Tag: Quartets

Lee Williams comments on his health, thanks fans for prayers

GMF founder and editor Libra Boyd spoke with Lee Williams this weekend.  Gospel’s iceman was prepping to greet fans, perform a concert later that evening, and promote the Spiritual QCs’ new CD, Living on the Lord’s Side.

Followers of his ministry can’t get enough of Williams and his group’s soul-drenched gospel.  It’s only natural that fans have become concerned by the ongoing questions surrounding his health.  GMF wanted to hear straight from the source if he plans to call it quits with the QC’s anytime soon.

“That’s not my choice,” offers the debonair frontman of few words.  “That’s not up to me; that’s up to God.”  While the decision does not rest with him, he adds that he intends to sing for as long as God allows him and the group to carry the much needed message of hope and encouragement.

And all the rumors about his health?

“If I had a nickel for every time someone has asked me that,” he asserts, “I wouldn’t have to sing anymore; I’d be a rich man.”  Pointing to heaven, he maintains, “That’s not up to me either.  Like I said, as long as He lets me…”

Williams wants his supporters to know that he genuinely appreciates their concern and prayers, and he looks forward to coming their way to have a “good time.”

Help Is On The Way – New Creation

New Creation
Help Is On The Way
Woods Productions (2011)
[email protected]

By Libra Boyd
Gospel Music Fever

While their debut 12-track project is entitled Help Is On The Way, RuBena Cooper-Woods, Tonya Woods, Karen Foust, and Devon Torain churn out their numbers knowing intuitively that their Help has arrived!

For New Creation, music is as much legacy as it is ministry.  As the pedigree goes, group members are the products of three popular NC based singing aggregations: the Cooper Four, the Faithful Travelers, and the Torain Family.

Accordingly, Help Is On The Way is loaded with tasty, homegrown gospel tunes, starting in high gear with “Praise Him,” written by vocalist/keyboardist Tonya Woods.  RuBena Cooper-Woods handles the lead on the brisk call to celebration.  New Creation then forges ahead with a mix of slow as well as velocious original songs and hymn arrangements.

Throughout the album, Cooper-Woods and Woods exchange lead chores as well as the writer’s hat on most of the pieces.  Easily among the project’s highlights are its tangy, pew-burning title track blazed by Cooper-Woods, followed by the slow yet simmering “God Specializes,” which is very appropriately suited to Woods’ velvety vocal texture.  “I Made It” is another one with plenty of spice, and Cooper-Woods seizes every available second of this hammering groove to celebrate all that she has overcome and to acknowledge that “it was You, Lord, that brought me through!”  Along with arrangement help from her brothers Thurman, Eric, and Derrick (New Creation’s producer, lead and bass guitarists, respectively), Woods shines again on a pop-soul flavored version of “Heir of the Kingdom,” from which she crafts an anthem for all who are in line to inherit.  Her stylings hint to India.Arie and the background vocals are light, lively, and crisp–a refreshing departure from the quartet vibe that powers the rest of the project.

Pastor George Crews, III also makes a pair of appearances on album–first, offering a passionate prayer and exhortation in “Everything You Need” (penned by Thurman Woods, Sr.) and later, crooning a remake of the Temptations’ “Christmas Everyday” to round out the project, declaring that Jesus “make[s] it Christmas, even in the fall.”

With Thurman “Peanut” Woods at the helm of production on this all-around delicious debut, the only suggestion I’d make is that a couple of the songs’ reprises be reserved for live performances.  Re-cranking a number tends to be most effective when the audience perceives it to be spontaneous rather than expected.

A CD launch like this makes one thing certain though: Help is just one of the many wonderful things on the way for New Creation.

Favorites
“Help is on the Way” – “God Specializes” – “Heir of the Kingdom”

Fever Meter
SMOKIN’ (4 of 5 Stars)

Sizzlin’ This Week (9/19/11) – “Yet Love”

“Yet Love”
Luther Barnes & the Sunset Jubilaires
Atlanta International Records (2011)
www.malaco.com

Luther Barnes is recognized as much for his easy-listening ballads as for his driving quartet tunes and churchy choir numbers.

“Yet Love,” his new single with the Sunset Jubilaires, is soon to be another hallmark of the Barnes repertoire. Its message is one of overcoming life’s hurts and disappointments and choosing the spiritually mature path of love and forgiveness.

Over a warm electric piano–later accentuated with finger-snapping percussion, electric bass, and a full drum kit–Barnes croons beautifully crafted lyrics, recounting emotional journeys to which most relate–brokenness, abandonment, and loneliness.

“But the Word of God in you stood strong,” the Sunset Jubilaires declare. “You’ve learned how to yet love!”

Sizzlin' This Week (8/22/11) – "Turnin' Things Around"

“Turnin’ Things Around”
George, Jr.
From the CD, The Signature of “G”
www.trueideasmusicentertainment.com

George Dickens, Jr. is the Stellar Award-winning songwriter behind Keith “Wonderboy” Johnson’s hit song “I Made It,” from his 2006 Just Being Me album (also featured on WOW Gospel 2007).  The Oak City, NC native is also a frontman and songwriter in his father’s group, George Dickens and the Gospel Disciples.

His recent effort is a solo project, The Signature of “G” which features “Turnin’ Things Around.”  An uplifting mid-tempo tune from start to finish, Dickens testifies of God’s provision and protection before cruising into a vamp that deposits in the spirits of all who’ll believe: “He’s turnin’ things around,” “He’s workin’ it out,” and “I can feel it!”

With Dickens’ Keith “Wonderboy” Johnson-esque lead, tight background vocals, and a laid-back yet forward-moving music arrangement laced with a sweet rhythm guitar, “Turnin’ Things Around” is my pick this week!

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.

Sizzlin’ This Week (8/1/11) – “I Got A Friend”

“I Got A Friend”
The New Pearly Gates
From the upcoming CD, Through It All (2011)

The New Pearly Gates of Suffolk, VA are gearing up for the release of a brand new CD.  In the meantime, I’m listening to the single, “I Got A Friend,” and I dig it.

There’s nothing fancy about it, and that’s a good thing.  Sometimes less is more. “I Got A Friend” has a simple hook, easy-to-learn verses and a pretty basic chord structure.  It’s an uptempo declaration of the unfailing devotion of Jesus, and we all can testify to that!

Kirby Powell of gospel quartet, The Powell Tradition, has passed

GMF is sad to report that Kirby Powell, lead singer of Robersonville, NC quartet gospel group The Powell Tradition, passed Wednesday.  He was 29 years old.
The Powell Tradition is a family group consisting of brothers and cousins who were exposed to music as toddlers and who have been singing together as The Powell Tradition for more than 24 years. The group’s recordings include It’s Been Too Long and Personal Diary.

At the time of Powell’s passing, the group was prepping for an appearance on Bobby Jones Gospel next month as well as a live CD/DVD recording this fall.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Kirby’s wife and his entire family, friends, and The Powell Tradition.

Funeral Arrangements:

Viewing
Saturday, July 23 
6-8 PM
Roberson Chapel
4014 US Hwy 64, Robersonville, NC 

Homegoing
Sunday, July 24
2 PM
South Creek High School (formerly Roanoke High)
21077 Hwy 903, Robersonville, NC

Sizzlin’ This Week (6/27/11) – “Like A Ship”

“Like A Ship”
Maggie Ingram & The Ingramettes
From the vinyl LP, The Miami Riot (1987)
AIR Records

I grew up listening to and enjoying Maggie Ingram and the Ingramettes.  So, I guess it sounds just a little bit odd to say that I attended my first Maggie Ingram concert by accident; but I did.

Yep, it was one summer about nine years ago, and our men’s choir had been invited to a musical at Rogers Grove Church International in Durham.  That afternoon, the choir and I arrived to find that we were among many groups and choirs also scheduled to perform.  I must confess that I was not at all interested in spending my entire Sunday evening at church, and after our choir sang, I was ready to leave.  Because I felt badly about wanting to bounce immediately afterward though, I stayed a little longer in support of the other singers and musicians.

After an eternity, which was really only a few groups later, I decided it was time to go.  (There’s only so much “Did’ya, did’ya, did’ya get that power?!” I can take at these quartet-styled musicals.)  With one hand on my gig bag and the other on my head, I scurried down the aisle.  Just as I got to the exit, I heard, “Maggie Ingram and the I-i-i-i-ngra-a-a-m-ettes” roar from the emcee’s mouth.  I stopped in my tracks, spun around and said, “Wha-?!  Maggie Ingram is here?!  Not ‘Richmond, Virginia Flood’ Maggie Ingram?!”

Yes, “Richmond, Virginia Flood” Maggie Ingram.  I couldn’t get back to my original seat, up front, fast enough; I scurried back up the aisle as quickly as I had scurried down seconds earlier.  This was a lady whose songs–“Like A Ship,” and her older cuts “When Jesus Comes,” and “Got A Mind to Serve the Lord”–blared nearly every Sunday morning on my Smurf novelty transistor radio.

Well let me tell you, despite disobedient mics and a half-filled sanctuary, the statuesque COGIC evangelist and her family wrecked the house–even treating the congregation to a portion of “Richmond, Virginia Flood,” climaxed by the hard-driving “Nobody’s Fault But Mine.”

Maggie Ingram and the Ingramettes are still going strong after more than five decades (even longer for the GMWA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient herself).  My pick this week is “Like A Ship” from the group’s most successful album, The Miami Riot, which reached #33 on the Billboard gospel music chart in 1988.

Sizzlin’ This Week (6/20/11) – “He Did It For Me”

“He Did It For Me”
Castro Coleman and Highly Favored
From the CD, Time Out!!! (2009)
http://catcolenation.com/

Castro Coleman is busy these days.  He and his group, Castro Coleman and Highly Favored, have a packed summer schedule; he is on the road (or more fittingly, in the air) with The Melvin Williams Group as a US music ambassador through The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad; and the man owns his own label, Baby Boy Records.

He definitely has the means to release his creative energy, and that’s exactly what he’s done with “He Did It For Me” from his Time Out!!! project.

“He Did It For Me,” which he labels “New Motown,” resembles cuts by guy groups from the mid to late 1960’s and is rich with a horn section (sax and trombone) and Funk Brothers-like percussion (triangle, hand claps, and a tight crisp snare–where’s the tambourine?).  More noticeably, “He Did It For Me” is a mid-tempo feel-good ode of gratitude: “I can’t take the credit for what I have/Said my blessings keep coming through/And I realize that everything in my life–oh–is because You did it for me.”

Appreciation musical for Nightingales’ “JoJo” Wallace set for this Saturday

GMF reminds you to show your support for one of NC’s own pioneering gospel singers, Brother Joseph “JoJo” Wallace, lifelong singer and guitarist of the world renowned Sensational Nightingales.

What:  “An Evening with Brother Joseph Wallace and Friends”
When: Saturday, June 11, 2011, at 3 P.M.
Where:  Union Baptist Church, 904 N. Roxboro Street – Durham, NC
Admission: FREE; an offering will be received for the Joseph Wallace Scholarship Fund

You can read GMF’s recent post announcing the appreciation musical and guests here: Nightingales’ Joseph “JoJo” Wallace to be honored with musical celebration.

Pictured in the circa 1954-55 photo are, clockwise from top:  Willie “Bill” Woodruff, Carl Coates, Joseph “JoJo” Wallace, Ernest James, and Julius “June” Cheeks.   GMF thanks Opal Nations for verifying this caption.