Karlene Bartolo

KB: I have always known that God has called me to be a lead singer. This has been evident from the dynamic connection that I am able to make with my audiences over the years. Working with groups or choirs is O.K., but the question then becomes: "Am I maximizing the calling God has placed on my life?" The answer for me was "Not really, I can do more." Doing more for me meant going solo (stepping fully into the calling). As a soloist, there are other factors at play. My spiritual life has to be intact. That is, I've got to stay connected. When I get onstage to minister, I have to rely on the Holy Spirit to carry me. If anything appears to be going wrong, I've got to lean back on the Holy Spirit. In a group, a particular participant may not pull his/her weight but at the end of the day the group may do fairly well. With a soloist, it is so different. The soloist messes up and that's it! Also, there is so much more flexibility in allowing the Holy Spirit to guide your performance. I thrive on that. I am one who believes that I plan my performance, wondering how, where and when is God going to change it.

GC: That brings us to your CD, Father of Light. It was produced by Jeff Rogers of B.RogersMusic in Atlanta. How did you both end up collaborating on this project?

KB: When I felt lead to work on this project, I really did not know what path it would take. My husband is my music director and we both started working on the songs at home, trying to get a sense of how we would like the songs to sound. At some point we decided that we would look for a producer to work with us. I did not know of anyone to contact directly. All I knew was that I was pretty sure that I would only be working with a Christian producer. I started surfing the Internet looking for Christian producers in Atlanta. I searched for a few weeks and came up with nothing. I found a few in other states, chatted with them and even had some thought of working with one. Then I decided to keep searching. I came across Jeff's site. I saw that he has done some work for Babbie Mason and some other known local artist. That got me excited. But what really got me excited was when I listened to a few of his audio samples. Both my husband and I were convinced that he was the one. We contacted him and the rest is history.