Sizzlin’ This Week (8/15/11) – “Work It Out”

“Work It Out”
Evelyn Turrentine-Agee
From the CD, There’s Gonna Be A Meeting (2010)
www.shanachie.com

She’s called the “Queen of Quartet.”  There’s a good reason for that–actually there are several.  Her smash hit “God Did It” is just one.  Her current foot-stomper “Work It Out” is another.

Turrentine-Agee just knows what to do with a quartet groove.  You won’t catch her over-singing and you won’t find her doling out random phrases just to fill up a run and shout an audience.  She doesn’t utilize showy stage antics.  She just ministers with conviction, out of her own experiences with her personal testimonies: “My children needed shoes/My home was in a mess/God worked for me…”

“Work It Out” is everything quartet: hand claps, toe taps, a rhythmic lead guitar (Alton Hollis), call and response, and a run that will move the hatted church mothers into the aisles in a holy dance.