The Spiritual one

Spiritual One

A New Beginning

This month's spotlight takes us to the state of New Jersey. We bring to you the new CD by Spiritual One. If you are looking for a fresh yet traditional gospel quartet sound, then this project is for you.

Spiritual One’s new project is titled “A New Beginning.” Since the title is not the name of one of the songs on the project it is apparent that these guys are bringing a new style to the traditional gospel quartet song. You will find some of the old mixed in with the new. For instance, on Walk Around Heaven, you anticipate someone saying ‘sing Paul.” But Paul is not on this project. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

The members of the group are Rev. Leo Williamson, Jamie Williams, Gee Smith, Marquis Williamson and George Johnson, Jr. Together, they showcase a traditional gospel quartet sound. They have the voices to sing any song they desire. On this project they give us eight (8) of those songs. None are original songs, although, several have original arrangements.

The project beings with “Oh Lord.” This is a mid-tempo song that set the pace for the remainder of the project. This song also, immediately, establishes that this is a traditional sounding quartet group.

The guys move to “One of These Days.” This song will grow on you. The more you listen to it, the more you will appreciate the message and the harmony of the background singers. “A Better Place” is another mid-tempo song. One of the things you will appreciate about this song is that fact that the musicians do not overshadow the vocalists. There is very little background singing on this song, the little that is found on the song is great. Spiritual One’s arrangement of this song is great.

The next song is “Walk Around Heaven.” Robert and Paul would be proud of Spiritual One’s rendition of this song. There is nothing new about the arrangement. It is vintage Gospel Keynotes, except that the last two (2) minutes of the song involves all of the members of the group instead of just the falsetto singer.

The drive song is "Thank You Lord." This hard hitting song will probably be the one that gets the most airplay. The vocals are tight. The guys seem to be enjoying themselves singing this song. Once again, the instrumentation is just right. This is one of the shortest songs on the project, but it is certainly one of the best.

The project slows down again with “We Need A Miracle.” This is followed by “Satisfied.” And the project closes out with “If I Knew Then.” This is the only song on the project that could be considered a ‘new’ song. It is essentially the story of Job in song. The message is clear and the song presents strong background singing.

On the whole this release from Spiritual One is a wonderful traditional gospel quartet CD. We give Spiritual One's “A New Beginning" an 8 out of 10. To order this project contact the group at (973) 223-4285. Click on the title to hear “Thank You Lord.”

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