Reviewed by Lins Honeyman

Bishop Terry Williams is an Atlanta-based gospel singer dedicated to keeping traditional gospel music alive and he does a very good job with this, an independent release featuring Williams' resonant vocals and his "family" of female backing singers. With this in mind, absent are the complicated polished arrangements and vocal acrobatics found in more modern gospel fare with Williams and crew sticking to the time-honoured tradition of communicating God's love through the kind of music that emanated from the Deep South's black church in the earlier part of last century whilst centring itself firmly in the kind of feel found in '70s soul music. Keen to show that his chosen form of music is multi-faceted, Williams starts off with the upbeat "He Brought Me Out" before settling down to a series of slower numbers including "I Want To Be Ready" and "Going Back To Church" which reflect with humility the man's desire to be obedient to God. Producer Reverend Haran Griffin, a former member of the Jackson Southernaires, does a sterling job making Williams' work sound as genuine as possible on what is undoubtedly a shoestring budget and whilst it's obvious that most of the backing instrumentation is synth-generated - most notably in the keyboard-generated brass section parts - this is still a valid and pleasing release from a man on a worthy mission to keep the gospel music traditions of yesteryear alive.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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