Gospel Slide

Aaron “Professor Louie” Hurwitz first came to prominence for his production and keyboard work with The Band (post Robbie Robertson) and separately with Rick Danko’s bands. In fact, it was Danko that dubbed him “Professor Louie,” a name that stuck immediately and has carried Louie and his band, The Crowmatix, through 13 studio albums.

Kooper Session is the second-in-line of the Super Session albums featuring singer-songwriter Al Kooper. Joining Kooper in the guitar slot is 15-year-old phenomenon Shuggie Otis, son of legendary rhythm and blues pioneer Johnny Otis. Divided into two halves, "The Songs" (a quartet of arranged gospel and rhythm and blues tracks) and "The Blues" (a trio of improvised blues tracks), the album, like Super Session before it, was quickly recorded and featured short, succinct tracks ("Double or Nothing", "One Room Country Shack") and fluid, drawn out jams highlighting the talents of the artists ("12:15 Slow Goonbash Blues", "Bury My Body").

Grammy-nominated blues, soul and Americana singer is revered worldwide for her defiant music and fire-breathing performances. Done Come Too Far continues Shemekia's riveting, clear-eyed testimony about our troubled world and the blessings that keep hope alive. The new album is again produced by Will Kimbrough, and an all-star supporting cast includes slide guitar whiz Sonny Landreth, Hill Country blues great Cedric Burnside and Hi Rhythm Section organist Charles Hodges. Done Come Too Far is another exhilarating Shemekia Copeland showcase, as her rousing vocals bring the heat in an infectious array of muscular rockers, stomping blues, swampy soul and heartbreaking ballads. Intense new originals make up most of the tracks and spirited versions of songs by Ray Wylie Hubbard and her father, Johnny Copeland, fit right into the mix.

"American Epic" compilation series is a collection of releases of music associated with the film series "The American Epic", a historical documentaries are a journey back in time to the "Big Bang" of modern popular music.

Beau Williams (born January 6, 1950) is an American gospel singer from Texas. Williams' albums with Capitol Records include a self-titled album in 1982, Stay With Me (1983), Bodacious! (1984) and No More Tears (1986). After his third Capitol release, Williams signed with Light Records and returned to his roots in Gospel music. Williams' album "No More Tears" is a real cultural act. Behind the record was the production company Hush Productions, which had hit the Gold Room commercially for Freddie Jackson and was able to produce a long line of high-quality male vocalists (Beau Williams, Willie Collins, Lillo Thomas, John White, Scott White ), whose albums, however, typically sold poorly - which doesn't mean they were weak. On the contrary, these discs often found more soulfulness and edging than Freddie Jackson's albums, which largely replicated the same safe (albeit still high-end) hit mold from one disc to another.

Robert Dwayne "Bobby" Womack is an American singer-songwriter and musician. An active recording artist since the early 1960s where he started his career as the lead singer of his family musical group The Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist, Womack's career has spanned more than 50 years and has spanned a repertoire in the styles of R&B, soul, rock and roll, doo-wop, gospel, and country. In 2009, Womack was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I enjoy a good country music gospel album, and that is just what James Hand has delivered with his latest album, Stormclouds In Heaven. There are songs worthy of being part of any Sunday morning church service, yet they are more country than traditional church music. There are also a few religious inspired country songs on the album that showcase James Hand’s versatility as a writer. It’s easy to write praise songs, but songs like the lead single “I Wear The Scars (Bobby’s Song)” carry a religious message that comes from the heart. All of these tracks are originals, which is the true accomplishment of this record because it is easy to fall back on traditionals when it comes to gospel tunes.

Robert Randolph grew up playing sacred steel music – basically gospel played on pedal steel guitar – on the House of God church in Orange, New Jersey, and began taking his joyous, gospel-infused music out to clubs and into the world.