Tag: sue roseberry

"He's Very Much Alive" – Sue Roseberry

“He’s Very Much Alive”
Sue Roseberry (2013)
www.sueroseberry.com

Sue Roseberry He's Very Much Alive art work

Sue Roseberry, aka “Mama Sue,” has been making waves on the traditional choir scene for a long time, and ever since her stay on BET’s Sunday Best 4, fans have eagerly awaited the release of new music from the endearing vocalist.  Well, the wait is over and Roseberry is here with a brand new single, “He’s Very Much Alive,” from her forthcoming CD, Magnificent God.

With a shuffle feel, octave-toggling bass, swelling horns, and a cast of soulful background singers, Roseberry communicates the truth of the matter in an inimitable style that her audience readily identifies as praise-provoking: “He’s not on the cross, He’s not in the tomb—He’s alive! Jesus is alive!”

Besides being the vocal powerhouse you came to know and love from the Sunday Best competition, Roseberry is a writer with more than 300 compositions to her credit.  Additionally, she is a favorite at Gospel Music Workshop of America gatherings and an encourager to her industry compatriots.

Africa's Glorious Lamps make their first GMWA appearance

By Libra Boyd
Gospel Music Fever

Twenty-two years ago, they were all incarcerated for refusing to serve in a force engaged in killing their fellowmen.  Today, they are shouting “hallelujah” and giving God praise for their spiritual and physical freedom.

The Glorious Lamps (left) brought the GMWA crowd to its feet at the Monday night musical, as much for their testimony as for their energy and uptempo song.  Sometime after being incarcerated, the men were overheard singing together, and the rest is simply divine intervention.

“You guys don’t belong in here,” they were told by the official who overheard them.

“And he backed up the truck,” recalls a group member, “and put us on this truck, and [carried] us to the next liberated country, the Ivory Coast.”
Other house-wrecking performances during the Monday night musical were Atlanta’s Chosen Aggregation (“God Specializes”), Timiney and Anasia Figueroa (“I Decided to Make Jesus My Choice”), and the Cincinnati chapter of GMWA with a sweltering medley (“Two Wings/I’ll Fly Away”).  The Dallas chapter’s charging number about the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus was so contagious that the audience spontaneously reprised the vamp as the choir exited the stage.  One spontaneity led to another as a mic toss ensued and “Mama” Sue Roseberry (BET’s Sunday Best 4 finalist) was pulled from her seat in the audience to add fuel to the Holy Ghost fire. 
Last night was a clear indicator that the old songs of the church have not been abandoned for the new.

Sizzlin' This Week (8/8/11) – "Jesus Is Love"

My pick this week differs from the usual in that it has not yet been recorded.  Well, actually, Lionel Richie’s “Jesus Is Love” has been recorded, first by his own funk/soul group The Commodores in 1980, and later by several other artists both secular and gospel, including Melvin Williams and Smokie Norful & Heather Headlley.  Richie himself also performed it at the memorial service of his friend Michael Jackson.

My pick, however, is the one performed by none other than “Mama” Sue Roseberry last night on BET’s Sunday Best.  Honestly, the song has never been one of my favorites.  I know.  I’m probably the only one who thinks “Jesus Is Love” is an okay tune, but nothing extra.

Until last night.

Roseberry’s styling and ad libs were nothing short of brilliant, as she embarked upon making it more “wedding-y” (her word) to keep with the show’s “I Do” theme week.  It was enough to stir Donnie McClurkin–and not exactly in the Holy Ghost, either.  In fact, I wrote to BET.  Well, it was really a status update on my Facebook wall:

Dear BET Sunday Best: Mama Sue needs to record that NOW!!!  I don’t even like that song, but her version should become the definitive!

I’m telling you, Fever readers, Mama Sue’s cover of “Jesus Is Love” is a hit waiting to happen.