Now I’m On My Way (Jesus Brought Me Out)First Baptist Church of Glenarden7:59
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Now I’m On My Way (Jesus Brought Me Out)Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir4:32
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I loved this song the minute I heard it. At first I thought it was an contemporary performance of an old gospel song, but as I dug a bit online I found it was written sometime in the 2000’s. It was made popular in 2014 by The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir directed by Cynthia Cymbala. Cynthia actually did the arrangement in collaboration with Bradley Knight.
The song is a joyful, hand-clapping celebration – an upbeat gospel anthem with lots of energy. Perfect for either a children’s choir (The Youth Choir of Glenarden Baptist Combined Church outside Baltimore or an adult choir (Brooklyn Tab). I’m including BOTH versions for your listening pleasure.
We Gather TogetherRev. Charles Nicks Jr. ,and The St. James Baptist Church Adult Choir6:59
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This is a wonderful gospel adaptation of the old familiar Thanksgiving hymn, “We Gather Together”(to ask the Lord’s blessing).
Although I have had this song in my music library for quite a while, I just really LISTENED to it for the first time earlier today.
At first I didn’t have a clue to what the song was. It just started playing while I had my earphones on, so I didn’t know the title right away. At first I wasn’t really listening to the lyrics and the tune didn’t seem familiar to me UNTIL I recognized the tune and the lyrics in the part that goes “the wicked oppressing now cease from distressing”. Then I “got it” and started listening hard.
I REALLY got into this 1988 arrangement by Reverend Charles Nicks Jr., one of the early directors and composers in gospel’s heydays of the 1980’s and 1990’s. The vamp is classic gospel with each voice part having its own set if lyrics with different entries and timing. Great stuff.
Enjoy!!
Lyrics:
(Choir) 1 We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing; He chastens and hastens His will to make known; the wicked oppressing now cease from distressing. Sing praises, give thanks to, The Lord.
2 Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining, ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine; so from the beginning the fight we were winning: Sing praises, give thanks to, The Lord!
(Lead vocalist repeats the two verses)
(Special) With God…before us, who…can…be…against us? With him beside us, he there to guide us Sing praises, give thanks to, The Lord.
I think this cut is one of the best performances by Joyful Voices of Inspiration. In my humble option, the choir sounds awesome…like a real gospel choir!! It didn’t hurt that we had a smoking band backing us up!
This cut is from the early 2000’s when James Early was the choir’s director. James was a terrific director and often presented songs that were quite tricky. Unspeakable Joy, originally recorded by Douglas Miller, is one those songs.
The rhythm is tricky as are the syncopated entries. It took a lot of work to get the “I get joy, joy, joy unspeakable joys” together…but it paid off. And the layered, building vamp is wonderful as the sopranos lead off followed by the alto, then tenors…all singing different lyrics with different timing.
JVOI was really spot on with this live recording from 2004.
My Soul Doth Magnify The LordO'Landa Draper & The Associates Choir3:26
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Without a doubt, this is one of the very finest examples of what PERFECTION in a choir is. Everything about this song bowls me over…the diction, the incredible exactness of both entries and cut offs, the rise and fall of the choir’s volume, the different voices sounds they use…to name a few.
It all adds up to one remarkably powerful, beautiful song directed by the late, great, O’Landa Draper who died frrom kidney failure at the young age of 34.😞
This is a live, 11 minute+ recording of Ms. Beverly Crawford, with full band and choir performing the song. Wish I could have been there!!
The intro alone takes my breath away with the incredibly agile, almost playful, Hammond B3 trading off licks with an incredible soaring guitar backed by a solid bass line. The intro slowly grows and grows until Beverly cuts in pleading with the audience to “listen…listen…listen…”.
After 7 minutes of amazing verses displaying the incredible vocal ability of both Beverly and the amazing choir, an even more amazing four minute vamp on “Born again…I’ve been born again” develops and just sucks you in further and further.
I don’t care about your theological ideology, if any; all I can say is that you are not feeling like a true believer at the end of this song, then no gospel song can get to you…IMHO!
One of the best known contemporary female gospel singers is Yolanda Adams. She was “discovered” in 1982 when a gospel music producer happened to attend a concert in Houston given by The Southeast Inspirational Choir, and heard Yolanda sing lead on the song, “My Liberty”. With that break, and hard work, she was off to a career as an internationally known gospel singer.
Her two biggest hits, “Through The Storm” and “In The Midst Of It All” both share the same the same song design that works incredibly well. The songs start off in a lovely, mellifluous way in a major key and continue that way through several consecutive verses. Then, just about one half to two thirds of the way through, the song, briefly pauses, then the key goes minor with great gospel choirs and what ensues is a long, soulful vamp lead by Yolanda and echoed by the choir, that builds and builds in intensity until, bang, song over. Take a listen to three of her best.
I love this fast paced, up tempo contemporary song from Lilian Lilly…it just gets me going. It’s such a BIG sound with lots of brass (or keyboards that make a great brass sound) backing up a smoking hot band with a super bass player popping all sorts of notes…a nice backbone to the song. Add to that a choir that is full out giving its all as Ms. Lilly leads the song.
Then about half way through the song (2:10), after the verses, you get this wonderfully funky “PRAISE BREAK” with some great funky guitar chords dropped in the middle of the riff.
Couldn’t Hear Nobody PrayBernice Johnson Reagon1:49
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If you are looking for a collection of CD’s that will give you broad exposure to a wide variety of gospel styles, look no further than the Smithsonian Folkways “Wade in the Water” 4 CD collection. And this cut from the “Community Gospel” CD is as raw, basic, and good as gospel gets.
This isn’t an old recording; it just sounds that way. The female lead singer is Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock and now curator of the Community Life Division of the Smithsonian Institution.
As an added bonus today, free of charge, I’ve included a link to a video of Bernice Johnson Reagon speaking with Bill Moyers on the subject, “The Songs are Free” where she explains how music has been used throughout black history to empower and show solidarity.
Rest For The WearyRev. Milton Brunson And The Thompson Community Singers4:39
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Milton Brunson’s Thompson Community Singers are one of the best known choirs from the golden days of big gospel choral groups (1980-1990’s). Born in Chicago in 1928, Thompson lived there his entire life, dying in 1997. At age 18 after graduating high school, Milton decided he wanted to be a musician and sought out some people to help him learn his craft. He came under the tutelage of some of the very best gospe/blues musicians Chicago had to offer…Thomas A. Dorsey (the Father of Gospel Music), Mahalia Jackson (The Queen of Gospel) and Robert Johnson (King of the Delta Blues), to develop his craft in the musical world.
In 1948, at age 20, Brunson forrmed The Thompson Community Singers (named after a Chicago pastor. The original choir was made up of 40 of Brunson’s McKinley High School friends. The rest is Chicago and gospel music history; many great gospel artist from Chicago sang with “The Tommies” including Rickie Dillard. The “Tommies Reunion Choir” still performs to this day.
This song is a typical gospel song in that it speaks to a better life to come; one that offers rest for the weary, when one reaches “the other side”. Sadly too many blacks in America have longed for the day when they can go to “that holy, happy, land” where they will find rest for the weary.
THE TOMMIES / THOMPSON COMMUNITY SINGERS SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
1984 MIRACLE LIVE #06 Billboard Top Gospel Album Sales
1986 THERE IS HOPE #01 Billboard Top Gospel Album Sales
1987 IF I BE LIFTED #01 Billboard Top Gospel Album Sales
1989 AVAILABLE TO YOU #01 Billboard Top Gospel Album Sales
1993 MY MIND IS MADE UP #01 Billboard Top Gospel Albums Sales
1994 THROUGH GOD’S EYES #04 Billboard Top Gospel Album Sales
1995 SHOUT #05 Billboard Top Gospel Album Sales
1997 HE’S STILL GOOD #09 Billboard Top Gospel Album Sales
1998 50 Blessed Years #24 Billboard Top Gospel Album Sales
“Do Not Pass Me By” is one of the “old songs” of the church. It was written by Ms. Fanny Crosby in 1868. Not only was Fanny a great hymn/song writer, she, like Helen Keller some 68 years later, was blind since her birth in 1820. She never was in anyway resentful or bitter and lived her life to its fullest, giving back to others as best she could.
The story behind this song is that she was doing some work in a prison; she did a lot of motivational speaking and preaching hoping to turn people to Jesus by telling her story. While she was at the prison she played some of her songs, and it’s said that she heard the voice of one of the inmates, cry out, “Saviour, do not pass me by!”
Crosby heard this and thought, “Wow, that’s a very powerful phrase.” That very night she sat down and wrote this song. Well, not only was that phrase powerful, so was her song which became hugely popular.
However, there were critics who made the case that God loves EVERYONE, unconditionally, and thus “He” would never pass anyone by. Point taken. It’s STILL a good song.
And talk about POWERFUL, this particular version of the song is REALLY POWERFUL. And with one GOOD REASON spelled D-E-T-R-O-I-T…aka Motown or The Motor City.
In 2005 gospel music producer and performer Dietrick Haddon, a native son of Detroit, gathered over 200 of Detroit’s finest gospel singers from more than a dozen black churches to record this the album “Detroit Sings Nu Hymnz – Volume 1”, a compilation of several “old songs of the church” into which he infused new life. energy and meaning.
You need to listen no further than the opening note from the choir that follows the very restrained 45 second intro to fully understand when I say this song is really POWERFUL.
JUST LIKE IN THE ICONIC MAXELL PHOTO “BLOWN AWAY” BELOW
