JGM Pick of the Week: December 3, 2018

“Working for My Good”
Brandon Mitchell & S.W.A.P. feat. Lisa Knowles-Smith
From the BAMSWAP Music album Amazing

By Bob Marovich

Once again, an AyRon Lewis production makes our list: “Working For My Good,” by Brandon Mitchell & S.W.A.P. (Singers With A Purpose).

This selection, rendered in the 12/8 “rocking chair” time signature, belongs as much to the effervescent Lisa Knowles-Smith as to the Mitchell group. Like Dorinda Clark-Cole, Lisa turns the temperature up anytime she is a featured vocalist. She doesn’t just recommend faith in God as the ultimate balm, she demands it.

When Mitchell shouts, “Let’s take it to Mississippi,” a not-so-coded message to go old school (plus the group is from Mississippi, so there’s that), Lisa squalls a personal testimony as the root of her belief. The energy builds close to praise break level before shuttering to a halt.

Brandon Mitchell & S.W.A.P.’s 2017 album, Amazing, not only contains this soulful pressure-cooker of a selection, but also includes songs that feature two other songbirds who have appeared on the Journal of Gospel Music in the recent past: Michelle Prather and Adriann Lewis-Freeman.