A little Thanksgiving sampling from Detroit Michigan, home of some of the best gospel in the world.
- Oh Give Thanks Rev. Charles Nicks & The Saint James Baptist Church Choir 6:27
Charles Nicks, Jr. [Charlie] (July 18, 1941 – July 28, 1988) was an American gospel musician and former pastor, organist, and accompanist of St. James Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan. Rev. Nicks released his first musical project in 1985, Come Unto Jesus with Sound of Gospel. He would release some albums while he was still alive, and others posthumously that would chart on the Billboard magazine Gospel Albums chart. In the late 80’s, Rev. Nicks collaborated with many other gospel performers and composers and he became a close friend of James Cleveland.
- I Thank You Lord The Southwest Michigan State Choir 2:47
In 1979 when this song was released, The Southwest Michigan State Choir of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) was under the direction of Mattie Moss Clark.
Juliet “Mattie” Moss was born the seventh of nine children to ministers Fred and Mattie J.Moss in Selma, Alabama. Moss began playing piano at six. By twelve, she had become the musician for her mother’s services at the Holiness Temple Church of Christ in Prayer and traveled with her mother to play at mission services, a trend she passed on to daughter Twinkie. After high school, she attended Selma University and received training in classical music and choral singing. Moss moved to Detroit in her early twenties to be with her sister Sybil Burke and became a member of Greater Love Tabernacle Church of God in Christ.
While with the Southwest Michigan State Choir, Mattie Moss Clark become the first person to separate vocal parts into soprano, alto and tenor. She received three gold albums with the Southwest Michigan State Choir, and went on to write and arrange hundreds of songs and recorded over 50 albums.