Angela Primm, Teena Marie, Shirley Murdock & more
A quick note with a few updates on some projects I've been involved with!
Hello friends,
How is it already September? This year feels like a major blur, even though there (always seems to be!) so much going on. The Pam Mark Hall feature is still in process. An interview I feel is essential to the story has been postponed, so, for the time being, so is the article.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have contributed to the GoFundMe for the New York Community Choir book I’m working on. Since the last newsletter, I had the opportunity to interview Nikki Giovanni (for the second time) about her groundbreaking work with the choir between 1971 and 1973. And….we’ve hit $2500 in donations! If you want to read more about the project or would like to contribute, just click here!
I also wanted to let you know about a few exciting things:
1) A few months ago, I wrote here about an upcoming release from Bobby Jones & New Life alumni Angela Primm. Well, two weeks ago, her new album, Angie & Friends, Live at Daywind Studios: I Feel Like Singing, was released on CD and DVD (click here for purchase/download links). Bob Marovich of the Journal of Gospel Music gave it a five star review, which you can read here.
Among the highlights of the album is a medley of congregational songs recorded with Beverly Crawford, Nuana Dunlap, Francine Belcher-Smith and Gale Mayes, filling in for the late Emily Harris, her sisters-in-song from the Bobby Jones Gospel days. The last time they recorded together was on 1993’s Bring It To Jesus.
On the album’s release day, I had the privilege of facilitating a conversation with the women of that incarnation of New Life. If you didn’t get to join us then, I hope you will now!
2) Last month, I wrote three articles on the great Teena Marie for Universal Music’s UDiscoverMusic. I reviewed her 1980 Motown classics Lady T and Irons In The Fire, 1981’s It Must Be Magic and 2004’s La Doña. If you want to read them and my other writings for UDiscoverMusic, just click here.
3. This past summer, I had the opportunity to write the liner notes for a box set of Shirley Murdock’s classic R&B recordings for Elektra Records that spanned 1985 to 1991. The collection, released via SoulMusic Records, is now available for purchase.
I interviewed both Shirley and her husband/collaborator Dale DeGroat for the notes and, trust me, they are comprehensive! Gospel singers who dare to cross into so-called secular waters are the central focus of my work, so getting to write about the importance of Shirley’s music was a delight. I hope you all enjoy the collection! You can purchase via Amazon here.
I’ll see you again in two weeks!! Thank you for subscribing, reading and sharing!
Go Tim! Right on, write on!