Reviewed by Paul Poulton

It's taken a while for Prenestine to get round to recording her own CD. I can understand that, as she's been busy performing with Aretha Franklin, Lee Williams and Evelyn Turrentine-Agee. Finally, the veteran has made it onto CD and I have to say it's pretty hot. Not too hot to handle maybe, there are one or two short- comings but it's hot enough to singe your ears and that's hot enough for me. Vibrancy and energy gush out of the speakers, you can't help but like this effervescent singer, she's great. Most of the songs have infectious hooks, it's kinda old school; "World Wide God" is a traditional type song but there are elements of modern gospel in there too: nice super tight backing vocals. The general rule is: get hold of a musical theme and stick with it for four minutes, not too many highs or lows. It's happily providential that the musical motif is nearly always neat and exceedingly listenable. The sound seems to be a bit on the thin side, I would have preferred slightly more kick and bass. The subjects of the songs are positive and creatively written, ie, "Satan had the audacity/To come around harassin' me." I ought to mention that this isn't Prenestine's first solo project, that was recorded back in 2002, entitled 'Appointed For Praise', but it is her first with the production talents of the Profinitee trio. Curtis Turrentine who is one third of the production team, helped write "World Wide God", he's also Evelyn's son. His mom, who features on this album, is a gospel singer who won the 2004 Stella Award for Traditional Female Vocalist Of The Year. Also featured is the Caravans' Albertina Walker who has over 120 gospel music awards, so beat that if you can.

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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