretha, Bishop Paul S. Morton can say of his GRAMMY-winning son: he never really left the church. That’s because most of Gospel According to PJ is a re-introduction, in new arrangements, of sacred songs that Morton, a multi-genre musician, singer, songwriter and record producer, created for other ...

Kierra Sheard Kierra Karew Records & Entertainment / Provident Label Group / RCA Inspiration (release date: April 17, 2020) www.rcainspiration.com By Bob Marovich In a scene from the LIFETIME biopic The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel, Dr. Mattie Moss Clark stands before top officials of the Church of God in Christ who question her participation in a “worldly” musical presentation. In response, Clark challenges their inflexibility and intolerance. Pushing the musical envelope is a family tradition, and Kierra Sheard, Dr. Clark’s granddaughter, is the latest in the Clark-Moss dynasty to challenge convention. But it has taken an emotional toll ...

By Bob Marovich Like Beatles and Bob Dylan purists, fans of gospel’s celebrated Clark Sisters know every harmony, every vocal ornamentation, and every nuance of every singer on every song by heart—almost better than the artists themselves. No pressure on Donald Lawrence, musical director of The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel. The biopic premieres Saturday, April 11, on Lifetime (8 p.m./7 p.m. Central). The film is directed by Detroit native Christine Swanson (a fellow Domer from the University of Notre Dame) and stars Aunjanue Ellis as the mercurial Dr. Mattie Moss Clark; Kierra Sheard plays her own mother, Karen ...

“Don’t Judge Me” Kierra Sheard feat. Missy Elliott Karew Entertainment / RCA Inspiration (release date: August 9, 2019) By Bob Marovich The latest gospel-R&B mashup, “Don’t Judge Me,” teams Grammy-nominated and Stellar Award-winning Kierra Sheard of Detroit’s legendary Clark-Moss dynasty with Missy Elliott, iconic hip hop artist and soon-to-be MTV Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Awardee. In a tone of humility laced with media fatigue, Sheard sings “I just ran through the fire; please don’t judge me.” Though directly in response to those who put Sheard’s every move under a microscope, the song also serves as a rejoinder to haters everywhere ...

“Won’t He Do It” The Beard Sisters DBJ Entertainment (release date: November 15, 2016) www.thebeardsisters.com By Bob Marovich The Beard Sisters of Memphis (Angela, Latonya, and April) are a harmony trio. They sound inspired by Chicago’s Brown Sisters, or a younger version of the Clark Sisters, because of their sassy vocals, multifaceted rhythms, complex vocal blend, and sunny songs of praise and worship. On their soulfully retro-sounding single, “Won’t He Do It,” the trio celebrates God’s willingness to do everything for His people. The song’s hook is the reiterative freefall from a frenetic chorus of “Won’t He Do It” into a breezy jazz ...