I am not a fan of gospel music in general. Something about the
\nchoirs just doesn’t resonate with me usually.<\/p>\n
However, I do appreciate much of contemporary R&B music.
\nKirk Franklin, to his credit, has consistently been about the task
\nof building a bridge between the gospel and contemporary Christian
\nmarkets as well as the secular R&B and rap markets. His latest
\nalbum,
\nThe Nu Nation Project<\/i>, may well be the one that completes
\nthose bridges.<\/p>\n
This album is a winner in every sense of the word, specifically
\njudged the best contemporary soul gospel album recently by the
\nGrammy Awards.<\/p>\n
Over the years Franklin has been accused by some of “selling
\nout” traditional gospel music by grafting on to it elements of
\nR&B, rap, and rock and roll. He’s been criticized for
\nrelationships he’s cultivated with secular music artists who have
\nbeen accused of having less than clean reputations.<\/p>\n
This is all hoo-ha, in my opinion. But, it’s “hoo-ha” that
\nFranklin has attacked head on in this disc by crafting two
\ninterludes that show how ridiculous those accusations are and by
\ninviting luminaries from nearly all genre’s of music to
\nparticipate.<\/p>\n
R. Kelly and Mary J. Blige appear from R&B. U2’s frontman,
\nBono, shows up from rock and roll. Contemporary Christian music’s
\nCrystal Lewis lends her pipes and gospel’s reigning king, Fred
\nHammond, puts in a stunning appearance.<\/p>\n
Kelly, Blige, Bono and Lewis all appear on the ballad “Lean On
\nMe”, which was spotlighted on the recent Grammy telecast. This is
\nnot a remake of the Bill Withers tune of the same name. This song,
\nwith the four principals trading lead vocal chores back and forth,
\nis a call for believers to reach out to those who are suffering in
\nan effort to lead them to the One who can give them what they
\nreally need, Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
Incidentally, Crystal Lewis and her record company Metro One,
\nwith Franklin’s blessing and encouragement, recorded a solo version
\nof this song that — unbelievably — outperforms the album version.
\nLewis’ vocals are superb – among the best things she’s ever done.
\nIronically, the solo version was recorded to give the song more
\nexposure on contemporary Christian radio stations because it was
\nfeared program directors wouldn’t play a song that features Kelly,
\nBlige and Bono – all performers who’ve claimed to be Christian but
\ndon’t perform within the accepted realm of CCM music and who’s
\nlives sometimes have presented a questionable Christian image.<\/p>\n
Lewis’ version of the song is only available on repackaged
\nversions of her
\nGold<\/i> project. Be sure to check the song listing to be
\ncertain you have the right version.<\/p>\n
Throughout, Franklin is ably backed as usual by his choirs, The
\nFamily, Nu Nation and God’s Property. On “Revolution” (not the
\nBeatles’ song) Franklin and Rodney Jerkins slam it home to men who
\nare letting violence and lust rule their lives:<\/p>\n
“Sick and tired of my brothas\/Killing each other\/Sick and tired
\nof daddies leaving\/Babies with their mothers\/To every man who wants
\nto lay around and play around\/Listen potnah you should be man
\nenough to stay around”<\/p>\n
Franklin and Jerkins pull no punches in this song, telling these
\nmen that if they really want a revolution they need to turn their
\nlives over to Jesus.<\/p>\n
Just when you’ve settled into Franklin’s comfortable R&B
\ngroove, along comes the song “Smile Again” which opens with
\nscreaming rock guitars. One of Franklin’s strengths as the leader
\nof the choir is picking just the right voices to sing his songs. On
\nthis song James Henderson and Donnie McClurkin share the vocal
\nchores, with Henderson starting things off rough and McClurkin
\ncoming along and smoothing things out.<\/p>\n
“My brother don’t you worry\/Storms don’t last always\/there’s a
\nman from glory\/Full of mercy and grace\/Keep your head up\/Smile
\nagain”<\/p>\n
Franklin, who wrote or co-wrote all of the songs, is not a
\npreacher. He’s an exhorter. His songs calls his listeners to their
\nbest. He provides his best and he wants the listeners to do the
\nsame. In the song “Hold Me Now”, he shares about his own
\nexperiences with being depressed and enduring suffering:<\/p>\n
“To every broken person that may hear this song\/To every boy or
\ngirl who feels their smile is gone\/I know exactly how it feels to
\nlay in bed at night\/And cry\/And cry\/Don’t you worry God is faithful
\nand He cares.”<\/p>\n
This is not a gospel album and yet it is a gospel album. This is
\nnot a contemporary Christian album, but it surely is. This is not a
\nrock and roll album, but it certainly has elements of rock blended
\nin.<\/p>\n
Franklin has created an album that everyone can enjoy and be
\nstretched – at least musically – by.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":27393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7294],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-38758","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-kirk-franklin","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38758"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}