The infectiousness of Hezekiah Walker’s “Every Praise” makes me recall another song. Martha Munizzi grew up in Lakeland Florida, in a very religious and musical family. The family toured together as a christian music “team” and Martha began singing church songs as a young child. The great, and curious, thing about this song is its … Read more and listen Glorious
Time for a little old time, traditional, gospel…and some of the best traditional gospel was performed by The Davis Sisters. I had never head of The Davis Sisters until about 10 years ago when a friend in our gospel choir recommended that I listen to some of their music. I was blown away. ALL the … Read more and listen By and By
Hezekiah Walker is one of the progenitors of praise and worship gospel songs. They are easy to sing, have great messages, and lend themselves to marvelous music videos. “Every Praise” is one of his best. I can remember vividly ending a joint concert in Portugal with the combined choirs singing “Every Praise”. Not long into … Read more and listen Every Praise
This 100+ voice choir from Atlanta Georgia had a huge hit with their 1996 “Gospel Celebration” album. The choir sings mostly traditional gospel songs and this cut, “He’s Worthy”, gets a 1990’s mass choir makeover from the song’s early days. The choir makes a big beautiful sound and adds some things that have a little … Read more and listen He’s Worthy
A truly amazing song in so many ways. First of all, the instrumental INTRO is unique in all of gospel to my knowledge. The song starts with only a very funky drum rhythm accompanied by the sound of a güiro, a percussion instrument consisting of an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one … Read more and listen We Magnify Your Name
Although this song is attributed only to Lillian Lily, at least on the album cover, this song is just as much about the choir that backs her up. Fantastic. Listen especially closely to the vamp at the end (2:53)…”Rest, give you rest”. After the vamp modulates you begin to hear the sopranos come in just … Read more and listen I Will Give You Rest
Okay, back to a gospel classic many of you will know from the amazing Richard Smallwood. Smallwood’s unique blend of classical piano and soaring harmonies and group vocals may never be surpassed. Richard graduated from Howard University where, among many other things, he started the school’s first gospel group, The Celestials”, as well as the … Read more and listen My Everything
You might wonder how I decide what song to feature next. Very often I get the idea during my morning dog walk when, more often than not, I’m listening to gospel through my headphones. That’s exactly where today’s song comes from. The name Jeffrey LaValley might ring a bell with some of you. He wrote … Read more and listen I Worship Thee
I spent a weekend at a gospel gathering in Cincinnati many years ago, and vendors were handing out various “merch” products and promo materials. The CD that today’s “Song of the Day” comes from was given to me this event. Having a weekend on my own, I listened to the CD a lot after hours … Read more and listen Spirit And Truth
This is a straight out, full blast, head on, gospel dance song. “I can’t hep my sef, I GOTTA praise him.” This is 1998 Chicago style, contemporary gospel. As I looked over the credits on this album the musical personnel are fabulous with gospel legend Albertina Walker on it as well as Ralph Lofton and … Read more and listen I’ve Got To Praise Him