REVIEWS
“Walk On Walker” – Faithful of Milton, NC
“Walk On Walker”
Faithful (October 2023)
Facebook: Faithful of Milton, NC
By Libra Boyd
Gospel Music Fever
Milton, North Carolina’s Faithful delivers a compelling message in their single “Walk On Walker,” produced by Antwon Timmons of Perfect Peace Music. Lead vocalist Danny Stewart encourages listeners to rise above negativity and gossip, drawing parallels to the unwarranted criticism faced by Jesus Christ.
While Faithful is rooted in traditional gospel, they could stride confidently down to a blues or soul festival with the music and message of “Walk On Walker” and leave a memorable impression.
“Set Me On Fire” – Gina Lloyd
“Set Me On Fire”
Gina Lloyd
Destiny Records (Dec. 19, 2023)
Facebook
By Libra Boyd
Gospel Music Fever
Gina Lloyd, psalmist and worship leader, recently dropped the single, “Set Me On Fire,” and it’s been making rounds on social media, even becoming the soundtrack for local and overseas dance challenges with its Afrobeat vibe.
The song unfolds with Gina’s invitation to the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit: “I feel you—your presence all around me / I want you to consume me / Consume me with your fire.” Yet, what’s striking is the juxtaposition of her light, occasionally airy vocals with the fiery imagery of the lyrics, especially by the time she proclaims, “I’m on fire!”
Lloyd is at home in the music industry, having sung backup for artists such as Josh Groban, Alicia Keys, and Melonie Daniels. She embraced her calling as a psalmist in 2006.
Overall, “Set Me On Fire” doesn’t quite deliver the intensity I expected from a song with that title, but that’s also what makes it worth a listen; it captivates in its own right. My sense is that a live worship setting gives “Set Me On Fire” adequate fuel to engulf the atmosphere.
NEWS
PJ Morton celebrates release of ‘Saturday Night, Sunday Morning’ memoir
Career-Spanning Memoir Embraces Independence, Defying Expectations & Straddling
The Fences of R&B and Gospel Music, Faith, Race & Culture
GRAMMY® winning singer and producer, PJ Morton, has published his inspiring and life-spanning new book, Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, via Worthy Publishing, an imprint of Hachette Book Group. Aside from recent TV appearances on the Tamron Hall Show and CBS Mornings, Morton held book signing events in his native New Orleans, Nashville, New York City, and at his alma mater, Morehouse College, in Atlanta.
The memoir finds the 5x GRAMMY®-winner recounting and reflecting on a journey that continues to defy expectations and straddle the fences of music and faith, race and culture, expression and identity. As the son of beloved singing pastors Bishop Paul S. and Pastor Debra B. Morton, PJ Morton grew up grounded by the sound of the Church, but soon found himself drawn to R&B, pop and soul, writing songs that the industry, his family and community struggled to understand. In the face of mounting pressure, rejection and constant miscategorization, he committed himself to a steadfast path of independence: making music on his own terms, launching his own record label, and joining one of the biggest bands in the world (Maroon 5) while staying true to his New Orleans roots. The risks he took paid off, and through his trailblazing transformation from preacher’s kid to the busiest man in showbiz – performing everywhere from his local congregation to the Super Bowl with Maroon 5, collaborating with everyone from his father to Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu, Jon Batiste and Lil Wayne – PJ Morton hopes to encourage readers and listeners to overcome obstacles as they seek their dreams.
– From a media release
Detroit-based megachurch extends Brent Jones’ residency into 2025
(Los Angeles, CA) Triumph Church, a 35,000-member Detroit-based megachurch with eight campuses and fourteen weekly services, has extended Grammy & Stellar Award-winning artist Brent Jones’ Artist-In-Residence into 2025.
Jones said, “I am such a huge fan of Triumph Church, Pastor Kinloch, Jr., First Lady Robin, and all the great work Triumph has been doing over the years, so what an honor to share my music ministry with the entire Triumph family well into 2025.
This year has been such an amazing year for my career—back-to-back #1’s on Billboard, 150-City ‘Best Life’ Tour, my historic 4-album ‘Quadruple Release,’ first time touring Asia, etc. To God be the glory for the awesome things He has done!!”
Named the “#1 Fastest Growing Church in America” by Outreach Magazine and the largest black church in the country, Triumph Church was founded in 1920 originally as Triumph Missionary Baptist Church. In 1998, Pastor Solomon Kinloch, Jr. accepted the call to pastor at Triumph. At the beginning of his tenure, Triumph’s membership was less than 50 people. Under Pastor Kinloch’s visionary leadership, Triumph has now blossomed into a multi-site phenomenon with more than 35,000 members and counting.
INTERVIEWS
A Conversation with Melvin Crispell, III: ‘There is no failure in God’
By Libra Boyd
Gospel Music Fever
Melvin Crispell, III has emerged in gospel music as a Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, and producer with fervor that resonates with the soul.
Since winning the ninth season of BET’s Sunday Best in 2019, the 26 year-old’s musical journey has been one in which faith, resilience, and the joy of ministry intertwine. His late parents, Melvin Crispell, Jr. and Tunesha Crispell, were celebrated in the gospel industry as a composer and singer, respectively. His father worked with James Hall & Worship and Praise and wrote for Bishop Hezekiah Walker, among others. His mother was a lead vocalist with James Hall and a solo artist. Their only child was just a teenager when they passed less than two years apart. Crispell’s Sunday Best win became an instant springboard, launching him into a music career his beloved parents didn’t live to see, but are very much a part of. We delve into that later.
June marked the release of Crispell’s sophomore full-length project, No Failure, recorded live at Springhill Church in Garland, TX. The album’s first single, “Alright,” was nominated for a GMA Dove Award and the second single from the project, “God Is,” is up for a Grammy for Best Gospel Performance/Song. No Failure also gives the singer-songwriter his first executive producer credit alongside a team that includes producer D. Jamel Kimbrough, music director Elijah Goodwin, and contributions from KJ Scriven, Trinity Anderson, and Maverick City Music’s Chandler Moore.
GMF talked with Crispell by phone about No Failure as well as the passion and unwavering faith that define his gospel journey.
Let me start by congratulating you on your current Grammy nomination for “God Is.” This is your second Grammy nod. How does it feel to be recognized among your peers at that level?
It’s an unexplainable feeling to be able to be recognized on that level amongst so many other legends that are in the gospel music industry and in the secular world. Just to be recognized amongst everyone means the world to me and I still can’t believe it sometimes.
“God Is” is from your project, No Failure, which is your second full-length album.
Yes. My second album and my first live album.
Tell us about it and the growth you’ve seen in your musical journey between your first album (I’ve Got A Testimony) and this one.
Yeah, so I really got to put my heart and soul into this one. And I got the opportunity to be an executive producer for this album. With that came a lot of hard work. I really got to see what all goes into when these artists would do live recordings. There are so many different moving parts to putting something together, and I really got to put my hands into the fire with this. I really spent a lot of long nights trying to figure things out, making sure things were right. Not striving for perfection, but for excellence. It was an amazing experience. And though it was a lot of hard work, it’s something that I definitely want to do again because I want to see how I can challenge myself to even do even more than what I’m doing now.
So No Failure is especially meaningful for you. (Smile)
This album is so special to me! Even the more being able to just be vulnerable with people and to create from my heart, and I can’t wait for the opportunity to do another album. Of course, I said that I did not want to do a live album at first. Now that I’ve done this one, I said, yeah, we need to do another one. I feel that we need to do another one. So it’s definitely an amazing experience and one that I won’t forget.
And the theme of No Failure revolves around the idea that there’s no failure in God, yes?
Absolutely.
What inspired you to bring this forward as the theme?
The inspiration behind that is while we were coming up with songs—we were trying to find two, and of course, we didn’t have the album title yet—God literally dropped two songs into my remembrance: “Here,” which is the first song on the album, and the title track, “No Failure.” And both of those songs were written in a writing session that was done by my church, Life Center Fellowship (in Charlotte) mere days before we had to be locked down for the pandemic. And so of course those songs were going to be recorded by my church; but due to the pandemic, we never got to record them and they were just sitting. And so God brought them back to my remembrance, and when we reviewed them and talked them over with the team, it all started flooding in like crazy like, this is the message that you want to relay to people on the Source of this whole album.
And if you look at every song on this album, you can trace all of the stories back to the fact that there is no failure in God. We have to continue to trust in His plan because He hasn’t failed us yet. Things are not always the way that we want them to be, and we don’t have everything that we want, but God has given us everything that we need and he’s always taken care of us.
Such an important message, especially coming out of the COVID pandemic. And to think that the songs were written just before the pandemic lockdown.
Yes. Days prior.
You know, it was just four years ago that you won Sunday Best. You’ve accomplished a lot in these few years. That experience had to have impacted you in ways you still reflect on.
That experience was unforgettable for me. It shaped my career in a way that’s given me confidence because I didn’t think I was qualified or even good enough to even make it past an audition for that show. That was just a mindset that I was in. It couldn’t be me to win something that big. And then when I got the call to be a part, I couldn’t believe it. And then from the moment I left my hometown, God had literally lined everything up in place.
Wait. You were not confident you would make the cut? That’s mind-boggling to me. How did you wind up auditioning?
Sunday Best had been on hiatus. I had seen on social media that it was coming back for the ninth season, and I just kind of kept scrolling past it because, well, I used to want to [be a contestant on Sunday Best] when I was younger, but my parents would shun the very thought of it. (Laughs) I guess it’s because they were a part of the industry and they knew all it entailed, so they didn’t really want me to get thrown into it; so I kind of stopped watching it. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, as any kid would. But the show finally came [off hiatus] and a family member called me three times within a span of two weeks and said, “Hey, you need to audition for this show.” And then another family member came to me and said, “What have you got to lose? Just try.”
It’s so interesting to hear that was your mindset because many of us who were sitting at home watching, the minute we saw you at the auditions, we were like, “Oh, he is going to win it.” It was a no-brainer for us.
You mentioned your parents, the late Melvin and Tunesha Crispell, and their industry presence. My gosh, they were celebrated figures in the gospel industry. And what I think is really precious is your intentionality about honoring their legacy in your music. What influence do you feel they continue to have on what you do?
Yeah, it is definitely an honor to carry their legacy, and their legacy was not just music, but a legacy of love and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to people through music and whatever other means it may have been. And so that’s what I love to keep alive, even though they’re not here any longer. Of course, you have your moments where you feel like you could be living in their shadow, but I just feel like I didn’t have enough time with them to where I could actually say that because they were my world and I was so always inspired. Even as a young child, I was always inspired watching them do what they did, whether it was apart or whether it was together. And saying that, I mean that there were so many different avenues that they took to do what they did. It inspired me to say, there’s not just one way to do this, and you don’t have to do it just one way. There’s so much music they have that hasn’t even been released and I used to be a part of that music. That music was in my blood. I used to hear it going to sleep and waking up in the morning and all that stuff. That stuff was always on my mind and on my heart.
And so now that they’re gone … why not carry their legacy and carry that piece of me with me because it’s a part of who I am. I keep them close to my heart.
On your first album, you remade your dad’s composition, “Wonderful Is Your Name.” It shot to the top of the Billboard Gospel chart and got you Grammy and Dove nominations. It was a bop when Bishop Walker and the Love Fellowship Crusade Choir recorded it in the late ‘90s, and you elevated it when you recorded it two decades later. Now, on No Failure, you’ve remade “Jesus Is My Help,” another of your dad’s compositions that Bishop Walker and Love Fellowship popularized.
It was an incredible feeling. I wish they were here to see all that God is doing. Even with my mom, there’s music of hers that hasn’t been heard yet—well, at least from me—which will be coming soon.
Say more about that!
Well, there is new music coming sooner than you think! And I got some other things down the pipeline where I kind of venture out and do more than just music. So I’m excited about that. I don’t want to share too much! But yeah, it’s a lot of things happening for me and I’m just grateful to God for what He’s doing. Life is amazing right now.
I’m grateful for you guys and your love and support. It means the world. I ask that you pray to Jesus for me in the coming years, that He just gives me grace and longevity and strength. And I’ll do my best to create even more for you guys to inspire you and to give you hope, and to give you joy [so] that you feel loved and special. And I just thank you guys so much.
No Failure is available on all major digital platforms.
Director Michael Gentry discusses creating ‘Gospel In Person’ documentary
By Libra Boyd
Gospel Music Fever
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Erin Ganey-Hill, cultural arts program director at Kirby Cultural Arts Complex, had an idea, recounts Michael Gentry.
Over the years, Erin had witnessed how the community celebrated Black gospel music and its singers in their small city of Roxboro (population, roughly 8,100) and throughout Person County. Several quartet-styled groups regularly booked the Kirby to host their singing anniversaries or major programs, and Erin and the Person County Arts Council envisioned a project that would pay homage to the valuable legacy of music and culture in the community.
“Erin’s goal was to talk about the history of gospel [music], but from the standpoint of quartets,” Michael explains. “She wanted to celebrate the history of that [in Person County] and [the impact its] singers had.”
The culminating result is a feature-length documentary titled Gospel In Person. It premieres on Father’s Day at the Kirby Theater. Michael is the film’s creator, producer, and director.
Gospel In Person chronicles over eight decades of the rich Black gospel music history found in Person County, located in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, along Virginia’s border. Much of the history is told by the singers themselves, many of whom still travel the circuit singing God’s praises. In their vivid accounts, they also reminiscence about area legends who are no longer with us, such as Roosevelt Whitfield of the pioneering Silver Moon Quartet and his son, prolific singer and multi-instrumentalist Michael Whitfield; Martha Pettiford of the Joylettes; Leroy Cash of the Spiritual Lights; Victor Hester of another pioneering group, the Traveling Sextet; Willie Carrington of the Mighty Harmonaires; and many more. Additionally, the film features classic performances of the Mighty Gospel Travelers, Original True Lights, Spiritual Lights, Mighty Prophets, Joylettes, and others. And although they may not be household names beyond the region, their impact has created ripple effects throughout the broader gospel music scene, as their stories reveal.
Michael grew up in Person County and in church. Admittedly, he was more interested in playing basketball as a youngster than attending weekend gospel music programs. His parents, on the other hand, “know all about this music scene,” he asserts. “This is what they grew up in. Of course, as I grew in Christ and grew in ministry, as God had told me that my work would be in Person County, I developed an interest in wanting to get to know [some of these singers’ stories]. I just didn’t know that I would be called upon to do this.”
The calling of which he speaks came about after Erin took notice of Just Love In Person, an organization Michael co-founded that is committed to strengthening Person County through acts of service powered by love. One way the organization does this is by sharing first-person narratives of people in the community with webisodes fittingly called “Just Love Stories.” The web series piqued Erin’s interest so much so that she jotted Markeith Gentry’s name down to contact about her idea. Markeith is the head of Gentry Visuals multimedia publishing company, the official publisher of Just Love In Person’s “Just Love Stories” series. He is also Michael’s younger brother. In the meantime, she ran it by fellow arts council board member Kim Hargrove.
“So it just so happens that Erin asked Kim one day, ‘Hey, do you know Markeith Gentry? I need to find a way to get in touch with him,’” Michael recalls. What Erin did not know, he says, is Kim “is like my brother’s second mother.”
It turns out Markeith’s schedule was full, but he had already been showing his big brother the ropes when it came to videography. Erin and Michael finally met in March 2022 and began developing the project.
The first Sunday in June, Michael visited New Hope Person Missionary Baptist Church in south-central Person County to invite its pastor to appear on “Just Love Stories.” “I went to the church—this is after I had met with Erin—and of course, who do I see? Dr. Libra Boyd. And that’s when I told you about this idea that the Kirby had. And you got on your phone, pulled up several pictures, and said, ‘Here are the people you have to contact. Here are some of the older groups.’”
One of the first people Michael contacted was David Ramsey, a renowned singer and bass guitarist who has been a member of several of the groups discussed in the Gospel In Person film. He is also a longtime radio personality and host of the David Ramsey Gospel Show on WRXO 1430 AM / WKRX 96.7 FM. “I started with David Ramsey, and he’s just a gold mine of knowledge.”
Ambitiously, he went on to conduct interviews with more than 60 people for Gospel In Person and estimates working on the project an average of eight hours every day for just over one year. “But my soul was getting fed. My knowledge was being increased. So it was a labor of love—emphasis on love, not labor.” Still, the most demanding task may have been condensing nearly 100 hours of accumulated interview and archival footage into a suitable documentary length for one sitting. Gospel In Person runs approximately three hours and is divided into three parts. “From a quartet standpoint, you’re talking about probably 85 years of history.”
And even though the film focuses on singers of the quartet style, both choirs and churches are acknowledged in this body of work because “all the quartets, for the most part, come directly from a church choir,” he points out. “They were in the choirs, even though they were singing full-time, you know, every weekend, all evening long. They were always in their churches on Sunday morning.”
Another eye-opener, one that blew him away as he collected stories and listened to audio and video recordings, was, “I believe all of these groups could have been professional. Traveling the country. Famous. And I think had these groups been in a larger city, they would have been. . . . You know, they weren’t just ‘Roxboro’ good. They weren’t just ‘North Carolina’ good. They were awesome. But not only that; they had relationships with professional groups. . . . ‘I’m coming through North Carolina. Can I come stay at your house?’ (laughs) The professionals knew them. Some of these singers were singing alongside professionals before they were professionals.”
The Gospel In Person documentary rounds out the “Gospel In Person” series, which since the fall of 2022 has featured live concert performances of MG Music Group, the Torain Family, Just Us Guys, the Spiritual Lights, the Mighty Harmonaires, and John Thorpe and Truth. Concertgoers were treated to short documentaries spotlighting the headliners, but Michael is quick to emphasize that the full-length documentary is a new release and not a stringing together of the previously released short docs. “You’re going to see a lot of things that were not in the stories we’ve already [released]. . . . We have not released any information on Facebook or in these concerts about maybe the most talented gospel singer in Person County history.”
“Historic and monumental” is how the talented producer and director describes the significance of Gospel In Person; and yet, his prayers and hopes for it are profoundly humble.
“My prayer for [Gospel In Person] has been that it moves people spiritually because that’s [Just Love In Person’s] assignment; our assignment is to make a spiritual impact. I pray that it gets folks saved, revitalizes people, strengthens the spiritual work of quartets in Person County, and continues to strengthen the church community. I hope it encourages the active quartets to continue the work they’re doing and realize they’ve made an impact. And then my prayer is that people can know, understand, and appreciate what exists in our community. We have greatness all throughout. I hope people understand what is in these roots and see it as their responsibility to continue to feed these roots by producing more greatness. My main prayer is that God is glorified and the people are encouraged.
“I’m grateful that God called me to the work because it is, to me, it’s been the most important thing that I’ve really ever worked on.”
Gospel In Person premieres Sunday, June 18, at Kirby Theater on 213 N. Main Street in Roxboro. Showtimes are 1 pm and 5:30 pm. Admission is FREE. GMF’s Libra Boyd appears in the film.
Editor’s Note: The group pictured on the graphic is The Mighty Gospel Travelers. Seated from left to right are the late Michael Whitfield, David Ramsey, and Stacey Pettiford. Standing from left to right are the late James Lunsford, Rev. McArthur Pettiford, the late Victor Hester, the late Burley Pettiford, and the late Freddie McGhee.
IN MEMORIAM
R.I.P. Cissy Houston, Grammy-winning gospel great
A private, invitation-only memorial service was recently held at Newark’s New Hope Baptist Church for gospel great Cissy Houston who passed October 7, at the age of 91. She was under hospice care for Alzheimer’s disease. Her powerful voice and soulful performances left indelible impressions on the music industry and were passed down to her children, particularly her iconic daughter, Whitney.
Jonathan Landrum, Jr. and Hillel Italie shared more about Cissy’s life and career in their detailed report for The Associated Press. CBS News New York reported highlights from the two-time Grammy-winning artist’s memorial service on October 17th.
With her father Nicholas Drinkard’s encouragement, Emily “Cissy” Drinkard and her siblings began singing as the Drinkard Four. As others were added to the group, the aggregation became the Drinkard Singers. The Drinkard Singers went on to record a live album titled Joyful Noise, which was followed by Cissy’s 1963 solo record This Is My Vow (released under the name Cecily Blair). By year’s end, Cissy had formed The Sweet Inspirations, a lineup that included her nieces Dee Dee and Dionne Warwick as well as Doris Troy. Both Cissy and The Sweet Inspirations recorded projects over the next decade and sang backup for top artists of the day, including Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, and Elvis Presley. In 1970, Cissy parted ways with the group to devote more time to her family and a solo career. While the tangible rewards for her artistry may be the Grammys she won in the category of Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album for Face to Face and He Leadeth Me in 1997 and 1999, respectively, many contend that her greatest contribution to music was her daughter Whitney. In Whitney’s own words:
My mother taught me how to sing. I had the singing in me, but she taught me how. And she taught me through gospel. And she told me that if I could sing gospel, I could sing anything that I wanted to—because everything is rooted from that music...
R.I.P. Gregory Kelly, Sr., formerly of Slim & The Supreme Angels
GMF acknowledges the passing of Gregory Kelly, Sr., gospel singer formerly of Slim and The Supreme Angels. Kelly passed September 4, after a period of health challenges.
A musical tribute and homegoing service took place September 13th and 14th, respectively. Both services were held at Greater New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Oxford, NC.
In addition to his tenure with Slim and The Supreme Angels, Kelly fronted his own group, Greg Kelly and Foundation.
The GMF community continues to send up prayers for Kelly’s family, friends, and supporters.
R.I.H. Rev. Janice Brown-Stephens, pastor and ‘Rough Side of the Mountain’ singer
GMF was saddened to receive news of the passing of Rev. Janice Brown-Stephens. Brown-Stephens, the youngest of 14 siblings, transitioned on August 30, 2024. She was 80.
Born September 13, in Rocky Mount, NC, the singer, preacher, and pastor became most widely recognized as the singing partner of Bishop F.C. Barnes. Together, they gave us the massive traditional gospel hit, “Rough Side of the Mountain,” along with other favorites like “Uncloudy Day” and “The Lord Will Fix It For Me.”
An excerpt from the NC Music Hall of Fame’s biography of Bishop F.C. Barnes reads,
The Reverend Barnes met The Reverend Janice Brown around 1979 while doing a radio broadcast in Rocky Mount on WSRV. On a reel-to-reel tape recorder, they recorded “It’s Me Again, Lord” for a radio broadcast; the response from listeners was overwhelming so they recorded it in a studio. In addition to “It’s Me Again, Lord,” they recorded “Come On In The Room.” AIR Records executive Wendell Parker heard it and brought it to the attention of Ron Freeman, owner of AIR, the Atlanta International Records, a subsidiary of Malaco Music Group. Freeman offered them a recording contract.
The Reverends Barnes and Brown recorded eight albums; their biggest hit was “Rough Side of the Mountain” which reportedly sold half a million copies and reached number one on the Gospel Chart.
Following Brown-Stephens’ departure from the duo in the late 1980s, she left the music industry and became a pastor in a small Jones County, NC town. Two decades later, she reemerged in the industry with a new duet partner, Monte Stephens, a former radio station owner who was the founder and then-president of Freedom Records in Murfreesboro, TN. The partnership began after Stephens’ now-deceased wife Dee heard one of Janice Brown’s recordings, insisted on meeting her, and ultimately invited her to record a project with Monte. Dee produced the new project and even titled it Alive and Well to clap back at Internet misinformation that the gospel singer had died. Unfortunately, Dee herself passed away from cancer before the album’s release. Several months later, Janice and Monte united in marriage and continued their singing and preaching ministry under the name of Ebony and Ivory Ministries.
Brown-Stephens and her husband were the pastors of Full Circle Church of God in Friendsville, TN.
A celebration of life service is scheduled for September 14, at 10 a.m. with a pre-celebration one hour prior. The services will take place at Deeper Life Church Ministries in Goldsboro, NC.
GMF extends condolences to the entire Brown and Stephens family.
Jerrold Norwood, founding member of Shekinah Glory Ministry, passes away at 60
(Chicago, IL) Jerrold Norwood, a founding member of the platinum-selling Chicago-based gospel music ensemble Shekinah Glory Ministry, passed away of cancer complications on August 4, 2024.
“The members of Shekinah Glory Ministry aren’t just fellow worshippers or fellow singers or fellow musicians, we are family,” was a statement posted on Shekinah Glory Ministry’s Facebook page. “We regretfully announce the passing of one of our original members, Jerrold Paine Norwood. Jerrold was a giant of a worshipper, a threat to the devil, a warrior to those who were unhoused and downtrodden. A devout family man and our dear brother.”
The ebullient Jerrold Paine Norwood was born January 3, 1964, in Chicago, IL. He grew up in the area and was a founding member of Shekinah Glory Ministry when it first organized circa 1999. The ensemble has earned five R.I.A.A.-certified gold and platinum recordings for hit recordings such as “Praise Is What I Do,” “Yes,” and “Before the Throne.” He led the song “Higher” from the group’s 2007 live album.
Norwood was a community-minded fellow who enthusiastically evangelized, passed out turkeys for the needy during Thanksgiving, and gave toys to kids for Christmas. He was the Director of Housekeeping at Niles Nursing & Rehabilitation Center. For the last eight years, he has battled cancer. It went into remission and later returned.
Norwood’s celebration of life takes place Friday, August 23, 2024 at 7:30 PM at the Valley Kingdom Ministries International location at 5300 151st Street, Oak Forest, IL. Norwood lived in Dolton, IL and is survived by his wife of nearly 33 years, Candace Marie Norwood, and their four children: Jalen, Jamel, Linnea, and Shayna.