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The Urban Country Gospel Story
To adequately understand the influence of my musical style I need to share my story. I grew up unapologetically Baptist. We attended New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church on Town Line Road in Benton Harbor, Michigan. The deacons and congregation started the service every Sunday morning with devotion and you could always hear hymns and what we called Dr. Watts, long meter hymns. My favorite was I Love the Lord He Heard My Cry and I sang it from the depths of my soul like everyone else. All day Sunday we were in church. I sang in the beginner’s choir, young adult as well as community gospel groups. This was church; 11:00 am Black Baptist service and I lived for the devotion and the powerful move of the spirit through out our Sunday service.
This was my music foundation, my Gospel experience. I grew up in Eau Claire, Michigan a small village with a predominately European influence. The school I attended had a chorale, might I say that I enjoyed the school choir more than anything else. We sang folk songs like Simon & Garfunkel. I played drums in the high school band and attended symphony concerts at Western Michigan University, but somehow it didn’t matter where I was or who I was with because I could always find the song in any genre I was exposed to. Some thought I enjoyed these experiences and songs too much but I could always hear those songs and the symphony long after they had ended. My home town had no radio station but the next city, Benton Harbor, had the only station in the area which played mostly folk and country.
I listened and sang along. I always loved Dolly Pardon and was always asked to sing this particular folk song entitled A Hundred Miles. I never knew who it was by but on the school bus after basketball games I would sing till everyone stilled and listened. It became and still is one of my favorites. For as much as I loved what happened on the bus and at school, I was Black and naturally I could only sing this type of music in that setting or when I was alone. After all, who ever heard of a black country singer? Even if I had a little twang, I should get rid of it and sing what everyone else sang. No one told me this, but it was the silent message of the times. Country? I don’t think so . As a child since the age of 5 it was the voice of my mother, Aretha Franklin, and other R&B and Blues singers that influenced me .
But my dad was a deacon and later became a pastor and forbid us from playing R&B saying it was the devils music and all who listened were going to hell. So we could only play Gospel in the house or listen to mom and daddy’s group rehearse on SaturdaysWe heard R&B every now and then when the circuit from Chicago’s WGRT came through on our small radio. Boy were we glad. Late late at night we could turn on the radio and hear Earnie’s Record Mart out of Nashville - that was even better! The music created an escape from anything else going on around me and all boundaries set by the environment. I heard freedom, rhythm and peace. I felt a release in R&B that brought about an entire change in my emotions. The music always took me to a deep place where so much of my self identity could be released.
This was it! This was my life passage, I would be the next Tina turner or Aretha Franklin so I thought I have always had a song in me that I felt didn't fit totally into the environment I found myself in. As a youngster all I knew was what my heart felt when I heard the magical effects of music, all music. From Simon and Garfunkel to The Monkeys, The Beach Boys, The Beatles and every other genre, they all had a message I could easily love and sing which I did often. Near death brought forth my purpose 21 years ago after giving birth to my daughter via a planned Cesarean Section and having my small intestine nipped during the procedure. The doctors gave me 72 hours to live and this bout with death became the catalyst for a new and renewed relationship with the Lord. He spoke, I heard and began to obey in a way like never before.
You cannot come that close to death and be the same. It was from this that I learned to hear from the Lord; He spoke and revealed so many things to me. It was in Chicago crossing the street that the Lord told me it was time to leave the group I had been singing with since my challenge with death. I inquired, ‘Lord what will I do?’ (It’s funny how we indentify ourselves by who or what we do) I heard the Lord say “ask Me to introduce you to yourself.” Why can’t you just tell me, I asked, He said “I won’t defy your free will, I’ll give you insight but its your choice to take it” so I asked the question Lord, will you introduce me to myself? It was 6 months later I woke up and heard him say country gospel. I needed a confirmation, it came on a ride to Chicago airport with the legendary Stevie Wonder. After listening to the music he said it should be Urban Country Gospel. I accepted Gods will for my life and now, I sing based on the destiny that was set for me when God designed me with the twang in my voice.
My soul still cries and feels the debt of the message but now it’s the interpretation of my own heart and destiny. I loved and enjoy the musical demographics of my life. It is amazing for me to hear the sounds in my voice and to know the path my life had to take in order for all of the sound to come together and be birthed as a whole new genre, Urban Country Gospel. That’s how I came to love and understand this new combined sound of Urban Country Gospel. Chicago delivered the urban, my home town environment gave me the country and my parents, the church and the sounds from Nashville gave me the gospel . Based on Jeremiah, I would definitely say that before he formed me he knew me, for my life was the perfect set up for my destiny. Growing up deep in the woods afforded me mixed lifestyles which lead me to my path so, when I finally came face to face with my destiny it was urban country gospel |
