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Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Mighty Clouds Of Joy


The Mighty Clouds of Joy formed in 1955, and started recording in 1960, and have been going strong ever since, through "triumphs and tragedies, successes and near failures," becoming living legends in the process of serving Jesus Christ through their unique musical gifts, which have been showcased in their years of singing Gospel music, taking the genre "to places it seldom, if ever had been."

The original Mighty Clouds of Joy members were made up of members from three different Los Angeles Gospel groups. Today, the current membership is made up of two of the original group, Joe Ligon and Richard Wallace, plus Johnny Valentine, Ron Staples, and Michael Cook, who have all been singing together for some time. All members of The Mighty Clouds of Joy have similar backgrounds, beliefs, and attitudes concerning their faith and their musical efforts. "We all had similar backgrounds -- we were all raised in the church, and we all had a like mind about the kind of music we wanted to do. And we've remained dedicated to each other and the quality of the music all these years." - Joe Ligon.

Empowered by the Holy Spirit, their music has transcended and endured many musical trends, popular with our society. "We're a versatile group, and we've done many styles of music over the years, but our roots are in the traditional style," comments Joe Ligon. Another one of the well-loved characteristics of their music which added to and expanded their message is Joe Ligon's singing style, which was inspired by a radio preacher, Reverend C.L. Franklin, who had "this preaching kind of thing in his style. I did this preaching kind of thing in his style to go along with our singing. That was different from what anybody else was doing, and it became our trademark," Joe Ligon explains.

They were the first Gospel group to add bass, drums, and keyboards to the traditional solo electrical guitar, commonly used by Gospel music. They also were the first to add a full rhythm section. In the 1970's, they had great success in adapting Gospel music sound in the popular disco dance genre. They were the first Gospel group to be invited onto the secular show, 'Soul Train,' where they performed their hit, "Mighty High" They continued to evolve in their presentation of their own unique style of Gospel music.

This changing, unique Gospel style music which they evolved, pioneered, and created, was first called at one point, "funkified" Gospel, and has been gradually accepted as a standard part of Gospel music. Though their style of Gospel music was at first criticized by tradional Gospel music lovers, The Mighty Clouds of Joy found that their unique kind of innovative Gospel music reached out to a wider and wider audience, taking The Mighty Clouds of Joy and their Gospel message to performances in such places as Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, the Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, the Astro Dome, on nearly every major T.V. show in America, including "The Grammy Awards"

Over their years together, they have earned 10 Grammy Award nominations, of which they won three. Joe Ligon and Richard Wallace, were recently presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the recent Gospel Superfest in Jacksonville, Florida. "They are some of the most incredible artists of all time. Real soul stirring gospel artists," comments actor/singer Clifton Davis, host of this year's Gospel Superfest television show.

The Mighty Clouds of Joy's new album, I Want to Thank You, is a project that they helped to produce for the first time, offering a delightful, exciting range of Gospel music, something for everyone, reaching a large audience to share their love, hope, and faith in Jesus Christ in a most uplifting, encouraging, personal way. Performed in their well-developed, unique gospel quartet style, along with the strong inspiring, gifted, soul-stirring vocals of Joe Ligon and friends, the sound is sometimes soulful, sometimes exuberant, but always perfect to express the feeling / mood of the song. They inspire their audience with both traditional style Gospel songs, which transform the listener "into a roof-raising church service, and contemporary Gospel songs, with elements of R&B thrown in, with fresh, high-spirited pulsating rhythms."

In creating this wonderful CD, I Want to Thank You, The Mighty Clouds of Joy enlisted the help of some major composers / producers in today’s contemporary Gospel / R& B / music ranks. Fred Hammond, Steven Ford, J. Moss, and Paul Allen of P.A.J.A.M., Sanchez Harley are all on board, along with William Becton, who all contibuted in a variety of songs, working with Joe Ligon, Ron Staples, Eddie Alford, Johnny Valentine, and Alphonzo McCain to provide the kind of music that The Mighty Clouds of Joy can reach an audience that enjoys not only traditional Gospel, but the more contemporary Gospel sound as well.

Whether traditional or contemporary, all these songs have a very strong Gospel message, offering both a great introduction to Gospel music for those new to the genre and also a most gratifying listening experience for avid Gospel music lovers, as their music is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and is exciting and inspiring for their expanding audience.

courtesy christianmusic.com

De Bishop

Lashun Pace


When you look up the word ‘complete’ in the dictionary several definitions are given. Words and phrases such as ‘lacking nothing,’ consummate, unbroken, absolute, and perfected are all synonyms for ‘complete’ – and not surprisingly we use the very same words to describe God –We know He is most certainly a complete, a total, an absolute and a perfect God. And He is the God that LaShun Pace sings about.

Pace has found her strength in that complete God – the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace that keeps her mind, spirit and faith intact. She knows loss and she knows brokenness but the remarkable part about her testimony is that she also knows the Lord and knows there is only completion in Him. Pace takes all that emotion and lessons learned and brings them to the forefront on her new album, so aptly titled COMPLETE. From the pain of losing a daughter to suffering through broken marriages to life threatening illness, Pace finds her strength from God. She has come through it all with a renewed sense of purpose and knowledge of His absolute greatness that this album is basically a manifestation of her testimony.

COMPLETE was recorded live in Pace’s hometown, Atlanta GA, at her church Wings of Faith, where the pastor is Bishop Dreyfus C. Smith. With almost total creative control over the album’s direction and the opportunity to produce, Pace was thrilled at the outset of this recording but the road wasn’t as easy as she thought it would be. Pace was hospitalized on the Thursday before the recording with heart problems and was literally in the ICU the day before the recording. “I had to leave the hospital … I told my assistant that I was going to bust out of the hospital,” recalled Pace laughingly. “Really, I felt like my label put this in my hands and I had to do it … I literally left the hospital and went straight to the church. The place was jam-packed … and what you hear on this album was solely the Anointing … I had no natural strength … It was the Holy Ghost who touched my body that night.”

“When people listen to the album I want them to know that I am a person who has dealt with so many negative things and through my story I want them to see the strength of God…to know if He can touch and strengthen me … He can also be a strengthening power for them,” Pace said.

COMPLETE takes off in high church with the lead song “All Things Working.” Based on the well-known scripture, Romans 8:28 the radio friendly single, is a classic toe-tapping, jump-out-of-your-seat praise jam. Pace vibrantly pushes her way through this high-energy signature gospel celebration.

Encapsulating Pace’s message is the soulful and passionate “Complete In Jesus.” Hearing in Pace’s own voice, a story that women everywhere can relate to, she reminds us that we should only trust in Him and only when we give Him our lives can we be complete. Vocally, Pace shines and when she belts out “let Him make you complete and you will be singing like I am …” you can only hope to have the brightness and power she gives on this song.

“All the songs are birthed out of my prayer time,” explained Pace. “When I wake up in the middle of the night, I just start praying and talking to God … the song just came to me. The melody was in my head and I heard it the phrase - I am complete over and over … He gave me all the lyrics that night.”

Perhaps the most utterly painful and yet uplifting and inspiring moment on the project is “Xenia’s Flight.” Dedicated to her daughter who passed away in 2001, Pace is brutally transparent on this song, as she shares her riveting testimony that ministers to herself, to the live audience that night and to all the listeners of COMPLETE.

She speaks of her two divorces, her daughter’s unexpected death, and the difficult relationships in her life. “I was alone in my hospital room and this song came in the belly of my soul,” said Pace. “I just started singing ‘I will trust in the Lord’ and then when I got to the verse that says ‘until I die’ … a new verse came to me … the Holy Ghost had my tongue and gave me ‘at all times.’ I feel like He is yet carrying me through.”

“I want the listeners to feel my pain in each song … in detail. People will know I’ve been through some things … but God. I want them to hear that they can be complete with God … I am complete now … I’ve survived. With troubles, without troubles … with a man, without a man … the only person that can complete you is God.”

“The Blood Completes It All” a bluesy track that ties-in the theme of completion with the essential message of the Lord’s sacrifice – a soul-stirring reminder that it was His blood shed at Calvary that paid the price for us all.

Steeply rooted in the sounds of church, Pace also gives us the “Old Fashioned Church Medley,” that is chock full of time-honored hymns including ‘Solider In The Army Of The Lord,’ ‘Run On’ ‘Let God Arise,’ and more. It is praise and worship like it used to be – where the rhythm and hand-claps are the only necessary instrumentation and it takes the listener straight into a jamboree of high praise and shouting.

“This is God’s music,” explained Pace. “And the traditional sound is still important and around today because it is our strong foundation … It is what builds us up and holds us up … the hymns … it is what Gospel music was built on.”

COMPLETE is Pace’s seventh album – perhaps the perfect number for this album which as her lead single suggests ‘all things are really working together.’ “I sing so hard because I’ve been through too much … it is in me and He brought me out and now I have to sing about,” Pace said. Indeed it is Pace’s emotional delivery, uplifting testimonies and heartfelt praise that makes COMPLETE significant.

courtesy gospelcity.com

Da Bishop

Kelly Price


Kelly Price is the daughter of the late Rev. Joseph Price and Evangelist Claudia Price and the second of three children. Born and reared in Queens, NY, Kelly grew up under the watchful eye of her mother and the pastorate of her grandparents, Bishop Jerome and Evangelist Joni Norman. Through the bible teaching and weekly intercessory prayer services her grandfather held that Kelly developed spiritually. It was there, in Full Gospel Mission COGIC, at the age of three that the many gifts deeply rooted inside Kelly were watered and began to grow. It was also there that her inner senses were awakened to the very real existence of God as more than just a higher power or an answer to the question, “How did we all get here?”

Along with her spirituality, Kelly’s musical talents also began to dominate her life. While most babies have to be taken from the crib and calmed from crying in the middle of the night, Kelly’s mother tells of the entire house being awakened by young Kelly singing out from her crib. As a young child Kelly knew that music was more than just something that happened on the radio, in church or during TV commercials. For her it was a part of life that quickly became a necessity. The music inside her became an outlet to express what she was feeling. One day, after experiencing deep sadness from a book she read for a black history project in school, Kelly wrote a song to express her complicated emotions. This was her first song. She was seven years old.

Kelly sang on her first recording before the age of 10 and by the time she was 18, she was recording and touring the world with multi-platinum pop diva Mariah Carey. Always a quick study, Kelly watched and learned the intricacies of studio and production work and soon began to expand into areas other than background singing. It is these early years that Kelly refers to as her “formal education.”

During these years and beyond, Kelly has shared her musical gifts with many artists and reached the number one spot on Billboard several times, before anyone even knew what the girl behind the voice and the pen looked like. Throughout her career Kelly has sung, recorded, toured, arranged and produced music for such incredible artists as George Michael, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, Brian McKnight, LL Cool J, Ben Tankard, Mary J Blige, Brandy, The LOX, Donnie McClurkin, The Williams Brothers, Faith Evans, Karen Clarke-Sheard, Yolanda Adams, MASE, Whitney Houston, Mary Mary, Richard Smallwood, Eric Clapton, Wynona Judd, Gerald Levert, Angela Winbush, The Isley Bros and the legendary Ronald Isley just to name a few.

Though many record labels pursued Kelly as a solo recording artist, it was her connection with Isley and his relentless persistence that convinced her to enter into an alliance between Price and him that resulted in her debut solo CD, Soul of A Woman. In 1998, Kelly followed with the #1 smash women’s anthem of the year “Friend of Mine,” written by her. Next came the platinum success of Mirror Mirror, in 2000, One Family: A Christmas Album, in 2002, and the critically acclaimed Priceless, in 2003.

Out of the box, Price was a trendsetter and broke records by reaching Billboard’s top spot twice with the same song, having achieved that initial #1 victory with no music video at television. (Up until that point, it had never been done before.) This was a sweet victory for Price after being told by many music and marketing executives that she was talented and beautiful, but, “No one wants to look at a fat girl no matter how good she sounds” Kelly reminded the world that big was beautiful.

Price has gone on to sell millions of CDs and along with her music – as a singer, songwriter and producer – Price has also entered the acting arena as well having written a book. Now, Price expands her reach again with the release of her first gospel CD, This Is Who I Am, released by EcclectiSounds/GospoCentric through Zomba Records.

courtesy gospelcity.com

De Bishop

Mary Mary

The name evokes an appeal to above, a spiritual call, a joyful noise. Which is why singer/songwriters Erica and Tina Atkins chose "Mary Mary" as their performance moniker.

"We were thinking about the Marys in the bible and there are two specifically: Mary Magdalene, who was delivered from evil spirits, and, of course, Mary Mother of Jesus, both of whom were very instrumental in His ministries," explains Erica, the slightly older and more laid back of the 20-something siblings. "It’s all about Jesus and telling people who He is and of His love. That the whole purpose behind Mary Mary."

At a time when other Gospel artists have already made strides into secular arenas with ever-more contemporary R&B tracks, Mary Mary have carried the art of creating modern praise music into a new category of creativity, honest, originality, and soulfulness. It’s these qualities that have made the sisters sought after as songwriters by such other artists as Yolanda Adams, Woody of Dru Hill, and 702. "I think one of the misconceptions about Gospel music is that it’s dreary or sad, or ---‘Oh Lord, help me’--something that brings you down," says the outgoing, animated Tina. "That’s not me. I’m living in a natural world –first natural, then spiritual, my heart is still the same. It’s just my relationship with God is always there. Being thankful or talking about joy just goes into the music that I hear and that’s how I write these songs."

Born to Gospel-singing parents amid five other sisters and a brother, Erica and Tina were raised in a strict churchgoing family in Inglewood, California, where Gospel was the only music allowed in the household. The Atkins kids soon comprised most of the church choir’s soprano section, but Erica and Tina’s vocal talents earned them coveted soloist spots. After singing with the popular Bobby Jones Gospel Program with their siblings, the two middle sisters realize that “Music was completely in our hearts.”

In 1995 they were recruited as part of the cast of the Michael Matthews traveling Gospel show “Mama I’m Sorry”, doing up to eight performances a week in a variety of U.S. cities in an extremely competitive atmosphere among the singers. Their talents earned them slots in a second Matthews play, “Sneaky,” and they toured for more than a year, honing their stage presentation as well as strengthening their voices. Through attempts to complete college, hold down jobs (Erica was a courtesy clerk at local Boyd’s market while Tina was a makeup artist at Nordstrom’s) and pay rent on their apartment, music kept calling. Individually, they went on tour, singing backup for major recording artists: Erica for the likes of Brian McKnight and Brandy; and Tina for Kenny Latimore, Eric Benet, and acting in a pilot for a Kirk Franklin TV show. But some of the secular songs they performed made the sisters uneasy. All along, the two had been writing their own songs, separately and together, eventually putting the songs on cassette tape.

A chance meeting with producer Warryn Campbell in 1996 led to collaboration between Campbell and the sisters. Campbell brought the new material as well as the sisters original recordings to EMI, landing them a publishing contract and song contributions to both the Dr. Doolittle and Prince of Egypt soundtracks. More and more songwriting efforts for artists such as Yolanda Adams and 702 brought offers of recording contracts from several labels. With a clear conception of how they wanted to be marketed to a broad audience, Mary Mary chose to sign with Columbia Records, the first Gospel act to be signed to the label. A major part of their self-concept is dictated by their devout religious beliefs. They define themselves as strictly Gospel—and not just inspirational – artists.

“Inspirational music makes me feel good, like I can go on, I can make it, and I can do whatever I put my mind to. But the Gospel tells you about what God can do. It tells you the good news of Jesus,” explains Erica. “Because our music is so Hip-Hop and has an Urban feel, a lot of people think ‘Oh its Inspirational, it’s Contemporary.’ It can be, but listen to what I’m saying [in the song]. The songs that we write tell the message of Christ specifically.”

courtesy gospelcity.com

De Bishop

Tonex




Tonex

May 14, 2004

Tonex (pronounced toe-nay) is a 24-year-old musical prodigy that has mesmerized audiences everywhere. Tonex bridges the gap between R&B and Gospel by taking elements from both forces and not slighting either of them in their own respectable rights. His music relates to those who feel that no one understands them, heals the broken heart of those who need mending, and brings deliverance to those who are in bondage. All of this is accomplished through the divine ordinance of God and the overwhelming amount of purity, truth, and freedom in his music ministry.

Tonex's parents, Anthony and Betty Williams, are the Pastor and Assistant Pastor of Truth Apostolic Community Church in Spring Valley, California where they have been in existence for six years. "Our church is filled with young people from every walk of life, but they love the Lord and have a desire for the word of God," says Tonex.

"T.Boy (the album's producer) and I tried to create a sound that was extinct to the Christian Market; something fresh, alive, and completely the opposite of everything going on musically in the CCM market today. We created an album with the intent of a Christian music revolution being the outcome of its release," says the Stellar-nominated artist. Sales of the project skyrocketed and remain sold out in most stores. A re-release of the now unavailable classic album has been scheduled for release in late 1999. The recent performance by Tonex on the 14th Annual Stellar Awards has compared to the same impact Michael Jackson made on the Motown 25th Anniversary special back in 1983.

"I believe the reason for [the success of Pronounced Toe-Nay] is the fact that God's timing is the best timing. Had the album come out any sooner in the CCM market, it probably would not have worked out right with heavy-hitters Kirk Franklin and DC Talk still promoting their latest efforts. It came out at a time when people were 'Stomp-ed out' so to speak. Creativity is one of the main drawing cards about this album. It's really unique just as I am. I have many styles and diversities about myself and they reflect throughout the album's six music genre sections. As you listen to the entire album, it is evident that God ordained his entire project."

Pronounced Toe-Nay is Tonex's third solo album that also marks his national debut. He has performed with Andraè & Sandra Crouch, Daryl Coley, Kirk Franklin, T-Bone, Yolanda Adams, Donnie McClurkin, Sheila E., Nancey Jackson, Dawkins & Dawkins, John P. Kee, Boyz II Men, Karen Clark-Sheard, and Grammy-nominee Deleon Richards.

He has had national television and print media coverage (JET, Sister 2 Sister, Billboard, Gospel Industry Today). "The ministry that God has given me is geared towards an audience previously left stranded in Christian music. With anointed lyrics and the most state-of-the-art R&B production, I intend to sabotage demonic forces causing a backfire on Satan's hold in R&B music," says Tonex. This generation is blessed to have such talent that believes in giving 110% of his gift to his music, to his fans, and most of all, to God.

courtesy gospelcity.com

De Bishop

Friday, July 13, 2007

Hottest Gospel Info at your favourite Blog

All i can say is fasten your seat belts! Welcome aboard folks!

De Bishop

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