Reviewed by Ian Hayter

Shirley has been about a bit. With a background that includes soul, funk, gospel, jazz and R&B, and with mentors such as Roger Troutman and T D Jakes, she has demonstrated her powerful voice in a variety of contexts. Here she takes to the church for a set that pairs her with Regine Belle, Kelly Price and Beverley Crawford on vocals and a great bunch of backing musicians. There is congregational praise with songs such as "He Is God" and the Mardi-Gras sounding "Rejoice Come On", tender ballads ("Keep Lovin' Me"), inspirational anthems ("Dream", "Winner In Me") and some really powerful soul and jazz influenced tracks such as "The Upward Way". Her roots in the funk of The Zapp Band are on show too in the spiky "God Can Do Anything". There's a fair bit of talk between the 12 self-penned songs, which occasionally gets in the way, but with Ms Murdock's unique blend of jazz scatting and gospel hollering, the album largely thunders along with a truly sanctified beat.

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