By and By

Some nice traditional gospel from the 50’s. These are The Davis Sisters of Philadelphia.

  1. By And By The Davis Sisters 2:57

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Lord

Trin-i-tee 5:7 was a gospel trio from New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 1990’s. The group, who sold over 2.5 million albums, was marketed as a gospel alternative to R&B girl groups such as Destiny’s Child and TLC. The 1990’s saw the emergence of this type of “Urban Gospel” sound aimed directly at inner city youth in major black markets.

  1. Lord 4:26

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The group’s self titled debut album was released in 1998. The project debuted at No. 3 on the gospel charts and eventually stepped up to the top slot. It also reached the R&B Top 20 charts and was eventually certified gold. The album created three gospel radio hits in “You Can Always Call His Name,” “Mary Don’t You Weep” and “God’s Grace.” The CD would go on to spend 7 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Gospel Album chart, over 30 weeks in the Top on Billboard’s Contemporary Christian chart, and almost 50 weeks on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart.

In mid-1999, as they were about to finish recording their second album, Terri Brown left the group to focus more on her family, and was quickly replaced by the group’s make up artist Adrian Anderson.  (You take talent wherever you can find it! – RLS)  [Source: Wikipedia]

Can’t Nobody Do Me Like Jesus

A little traditional, uptempo (I mean UP-TEMPO) gospel from “The Truthettes” (what a great name!) singing “Can’t Nobody Do Me Like Jesus” from their 1982 album “He’s Still Working On Me”.  I could do a week’s work of posts of variations on this song alone; it’s a real gospel classic.

  1. Can't Nobody Do Me Like Jesus The Truthettes 2:35

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The Truthettes were a mother and daughter group that began singing in the early 70s. The late Willie Neal Johnson recognized the talent of The Truthettes and immediately contacted the Gospel Director of Malaco Records, the late Frank Williams. He told Frank that Malaco needed to hear this group as soon as possible because they had great talent. Frank agreed and The Truthettes came to Malaco. Willie Neal was correct on his judgement of The Truthettes, they did have incredible talent. Immediately, Malaco began work on their first album “Child’s Prayer” which was produced by Frank Williams. Because they were children and being in the recording industry is very overwhelming, Frank had them come to the studio and observe for a week in order to get a feel for how things worked and also to relieve the pressures of recording an album. This advice paid off as their first album was received very well and continues to be a staple throughout the country.

Jesus Is On The Mainline

Nice “old time” feeling version of this classic song, one of the very first songs The Geoff Hicks Inspirational Choir ever learned.

  1. Jesus Is On The Mainline The Myra Walker Singers 2:46

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Let The Words

I’m back from the southern climes and ready to jump back into blogging some great music.

Today’s song is from Take 6, one of the most remarkable and accomplished acapella groups ever. (I’ll post more, I promise.) These guys met in college and, story has it, started rehearsing in a big bathroom that they found had great acoustics. The musical geniuses behind this group are founder Claude McKnight (Brian McKnight’s brother) and Mark Kibble. Kibble has appeared as a judge on the reality TV show for acapella groups, “The Sing Off”.

  1. Let the Words 0:57

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I Live For You

Today we have a beautiful acapella contemporary Christian song with the same beautiful sound as Take 6.

College acapella groups could take a cue from this group and learn that great acapella is not about a bunch of people trying to emulate an entire percussion section, but in tight, beautifully crafted, intricate, close harmonies expertly sung.

  1. I Live for You True Vibe 3:01

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True Vibe was a short lived contemporary christian music group from Nashville, TN from 1999 – 2003. They recorded two albums, the second of which (See The Light) was nominated for a Grammy as Best Pop/Contemporary Christian Album in 2002.

Uphold Me

Starting in the early 1980s, The Winans from Detroit had a huge influence on contemporary gospel.  They broke all the rules blending gospel, soul, R&B, and tight vocal harmonies into gospel music unheard of up ’til then. They were signed to their first recording contract in 1980 by gospel legend Andrae Crouch. The Winan brothers, Ronald, Marvin, Carvin, and Michael,  went on to have successful careers as solo artist and/or song writers.

  1. Uphold Me - Live in Carnegie Hall The Winans 5:54

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Great Is Your Mercy

Sorry for the late posting; the power went out at 5:15AM and just came back on about 10 minutes ago (8:15AM)

This song is so simple, but, like many great gospel songs, just sort of sucks you in. The singers include not only Donnie McClurkin, but Queenie Lennox, Sheila Carpenter, Vincent Freeman, and Duawan Starling, with each singer putting their own spin on the melody.

  1. Great Is Your Mercy Donnie McClurkin 8:06

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Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie

So, I don’t know if this qualifies as gospel or not, but I had to post it anyway.

Yesterday on her Facebook page, Suzanne Buell, a new JVOI member, shared a video of this song and since then I haven’t been able to get the song and its rhythms out of my head.  After looking around YouTube, it seems there are all sorts of recording of groups doing this arrangement of this old Leadbelly song.  As far as I can tell, an a capella group called Moria wrote this version with the wonderful clapping/body percussion.

WATCH the video…its great to watch how they have choreographed the clapping and swaying that goes with it.

We Magnify Your Name

Happy Friday.  Get your woollies out for the weekend, it’s gonna be brutally cold!

Another wonderful song from Richard Smallwood. He really does have a way with creating great orchestral arrangements to go along with his songs. It’s great how this opens with just percussion and voices and then builds from there.

  1. We Magnify Your Name Richard Smallwood 5:04

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