Following are additional albums released during March 2020 across multiple genres—some will be reviewed in future issues of Black Grooves.
Continue readingTag Archives: Gospel
Isaac Carree – No Risk, No Reward
Title: No Risk, No Reward
Artist: Isaac Carree
Label: Shanachie Ent.
Formats: CD, Digital
Release date: March 20, 2020
After a seven year hiatus, Isaac Carree has finally released a new solo project, No Risk, No Reward. According to Carree, the title of the album echoes his mantra: “If you never take risk, you will never get the ultimate reward.” So far Carree’s “no risk, no reward” behavior has landed him at #1 on Gospel Billboard and Gospel Radio charts multiple times, and his new release is likely to follow this path to the top of the charts.
Continue readingReverend John Lee Hooker Jr. – Testify
Title: Testify
Artist: Reverend John Lee Hooker Jr.
Label: Steppin’ Stone
Formats: CD, Digital
Release date: February 14, 2020
John Lee Hooker Jr. grew up in Detroit, Michigan as the son of one of the greatest blues music icons in the world, the late and the great John Lee Hooker (1917-2001). As a bluesman, Rev. Hooker traveled the world performing with musical artists such as B.B. King, Snoop Dogg, Taj Mahal, Lenny Kravitz, Z.Z. Top, Buddy Guy and the late Etta James. After a long and successful career in secular music, Hooker became an ordained minister and is now singing a different tune—the tune of gospel—wrapped in his signature soulful blues sound.
Continue readingFebruary 2020 Black Music Releases of Note
Following are additional albums released during February 2020 across multiple genres—some will be reviewed in future issues of Black Grooves.
Continue readingRenee Spearman – I Love Him
Title: I Love Him
Artist: Renee Spearman
Label: JDI
Formats: CD, Digital
Release Date: June 7, 2019
Billboard-charting gospel singer/songwriter/producer Renee Spearman has worked in the gospel music recording industry for over three decades and continues to champion her genre. After “standing in the shadows” for many years as a background vocalist for numerous popular music artists including Gladys Knight and Yolanda Adams, Spearman’s solo career took off in 2012 with the release of her successful debut album, Whoa to Wow!, which reached #4 on the Billboard gospel album charts. Her recent release, I Love Him, is yet another career highlight.
Continue readingVarious Artists – Jubilee Showcase
Title: Jubilee Showcase
Artist: Various
Label: Time-Life Music
Formats: Digital
Release date: January 17, 2020
Chicago was the birthplace of two of the earliest gospel music television series. The half hour syndicated show TV Gospel Time aired on NBC Sunday mornings from 1962-1965, and a 2-DVD set of selected programs was released in 2010 under the title Soul of the Church. Now, ten years later, Time-Life Music is releasing “36 raw, live performances” from the more famous Emmy® Award winning series, Jubilee Showcase. Created and hosted by Sid Ordower, a Jewish civil rights and labor activist, Jubilee Showcase aired on ABC’s Chicago affiliate, WLS Channel 7, from 1963 to 1984. These programs introduced gospel music and Black culture in general to a much broader audience during the peak years of the Civil Rights Movement.
Continue readingJanuary 2020 Black Music Releases of Note
Following are additional albums released during January 2020 across multiple genres—some will be reviewed in future issues of Black Grooves.
Continue readingDecember 2019 Black Music Releases of Note
Following are additional albums released during December 2019 across multiple genres—some will be reviewed in future issues of Black Grooves. Continue reading
New Holiday Albums: The Best of 2019
That special time of year has come around again, filling everyone with holiday cheer. But nothing has the ability to spread Christmas spirit quite like music does. Following are brief reviews of what we believe to be the best holiday albums so far this year, featuring releases from Keb’ Mo’, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, The McCrary Sisters, Elijah Blake, Jonathan Butler, and Mariah Carey. We hope these selections provide the perfect soundtrack for everyone’s holiday season. Continue reading
Cadillac Baby’s Bea & Baby Records: The Definitive Collection
Title: Cadillac Baby’s Bea & Baby Records: The Definitive Collection
Artist: Various
Label: Earwig
Formats: 4 CD Box Set
Release date: August 9, 2019
Produced by Earwig Music Company’s Michael Robert Frank, Cadillac Baby’s Bea & Baby Records: The Definitive Collection is hands down one of the best box sets of the year. The beautifully produced hard cover book includes four CDs inserted into the front and back covers, while the lavishly illustrated inner pages tell the story of the Chicago based independent record company owned by Narvel Eatmon, a colorful character better known on the South Side as “Cadillac Baby.” Frank began this labor of love in 2006 when he purchased the entire catalog and archive of the Bea & Baby label, with the goal of sharing Cadillac Baby’s musical legacy with the rest of the world. The result is this comprehensive anthology which includes all released and unreleased tracks (with a couple of exceptions), ranging from urban and country blues, gospel, doo-wop, soul, and comedy, to rap. Along the way, Cadillac narrates his own story through six spoken word tracks interspersed throughout the collection. Other “expert witnesses” from Chicago include Jim O’Neal (Living Blues magazine), Bill Dahl, and Robert M. Marovich (Journal of Gospel Music), who all contributed to the informative liner notes. Continue reading
November 2019 Black Music Releases of Note
Following are additional albums released during November 2019 across multiple genres—some will be reviewed in future issues of Black Grooves. Continue reading
Harlem Gospel Travelers – He’s On Time
Title: He’s On Time
Artist: Harlem Gospel Travelers
Label: Colemine
Formats: CD, Vinyl, Cassette, Digital
Release Date: October 11th, 2019
He’s On Time is a great introduction to The Harlem Gospel Travelers, a group of young and fresh gospel quartet revival singers from New York City. Eli “Paperboy” Reed, who taught a class in quartet music, first discovered these four young singers: Thomas Gatling, Asher Bethune, Stephen Pedley and George Marage. As Reed told Billboard in a recent interview, “I’m more satisfied with this than anything else I’ve ever been a part of in my whole life. I think it’s something that could really turn a lot of people’s heads…[who] haven’t heard anything that sounds like this record in however many years—or ever.” Continue reading
The Sensational Barnes Brothers – Nobody’s Fault But My Own
Title: Nobody’s Fault But My Own
Artist: The Sensational Barnes Brothers
Label: Bible & Tire/Big Legal Mess
Formats: CD, LP, Digital
Release date: September 20, 2019
Memphis natives Chris and Courtney Barnes grew up in a musical family steeped in gospel and soul music. Their mother Deborah was a former Raelette (Ray Charles’ background singers) and their father, Calvin “Duke” Barnes, was a local church musician. Together with their four children, the Barnes formed the musical group Joy, and more recently recorded and performed together as the Barnes Family. With this background the Barnes brothers were a perfect fit for producer Bruce Watson, of the newly launched Bible and Tire Recording Co., whose vision is to present contemporary artists performing in “the spirit and sound of the past.” After scouring the catalog of Designer Records, a Memphis-based gospel label now owned by parent company Big Legal Mess, they selected eleven songs from the early 1970s for the Sensational Barnes Brothers’ debut, Nobody’s Fault But My Own. Continue reading
Elizabeth King and the Gospel Souls – The D-Vine Spirituals Recordings
Title: The D-Vine Spirituals Recordings
Artist: Elizabeth King and the Gospel Souls
Label: Bible & Tire Recording Co.
Formats: CD, LP, Digital
Release date: September 20, 2019
In 1960, a newly married Elizabeth King moved 90 miles north of her hometown in Charleston, Mississippi to settle in Memphis, Tennessee. This fortuitous relocation led to a 33-year collaboration with the Gospel Souls, a popular male vocal group in Memphis featuring lead singers Walter Boone and John Powell. Sister Liz King was invited to join the group in 1969 and took over the lead on the majority of songs. According to the liner notes by Nick Loss-Eaton, King had always envisioned being backed by male singers, so this was her dream come true. However, she told the men in no uncertain terms that if they had jealous wives, she would walk. Continue reading
October 2019 Black Music Releases of Note
Following are additional albums released during October 2019 across multiple genres—some will be reviewed in future issues of Black Grooves. Continue reading
Welcome to the October 2019 Issue
Welcome to the October 2019 issue of Black Grooves, sponsored by the Indiana University Archives of African American Music and Culture.
Our featured project this month is the new three disc compilation, Protobilly: Minstrel & Tin Pan Alley DNA of Country Music 1892-2017, produced and/or annotated by Dom Flemons, Dick Spottswood, Henry Sapoznik, and David Giovannoni.
Also highlighted are two classical recordings: Richard Thompson’s The Mask in the Mirror – A Chamber Opera and Jamaican-born composer Eleanor Alberga’s String Quartets Nos. 1-3, performed by Ensemble Arcadiana.
This month’s jazz selections include Ramsey Lewis & the Urban Knights seventh album VII, the Chick Corea Trio’s Trilogy 2, and the Louisiana-based Lilli Lewis Project’s multi-genre album We Belong. Gospel releases include John P. Kee’s I Made It Out and a new compilation, Jewell Gospel Trio: Many Little Angels in the Band, featuring a 1950s gospel girl group that included a teenage Candi Staton.
Other new releases include rising Chicago blues musician Toronzo Cannon’s The Preacher, The Politician or The Pimp, spoken word artist/poet Tenesha The Wordsmith’s Peacocks & Other Savage Beasts, the Brooklyn Funk Essentials’s Stay Good, and Vaneese Thomas’s Down Yonder. Wrapping up this issue is our list of September Black Music Releases of Note.
John P. Kee – I Made It Out
Title: I Made It Out
Artist: John P. Kee
Label: eOne
Formats: CD, Digital
Release date: September 13, 2019
Pastor John P. Kee releases yet another spirit filled, “fire baptized,” sanctified and funk-tified album. I Made It Out, Kee’s debut on the eOne Music label, is actually his 26th album release. Building upon the legacy of Kee’s rich musical career that began with his 1987 debut, Yes Lord, his new project features popular gospel artists such as Zachardi Cortez on the hit single “I Made It Out” and Micah Stampley on “Created to Worship.” The album also features the Instagram singing sensations and industry up and comers, Samoht and Ashley Jayy. Continue reading
September 2019 Black Music Releases of Note
Following are additional albums released during September 2019 across multiple genres—some will be reviewed in future issues of Black Grooves. Continue reading
August 2019 Black Music Releases of Note
Following are additional albums released during August 2019—some will be reviewed in future issues of Black Grooves. Continue reading