Tag: Choirs

"It is Well" – Joe Pace Presents: Pastor H.B. Charles, Jr. and the Shiloh Church Choir

Pastor H.B. Charles, Jr. and the Shiloh Church Choir cover art

“It is Well”
Pastor H.B. Charles, Jr. and the Shiloh Church Choir
From the CD, Joe Pace Presents: Pastor H.B. Charles, Jr. and the Shiloh Church Choir (September 23, 2016)
Shiloh Worship/360MusicWorX
www.Shiloh.church/music

By Libra Boyd
Gospel Music Fever

The sacred hymn “It is Well (With My Soul)” is two years older than the 141 year-old Shiloh Baptist Church, shepherded by Pastor H.B. Charles, Jr.  Nevertheless, Joe Pace’s arrangement of the hymn staple, as featured on the project, Joe Pace Presents: Pastor H.B. Charles, Jr. and the Shiloh Church Choir, melds the tune’s enduring lyrics with modern musical and vocal stylings to refresh the morning worship standard for a new generation.  

The Shiloh Church Choir’s contemporized version of “It is Well” is characterized by an uptempo rhythmic bounce and a vamp in which they emphatically affirm, “It is well with my soul / It is well with my soul, it is well!“

Pace is a Grammy, Dove, and Stellar-nominated songwriter, producer, and choir director.  The music industry veteran presently serves as Shiloh’s pastor of worship and arts.

“Come On Everybody” – Greater New Hope Mass Choir

Greater New Hope Mass Choir cover art

“Come On Everybody”
Greater New Hope Mass Choir (2016)
Touch One Musiq
Available at CD Baby

By Libra Boyd
Gospel Music Fever

Greater New Hope Mass Choir in Oxford, NC is having some foot-stomping church, and they don’t intend to do it alone.  They issue an exuberant invitation to “praise the Lord…for He is good, He is good, He is good” with their current single, “Come On Everybody,” recorded live during a spiritual service.

“Come On Everybody” has all the hand clapping, horn stabbing, organ riffing, and tambourine shaking you’d expect in a traditional church choir song.  Punctuated by pulsating bass and the lead vocal of the song’s writer and producer Brian Foster—who is Greater New Hope Baptist Church’s minister of music and co-founder of the North Carolina Community Choir (Malaco)—”Come on Everybody” has Sunday Morning written all over it.

"God's Grace" – Rev. Luther Barnes and the Restoration Worship Center Choir

Luther Barnes The Favor of God cover art

“God’s Grace”
Rev. Luther Barnes and the Restoration Worship Center Choir
From the CD, The Favor of God (2016)
www.shanachie.com

By Libra Boyd
Gospel Music Fever 

“God’s Grace” is the current single from Rev. Luther Barnes’ full-length release, The Favor of God, his first choir project in ten years.

“God’s Grace” adheres to Barnes’ characteristically uncomplicated vocal approach and traditional genesis, sauntering from his mild opening verses to the choir’s passionate refrain.

The singer/songwriter/producer/pastor is backed by the Restoration Worship Center Choir, which sounds like a compact version of the Redd Budd Gospel Choir that he recorded with for years. Barnes is the senior pastor of Restoration Worship Center.

"Take Your Burdens" – Juan Santiago and Uninhibited Praise

“Take Your Burdens”
Juan Santiago and Uninhibited Praise (2015)
www.jsuplive.com

Juan Santiago and Uninhibited Praise Take Your Burdens art work

Juan Santiago and Uninhibited Praise’s single “Take Your Burdens” can be summed up in one word: churchy.

 
JSUP, an aggregation of vocal talent recognized in and beyond the country for its captivating style of praise and worship (with songs like “Holy is the Lord” and “Healing Rain”), presents a markedly different sound with “Take Your Burdens.”  Vocalist Jeneal Johnson and JSUP’s cascading choir vocals make this moderately paced scorcher of a traditional choir number redolent of South Side Chicago Sunday mornings, Jackson Sunday afternoons, and Memphis Sunday evenings.

“Noel Noel” – Quebec Celebration Gospel Choir (Video)

The Hymns of the Church – Reverend Lawrence Thomison

Reverend Lawrence Thomison
Reverend Lawrence Thomison Sings The Hymns of the Church
Indie (2011)
Available at CD Baby 

By Libra Boyd
Gospel Music Fever

In case there is doubt about whether or not there’s still room for hymns in today’s churches, let Rev. Lawrence Thomison assure you in the affirmative with his fittingly titled CD Reverend Lawrence Thomison Sings The Hymns of the Church, produced by Jonathan Winstead and Chris Carr.

Backed by a 40-voice
choir with singers from the Nashville and Memphis areas, Thomison relies
heavily on his traditional gospel background to pour out each of the 11 sacred tracks
with fervor.  His charisma is as infectious on the handclapping “On the
Battlefield” (featuring Jennifer Selvy-Carr) and mostly a cappella “Let Jesus Lead You” as his worship is tangible on “Great Is
Thy Faithfulness,” over Julius Fisher’s soothing piano accompaniment.  Even a contemporized version of “Thank You Lord” has ample traditional flavor to be well received in either
style of worship.

In addition to Selvy-Carr’s appearance, other tag team efforts on this project are notable too. The always soulful Wess Morgan guests on “Yes, God Is
Real,” as does Michelle Prather on “Have A Little Talk With Jesus,” lifting every round of the bluesy, horn-laced song higher and higher as Rev. Thomison, choir, and band thrust her forward.

If you’ve actually seen him perform during his tenure with Dr.
Bobby Jones and the Nashville Super Choir–or even as a soloist–you’ll
wonder how Rev. Thomison managed to stand stationary at a studio mic long
enough to record “Blood Medley” without hotfooting like one whose shoes are ablaze, especially when he transitions from the Crouch
classic “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power” to uptempo selections “Power in the Blood” and “Oh The Blood of Jesus” before the climactic “I Know It Was the
Blood.”

Four additional hymns round out this churchy offering to make it
an enlivening interpretation of the music that has ushered many a
generation through the jerks and snatches of life.  Surely, if you think of hymns like a cached webpage on a newly updated website, then Reverend Lawrence Thomison Sings The Hymns of the Church is like hitting “Refresh” on your Internet browser.

Favorites
“Have A Little Talk With Jesus” – “The Blood Medley” 

Fever Meter 
SIMMERIN’ (3 of 5 Stars)

Churchy Christmas/Joy to the World – Beverly Crawford & JDI Christmas

Beverly Crawford and JDI Christmas
Churchy Christmas / Joy to the World
JDI Records (2012)
 
By Libra Boyd
 

You need not hear anything beyond this CD’s opening track to understand exactly why it’s called Churchy Christmas.

If your spirits need uplift this holiday season, Beverly Crawford and her labelmates at JDI Records have just what you need. Crawford herself kicks off Churchy Christmas with “Joy to the World,” a traditional Christmas carol recorded live in Dallas that she transforms into a high energy fire-starter. She’s backed by the 200-voice Antioch Fellowship Voices of Praise. (GMF recently shared the official video.)  The scorcher is followed by Shanika Bereal’s “Precious Lamb of God” and Gary Mayes and Nu Era’s “Don’t 4get the Baby,” featuring the sensational Nakitta Clegg Foxx (of the Kurt Carr Singers).  Both selections stand out beautifully for tenderly rendered vocals.

But it’s not just the ladies who deliver on this project.  Professor James Roberson ministers a flawless interpretation of the BeBe Winans ballad “I Wanna Be More,” and Patrick Lundy and The Ministers of Music sprinkle in some Yuletide funk with the bouncy “Emmanuel” (written by Cedric Thompson).  Earnest Pugh comes along and serenades the Savior on the jazzy “Hosanna” (which hints ever so slightly to Kool & the Gang’s “Joanna”), elevating the chorus after announcing, “I feel a key change in the house right here!” There’s still room for one more drive though, and that belongs to Chester D.T. Baldwin on “Go Tell It On the Mountain,” backed by a jubilant choir and band as he takes us on modulation after modulation.
 
Genita Pugh (“Holy to the Lamb”) and saxophonist Donald Hayes (“What Child Is This”) round out Churchy Christmas, making this CD one of the nicest and churchiest I’ve heard this season.
 
Favorites
“Joy to the World” – “Don’t 4get the Baby” – “Holy to the Lamb”

Fever Meter
SMOKIN’ (4 of 5 Stars)

"Lord, You're the Landlord" – Mississippi Mass Choir

“Lord, You’re the Landlord”
Mississippi Mass Choir
From the CD, Then Sings My Soul (2011)
www.mississippimass.com

It takes an aggregation like Malaco’s tenured Mississippi Mass Choir to pull off lines like, “Lord, You’re the landlord, and there’s a leak in Your building. Fix it, fix it like You said You would.”  Voiced by some other choirs, such words might come off as demanding; to the new school, maybe even a little corny.  Not so with Miss Mass.

Original member and principal vocalist Lillian Lilly capably leads this Frederick Knight composition (previously recorded by labelmate Eddie Ruth Bradford) with the faith-filled fervor that the informal and simplistic lyrics call for, while the multi-award winning choir concurs: “I can’t fix it….You’re my landlord….Fix it like You said You would.”

The metaphor may not necessarily strike a chord with younger listeners, but “Lord, You’re the Landlord” is definitely your grandmother’s kind of hand-clapper.

"No Weapon" – Pastor Linwood Dillard and The Voices of Citadel

“No Weapon”
Pastor Linwood Dillard and The Voices of Citadel
From the CD, Pastor Linwood Dillard Presents Churchin’ with The Citadel (2012)
http://citadelofdeliverance.com

Put your dancing shoes on, because you will surely need them for “No Weapon.”  Pastor Linwood Dillard and The Voices of Citadel’s exuberant single is an extended praise break with a layer of lyrics proclaiming the obvious: “No weapon formed against me shall prosper.”

The high energy stomper begins with an igneous 13-second homily before the band thrusts the choir into its emphatic declaration.

Superintendent Linwood Dillard, Jr. is the founding pastor of Citadel of Deliverance Church of God in Christ in Germantown, TN, and the International Youth Department President of the Church of God in Christ, Inc.

"A Story to Tell" – North Carolina Community Choir

“A Story to Tell”
North Carolina Community Choir feat. Darrell Luster
4Winds/Malaco Music Group (2012) 
www.malaco.com 

Originally posted March 20, 2012 at 7:58AM
Last Updated March 21, 2012 at 11:52AM

Darrell Luster takes the lead on North Carolina Community Choir’s new single “A Story to Tell.”

“What’s that behind that smile on your face?” the choir inquires over the unhurried horn-laced musical backdrop. “What kind of pain are you trying to erase?  How do you hide it–hide it so well?”

“I’ll bet you’ve got a story,” Luster interposes.  The choir returns, “A story to tell!” 

The choir was originally formed in 2008, under the direction of Ray Braswell, Jr. and James Bellamy in Rocky Mount, from the vision of Dr. Thomas L. Walker (known for his circa 1980 gospel gold album One Day at a Time).  At that time, the aggregation was called The Promise Choir.  Sometime later, the choir was revamped and renamed with Luster, Braswell, and songwriter Brian Foster at the helm.

The choir has performed on Bobby Jones Gospel, and has sung on projects by The Sensational Nightingales (Live in Rocky Mount), Darrell Luster & F.C. Barnes (“He Won’t Change”), and Lil’ Blair & The Fantastic Heirs.

“A Story to Tell” is a compelling preface to the North Carolina Community Choir’s upcoming CD memoir.