JGM Pick of the Week: January 28, 2025
“He Will Heal the Land” Rev. Hayward Anderson & the Davis Chorale Singers Anderson Music Group (release date: August 26, 2024)
“He Will Heal the Land” Rev. Hayward Anderson & the Davis Chorale Singers Anderson Music Group (release date: August 26, 2024)
JamesTown Music, founded by GRAMMY-nominated and multiple Stellar Award winner, JJ Hairston, has announced the signing of a deal finalizing a partnership between Motown Gospel and JamesTown Music.
If you've run out of reasons to pray, Tyreese Hall & the Golden Stars have some ideas for you.
“I Do, Don’t You” Kergyma Community Choir From the Kergyma Music Group album Choir Life (Deluxe Version) (release date: June 24, 2021) www.kergyma.org By Robert M. Marovich I appreciate when a contemporary gospel group pulls out the hymnbook and updates an old standard for today’s audiences. That’s what the Kergyma [...]
By Robert M. Marovich Anne' DuBose informed JGM of the passing of her father, Jonathan "Papa Joe" DuBose Sr. He transitioned today at age 82. Papa Joe DuBose was a member of the Sensational Starlights gospel quartet of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and a leader in the local gospel music community. Anne' [...]
“America Bless God” Bonita Burney Simmons Independent (release date: January 7, 2021) www.bonitaburneysimmons.com By Robert M. Marovich In the introduction to “America Bless God,” the award-winning North Carolina gospel singer Bonita Burney Simmons offers an invitation to worship by quoting the patriotic anthem written by Irving Berlin in 1938, but [...]
“Grateful” James Chappell III Independent (release date: October 5, 2018) [email protected] By Bob Marovich “Grateful” is a charming, smile-inducing song on its own, but add James Chappell III as lead vocalist, and it delights on two levels. In less than three minutes, Chappell channels the elastic yodels of Sam Cooke [...]
“Light Up the Darkness” Andre Byrd Independent release (March 2016) www.andrebyrdonline.com With “Light Up the Darkness,” Stamford, Connecticut, singer-songwriter Andre Byrd injects into song his call for direct social action. To a hook-laden pop melody that shimmers with Shellback-style blasts of electronica, Byrd appeals to us to stop acting like [...]
“Breakthrough” Bonita Burney Simmons (released October 19, 2015) www.bonitaburneysimmons.com Bonita Burney Simmons infuses her single, “Breakthrough,” with a toolkit of traditional church soloist techniques. Melismatic runs, soulful top notes, and lyric attacks a la Jennifer Hudson--all in the service of encouraging listeners to stay faithful, because their own breakthroughs are on [...]
By Bob Marovich The stage curtains opened on JJ Hairston & Youthful Praise as the group was about to introduce its new song and soon-to-become-hit, “Incredible God, Incredible Praise.” Holding the microphone was the song’s creator, Deon Kipping. That wasn’t the way it was supposed to go down. “I didn’t [...]