On the heels of their Grammy nomination for their 1992 debut, Never Let Go of His Hand, the Music City Mass Choir returned in 1994 with a power-packed sophomore project, We’ve Come to Praise Him.
Where their debut had focused around Lawrence Thomison, a Nashville-based singer/preacher who’d first come to national prominence in the 70s as part of Dewitt Johnson’s Johnson Ensemble, We’ve Come to Praise Him took a different approach. Combining known soloists like Bob Bailey and Beverly Crawford with strong voices from the choir’s interior, producer Derrick Leepresents a strong representation of the breadth of talent situated in Nashville and its surrounding areas in the early 90s.
Lee’s production leaned on the players he’d been utilizing in his work with Bobby Jones and New Life. Lee handled keyboards with the brilliant Ralph Lofton on organ, Jim Long on guitar, Micah Mabson on bass and Terry Baker on drums, delivering a cohesive, fiery musical padding undergirding this dynamic choir.
The choir’s soloists shine on “Thank God for Saving Me” (led by Toya Risby), “Strengthen Me” (led by Leah Knox), and “He Lifted Me” (led by Jackie Jerkins), each brilliantly bringing a traditional feel to Lee’s contemporary arrangements.
The guest vocalists bring the heat as well. New Life Singers alumni Stephania Stone Frierson blazes through the album’s title track, while Bob Bailey delivers a vocal masterclass on the Geoffery Thurman-Michael English composition “No More Pain.” Beverly Crawford conducts a twelve-minute revival on Armirris Palmore’s “We Need to Hear from You,” starting with a whisper and ending with a wail on this unsung gem from her body of work. Lawrence Thomison shines on “It’s Yours for the Asking,” a quartet-inspired romp that reminds listeners exactly why they fell in love with Music City Mass Choir back in 1992.
1994, however, was the peak of the choir phenomenon and with a market that had become flooded with choir albums, We’ve Come to Praise Him, despite its excellence, got lost in the fray. It was also, sadly, the last release by the Music City Mass Choir, but an important document chronicling the innovative space that Nashville held in the innovation of the contemporary choir movement of the time.
Albertina Walker
After forty years of touring and performing, no one would have blamed Albertina Walker for resting on her laurels. Not only was she responsible for introducing the world to talents like Shirley Caesar, James Cleveland, Cassietta George, Inez Andrews and Loleatta Holloway through her legendary group, The Caravans, but she’d had an entire second chapter as a solo artist which resulted in some of gospel’s biggest hits of the late 70s and early 80s, like “Please Be Patient With Me” and “I
Can Go To God In Prayer.”
While her reputation as “The Starmaker” endured, it was Dr. Bobby Jones who utilized his television show to brand her The Queen of Gospel, reminding gospel lovers of just how significant her contributions had been. While her reputation grew, her recordings had started to wane in terms of their success. She signed with Word Records and released 1986’s Spirit (produced by Thomas Cain) and 1989’s My Time Is Not Over (produced by Sanchez Harley), both of which had varying degrees of the right elements to make hits, but neither of the albums, both of which were Grammy-nominated, completely gelled. She signed with The Benson Company in 1989 and released two more albums, You Believed In Me (produced by Cain and Harley) and 1992’s Live (produced solely by Harley) that also failed to produce the kinds of hits she’d generated just a decade earlier.
What those albums made clear was that her tastes were broader than the kinds of songs she’d had hits with. While she was certainly a traditional gospel artist who loved that music deeply, she also clearly loved ballads with introspective lyrics and an adult contemporary leaning. This had always been the case though, dating back to her last recordings with The Caravans in the early 70s when she adapted songs like “White Cliffs of Dover” and “The Impossible Dream.”
