Black Music Month - June

In 1979, President Carter announced that the month of June would be Black Music month. About 23 years later in 2002, President Bush continued to proclaim June as the month to celebrate Black music. Black music is a great part of our American Heritage and it will be highlighted all month with events educating citizens about the various forms of black music.

Black churches have been the source of musical inspiration. Parts of the blues and negro spirituals evolved into gospel music. Mahalia Jackson, known as the world's greatest gospel singer, performed at the inauguration of President Kennedy as well as the funeral of Rev. Martin Luther King. Gospel music had an effect on rhytm and blues (R&B) and soul. Aretha Franklin and Sam Cooke were both children of preachers who used gospel tones in their music styles.

Black music influences also spread into jazz, rock and the music that we have today. It's a rich part of our nation's way of life and enjoyed by many.

JJ Hairston & Youthful Praise in Atlanta

JJ Hairston & Youthful Praise will be in Atlanta for the Spelman/Morehouse Homecoming.  Homecoming church service will be held at Spelman University on Sunday, October 25th at 10am.

Click the link below to hear one of my faves from Youthful Praise.

Awesome Wonder - ft. Troy Bright (w/Stephen Hurd) - Youthful Praise

Generation Love by New Breed

New Breed has released their 3rd cd: Generation Love. I mentioned on The PeachPost that they would have a release this year according to Israel's blog. I just didn't know when to expect it. I will put my order in today and let you know how it is.

Purchase your copy!!!!

Just in case you haven't heard New Breed here is a link their cds.:

Listen to Kingdom
Listen to Freedom

***Update:  I received my cd in the mail but I haven't had the chance to really listen to it.  I did notice that they used different members for this recording. The only member that I recognized from the previous recordings was Daniel Johnson, whose vocals are amazing as always.

Back In the Day: Witness

I used to sing in a group when I was younger and we used to do songs by Witness, Anointed Adoration N Prayze and other groups. I don't know how the conversation came about, but my brother mentioned something about the group and ever since then I have been reminiscing about songs that we used to sing.

One of the songs that we loved was "Standard" by Witness. This song is timeless. Take a listen and enjoy the ministry of Witness.

Photo courtesy of GospelCity.com

Fred Hammond: Love Unstoppable

Don't forget to pick up your new Fred Hammond cd today!!!!

Listen to sample tracks here

Back in the Day: Anointed "The Call"

Anointed's "The Call" was just re-released in the digital world. I was really surprised to see that. I was looking for new music and then I see Anointed listed and it brought back so many memories of me singing when I was younger. If you have Itunes, you can download this album there.

Listen to the Full Album

Photo courtesy of amazon.com

Leah Smith

Former New Breed Singer, Leah Smith, is one to watch. I remember hearing buzz about Leah a few years ago when I bought the Kingdom album by Sound of the New Breed. She is really an awesome singer. If I had to describe her music, I would say that she was an anointed version of Amel Larrieux. Check out Leah's myspace page.