The Cleansing Moment(s)
MARC COHN & BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA walk the road to salvation, and take us with them, on the JOHN LEVENTHAL-produced gem, WORK TO DO, one of 2019's finest albums
by David McGee
We're Gonna Make It After All
MARTY BROWN emerges boldly and brilliantly on his first new studio album in 25 years, AMERICAN HIGHWAY, aided and abetted by the sure-handed production and musicality of JON TIVEN
'A Smoking-Hot Sanctified-Meets-Steel Workout'
According to gospel editor BOB MAROVICH, the LEE BOYS' new album, LIVE ON THE EAST COAST, 'doesn't blur the line between sacred and secular--it erases it altogether.'
The Visible Invisible
Honoring LEONARDO DA VINCI on the 500th anniversary of his death, British music ensemble I FAGLIONI offers an eclectic recital evoking not so much the music of Leonardo's world but the emotional response to his work
On a Higher Plane
With songs by Dylan, Chuck Berry, Arthur Alexander, Goffin-King, Ronnie Self, Allen Toussaint and others, THE DUKE ROBILLARD BAND's EAR WORMS seeks, and attains, transcendence.
A Gift of Transcendence
LOWLAND HUM returns with its fifth album, GLYPHONIC, and our JOSEPH MCSPADDEN finds it to be ;a song cycle that challenges the artist and listener alike to resist the gravitational pull of the material world and to choose to li...
Where Day is A-Breakin' in The Soul
The ST CHARLES SINGERS' AMERICAN REFLECTIONS imbues the listener with a sense of being on hallowed, holy ground, closer to the essence. Texts by RAINER MARIA RILKE, OCTAVIO PAZ, AARON COPLAND and others.
Leaving the Stillness of Peace in Its Wake
The first essential reissue of 2019, the French import ROBERTA MARTIN SINGERS: 1947-1962 charts the gold standard early years of this most influential African American mixed-voice gospel ensemble.
Being About the Persistence of Love
At long last, 83-year-old MARY LANE asserts herself at the forefront of contemporary blues with TRAVELIN' WOMAN, her record of a lifetime and of hanging in and hanging on to love, body, soul and heart intact.
Chronicling a Spiritual Exodus from Modern-Day Anxieties
One of the first great albums of 2019, GOSHEN, by DONALD LAWRENCE PRESENTS THE TRI-CITY SINGERS, is a concept album ranging from worship songs to topical numbers to rages against the machine--and the power of faith.
Enter, And Feel the Spirit
Soaring emotions and exquisite quartet harmonizing abound on TRAVELIN' SHOES, a foray into southern gospel (with a stop along the way at western gospel!) by the redoubtable MARLEY'S GHOST
'Voices Raised in Determination and Triumph'
On this, its fifth CD, The Ebony Hillbillies' old-timey sound evokes, on the one hand, bygone eras in the jubilant bones- and fiddle-fired title track and horrific modern-day tragedies rooted in racial animus...