The Weather Girls, Estelle Brown & Daryl Coley

Writing in between trips with some exciting news!

First….let’s start with hello!

I’m in between trips and getting ready to hit the road again, but I have a few things to share!

I spent the four incredible days last week in Shreveport, Louisiana with Estelle Brown of The Sweet Inspirations, talking with her about the New York Community Choir/Archbishop William Morris O’Neil book. Estelle’s history is deep: She is the voice you hear leading the original “As Long As I Got Jesus” by The Gospel Wonders, has sung on hundreds of gospel, soul, jazz and pop recordings, and is featured on Rev. William Morris O’Neil & the Voices of Unviersal’s 1978 release, Joy All The Time, produced by James Cleveland.

In between conversations, she and her family showed me around the town. We fellowshipped over some incredible food and laughed until we cried. You can’t ask for a better work trip than that. We stopped by the Northwest Louisiana Walk of Stars and saw her footprints and I can’t wait to go back!

In December, I was commissioned to write an essay about The Weather Girls (Martha Wash and Izora Armstead) for a 4 CD box set that will be released in June of this year! It is available for pre-order via Cherry Red Records and, trust me, you do not want to miss this. The box set includes the Weather Girls’ albums for Columbia: Success (1983), Big Girls Don’t Cry (1985) and their 1988 self-titled album, as well as Martha Wash’s stunning 1992 solo debut. 22 bonus tracks, some of which are making their first appearance on CD….AND a 7800 word essay written by yours truly, which includes quotes from my interviews with Ms. Wash, Izora’s daughter, Dynelle Rhodes, Bowlegged Lou and Paul Anthony of Full Force, Eric Robinson (composer of “Dance (Disco Heat)” & the Wash/Armstead classic “Just Us”), Eric Beall (composer of “Carry On”), celebrity photographer Len Prince, Brian Alexander Morgan (composer/producer of the bulk of Martha Wash) and more!

Finally, I’m overjoyed at seeing how many of you have subscribed to the #GodsMusicIsMyLife YouTube channel! I’m doing my best to upload new footage every day. It’s been a wonderful trip down memory lane for me. I was at some of the Gospel Explosions I’m sharing footage of and those are incredibly precious memories for me. If you haven’t yet, subscribe here.

I wanted to share this clip of my friend, the late Daryl Coley, who is the reason the New York Community Choir project ever began for me.

This was the first time I ever saw him in person after years of hearing him on vinyl—-in fact, the first time I heard him I was just seven years old when he recorded “Do Your Best” with Lynette Hawkins on Walter Hawkins’ I Feel Like Singing album. I was hooked! So seeing him on the stage in 1993 was surreal! I met him eight years after this and he became a friend, an encourager and someone who believed in my calling. I will never, ever forget you, Daryl!

God’s Music Is My Life is a free subscription service, but your support is appreciated for this and the expanded work that I do as a historian and preservationist of gospel music history. To contribute, please support the GoFundMe that is helping to make the New York Community Choir book possible.