Word Entertainment launches “All-Star Gospel Hits”

Word Entertainment, Curb and Warner Brothers Records are celebrating Black Music Month (June) in an All-Star manner. They are dipping into the deep Word Records vaults to create a new high-quality line of classic black gospel music cds. On Tuesday, May 25, 2004 the label will launch the first three volumes of its “All-Star Gospel Hits” various artists series with “Volume 1: Praise and Worship”, “Volume 2: Live” and “Volume 3: Hymns.” The cds will be released via WEA Distribution on May 25^th and via Word Distribution to the Christian Bookstore market on July 27^th.

The series is packed with familiar church standards by Aretha Franklin, Shirley Caesar, Yolanda Adams, Donnie McClurkin, Andrae Crouch and the Richard Smallwood Singers among many others. It will also feature long out of print chestnuts by Candi Staton, the Mighty Clouds of Joy and short-term Word artists such as the Williams Brothers, the Clark Sisters and even R&B star Dorothy “Misty Blue” Moore who recorded her only gospel album for Word in 1986. Gospel collectors will relish the extremely rare church songs by Chicago’s Beautiful Zion Missionary Baptist Church Choir (1973), the virtually obscure Ladies of Song (1969) that included Fifth Beatle Billy Preston’s mother Robbie Williams and even the Grammy-winning Winans joining South Africa’s Ladysmith Black Mambazo for a Third World rendition of the hymn “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.” In spite of the $9.98 suggested retail price, each cd will boast attractive cover artwork, a dozen songs, descriptive liner notes and photos.

The series is being coordinated by longtime Word Records consultants Eric Wyse and Brenda Boswell who are producing, compiling and researching the series. Former music journalist Bill Carpenter is assisting in song selection and liner notes annotation for the series. Warner Brothers Records acquired the historic Word Records label and catalogue in 2002. Founded in 1951 by Texan Jarrell F. McCracken in Waco, Word became the leading seller of religious recordings with a string of successful Billy Graham sermonette LPs in the 1950s. In 1974 the label was sold to ABC Television. In 1992 it was sold to Thomas Nelson Publishers and moved to Nashville. By 1997 it was sold to Gaylord Entertainment before the Warner acquisition in 2002. In the 1970s the label launched the Myrrh imprint to promote contemporary Christian music and briefly had a black gospel subsidiary called Rejoice in the 1980s.

For more information, contact Capital Entertainment at carpenterbill@mac.com

1. The Clark Sisters – You Brought the Sunshine
2. Milton Brunson – If I Be Lifted
3. The Mighty Clouds of Joy – Mighty High
4. Jessy Dixon & PUSH Choir – Christ Has Made the Difference
5. Helen Baylor – Helen’s Testimony
6. The Tommies Featuring Smokie Norful – He’s All I Need
7. Beverly Crawford – Jesus, Precious King
8. Daryl Coley – In the Arms of Jesus
9. Shirley Caesar – Strong Man
10. Dorinda Clark-Cole – On My Way to Heaven
11. Yolanda Adams – That Name
12. Douglas Miller – My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord

1. Shirley Caesar – Yes, Lord Yes/Have Thine Own Way
2. Mighty Clouds of Joy - What A Friend We Have in Jesus
3. Ladies of Song – Battlefield
4. Richard Smallwood Singers – Blessed Assurance
5. Beautiful Zion Baptist Church Choir – I Need Jesus
6. The Williams Brothers – Jesus Set Me Free
7. Candi Staton - Precious Lord
8. Aretha Franklin – Mary, Don’t You Weep
9. Dorothy Moore – What is This?
10. LaShun Pace – Is Your All on the Altar?
11.Donnie McClurkin – Holy Holy Holy
12.The Winans/Ladysmith Black Mambazo – Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

ERIC WYSE worked at Word Records from September 1983 to May 1986 as both a music producer and a videographer. In 1993 Wyse became director of A&R at Warner Alliance Records where he was an executive producer on recordings by Bishop Carlton Pearson, O'Landa Draper & Associates, Andraé Crouch, Beverly Crawford, Donnie McClurkin and the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. He left the label in March 1997 and has worked independently ever since. He co-produced Jonathan Slocomb’s “Laugh Yo' Self to Life” project and has produced videos on Bishop Carlton Pearson and the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. He was also talent executive for CeCe Winans’ Hallmark Channel musical series “CeCe’s Place.” Wyse has earned six Dove Award nominations.

BRENDA BOSWELL began working at Word Records in Waco Texas in 1976. At the time, she ran the Word Record music clubs
(the Canaan southern gospel, the Word traditional gospel and the Music Connection contemporary Christian music club) which blossomed into an $8 million a year enterprise for Word with a membership of 150,000. Boswell was also part of the team that helped break Amy Grant’s first gold/platinum album “Age to Age” in 1983. Boswell also created three best-selling television direct record sales campaigns with a B.J. Thomas collection, a Tennessee Ernie Ford package and a Contemporary Christian Music hits collection. She left as an employee in 1986 and has remained a consultant to Word over the years.

BILL CARPENTER is co-founder of Capital Entertainment, an entertainment public relations company based in Washington, D.C. He attended the University of Bourgogne in France and graduated with a degree in history from American University in 1991. He was a junior press secretary for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign and was media director for Coretta Scott King’s 1993 March on Washington anniversary celebration. Over the years, he has handled publicity for artists as diverse as the late hip-hop/R&B crooner Aaliyah to Brady Bunch mom Florence Henderson. He’s also done press work with a variety of gospel stars ranging from Bishop T.D. Jakes to Vickie Winans. Carpenter edited the gospel section of the All Music Guide (Miller-Freeman) and his writing has appeared in the Washington Post, CCM, People magazine and Living Blues. He’s the author of the forthcoming book, Uncloudy Days: The Black Gospel Music Encyclopedia (Backbeat Books – SanFrancisco), in spring 2005.