Reviewed by Trevor Kirk

Beverly Crawford has certainly been around for a good few years, from her time as a soloist with Bobby Jones & New Life in the 1980s, through her co-founding with Bishop TD Jakes of the Potter’s House Evangelistic Ministry, until the present day, as an ordained evangelist at the Potter’s House Church in Dallas, Texas. This latest offering, recorded live at Jackson Memorial Baptist Church, Atlanta, is over 62 minutes of typical Crawford material, with the Family & Friends bit of the title indicating input from her sister Shirley Murdock, her brother Pastor Walter Camps Jr, the guy who gave her her first break, Dr Bobby Jones, and her long time pal Melvin Williams. The music is typical of the genre, there’s plenty of vocal pyrotechnics, and it’s well produced, although the sleevenotes reveal a tremendous amount of post-production work. So how "live" was it, one wonders. Gospel music is a pretty crowded area of the Christian music scene, so an album needs a spark of genius to lift it above the norm. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find one though aficionados will no doubt enjoy this.

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