Word has it that Isaac Carree isn’t the only gospel artist taking submissions from aspiring musicians via Blazetrak.com.

Paul “PDA” Allen of the hit-making production camp PAJAM recently created a profile on the music site, in which he requests submissions from male and female artists, as well as songwriters.

PAJAM has gotten award-winning placements and production work on albums across music genres, for everyone from N’Sync and Destiny’s Child to Karen Clark Sheard and Shirley Caesar.  If you’ve got an opportunity to partner with them, or at the very least, get some feedback about your craft, you should prayerfully consider it… it might be a worthwhile investment.

Whatd’ya think???

Isaac Carree is working on his anticipated debut solo project, Uncommon Me.  He recently posted requests for musical submissions from producers, background singers and musicians on Blazetrak.

Essentially, Blazetrak connects artists and musicians with one another… kinda like a job matching service thingy.  Okay, that’s not the best description, but picture it– Susie wants two background vocalists, so she puts an ad on Blazetrak.  Jane wants to be a background vocalist reeeaaally badly and she submits her “audition” to Susie via Blazetrak.  Susie is blown away and hires Jane for the rest of her life.  Got it?  Cool.

So, check out Isaac’s page at http://blazetrak.com/isaaccarree… maybe we’ll see you on tour with him soon!

Anybody gonna give it a go???

Word has it that James Fortune & FIYA’s new album, entitled Encore, will feature quite a few guest vocalists.

Expect to hear tracks featuring Kierra Sheard (on “The Greatest”), William Murphy (on “I Need Your Glory”), Isaac Carree (on “I Want To Praise You”), Nikki Ross (on “Can’t Stop”), Lowell Pye & Zacardi Cortez (on “You Are Here”) and Anaysha Figueroa (on “Draw Me”).

Encore is the group’s third project and will be available in stores on January 26, 2010.  The first single, which is the title track, will hit radio this month.

Also, wanna clarify something about their upcoming recording on December 3rd in Houston, TX.  Despite earlier reports that the group would be recording a live album that night, the recording is just a DVD recording.  Don’t fret, though– the live DVD is expected to mirror the studio album, just… live.  The DVD will be released in May of 2010.

Who’s going, who’s buying, who’s supporting?  Talk to me!

Isaac Carree has released the title of his upcoming debut solo project… it’ll be called Uncommon Me.

Word has it that the vibe of the album is supposed to demonstrate the vocal agility we’ve seen from Ike, but will also share another side of his musical style and influences.

The vocalist, known best as a member of hit gospel group Men Of Standard and as a singer with John P. Kee’s New Life Community Choir, has not announced a release date.

He’s one of my favorite male vocalists in gospel, so I’m really looking forward to his solo project.

What do you think?

After Marvin Sapp’s recording on Friday, I caught up with the producer of the project– Aaron Lindsey.  He’s a really good guy.

He mentioned that he learned about James Fortune and Isaac Carree being robbed recently from my post at GospelPundit.com (glad that I’m helping to keep the people informed!).

He also shared that he wrote on several of the songs recorded that evening, including the already-a-hit “He Saw The Best In Me,” “Holding On,” and “I Came.”  In fact, they pre-recorded “I Came,” before the recording and there’s already a ringtone of it available for purchase!

In addition to leading the charge on Sapp’s upcoming album, Aaron Lindsey’s already finished work on the upcoming albums from Byron Cage and Rizen (both due at the end of this month), as well as the new project from DeWayne Woods (due in 2010).

Finally, you just might see him working on an upcoming project from Jonathan Nelson… more on that later!

And that’s THAT.

Word has it that gospel artists James Fortune (of James Fortune & FIYA) and Isaac Carree (of Men Of Standard) were robbed yesterday in Houston, TX.

By God’s grace, both are safe and okay.

According to tweets sent from Fortune’s twitter page yesterday, the two are working on music together.  After eating at Le Peep’s restaurant near Houston’s Galleria, the robbers approached them as they were getting into their car.

Fortune stated that “[t]hey took me and @isaaccarree mac computers, jewelry, passports, and money!  Thank you God for sparing our lives!!”

Let’s pray for them, that they recover completely from yesterday’s events, and pray for their continued safety!

Y’anna Crawley (@yannacrawley) tweets that she’s in the recording process, telling Donald Lawrence that it’s “going well.”

Ton3x (@t0n3x) started a campaign against pornography called “NO MO PO” (which CRACKS ME UP… the title, not the campaign).  Apparently, he was tempted with it the other day, used a YouTube preaching video to help him resist, then got so mad that he launched a campaign.  Gotta love the transparency.
 
George Huff (@georgechuff) is using UStream.tv to stream his rehearsals… he streamed band rehearsal yesterday and will be streaming his background rehearsal online this Thursday.

Anson Dawkins (@adawk), of Dawkins & Dawkins, is on Day 51 of his 100 Days of Prayer.  He’s been ”praying for a wave of humility and worship 2 overtake our nation; and rejoicing at how quickly God brings breakthru.”  AMEN!

Eric Dawkins (@edawkins), the other half of Dawkins & Dawkins, is working stuff for Isaac Carree and the gospel group Christopher.  Lookin’ forward to THAT.
 
Antonio Neal (@antonioneal) just opened a studio in Nashville.  Contact them via email at ansharforeverstudios@gmail.com for more info.
 
Finally, heads-up:  Deitrick Haddon and JJ Hairston have just joined Twitter.  Head over to the TwitterRoll to follow them.

I’ve been trying to keep y’all abreast of what’s happening in-studio as a bunch of highly anticipated albums are being created…

Well, word has it that Isaac Carree is working with Mary Mary for his upcoming debut solo project.  Could this album GET any hotter?!

Just gimme NOW, please!

My, my, my… Between tweeting on Twitter, updating my status on Facebook and takin’ notes for this post, I barely saw any of the show… but I HEARD it all and that was good enough for me!

Kirk Franklin opened the show with his Grammy-winning single, “Help Me Believe.”  I saw Charmaine, Anaysha, Nikki, Eric and Isaac singing bgv’s, but ummm… where’s Ashley?!  I kinda don’t consider the group complete without her, but maybe I’m just weird. In any event, great job and THANKS for not having the contestants behind y’all, talking ’bout some ”ooooooooh”…

The show kicked off with each singer doing their thang and, as usual, my humble recap:

Dontavies Boatwright - Medley of Fred Hammond’s “Glory to Glory to Glory” and “Blessed”:  He’s got a really nice, soaring voice (that training!).  He had a really nice look, with great energy, too.  I enjoyed him more last night than any time that I’ve seen him thus far.

Jessica Reedy - “Brighter Day”:  Let me tell you something right now.  I don’t care WHO wins this competition– my favorite, since the auditions, has been this young woman and she is HANDS-DOWN my pick for this entire deal.  She brings something soooo smooth, so unique and original, so relevant… She sang an incredible arrangement of Kirk Franklin’s “Brighter Day,” and I mean… Jessica demolished it from the first note to the end, was confident, looked great, COMMANDED the stage.  Folks get stuck on the contestants’ riffs (which she does well), but for ME, it’s about the musical CHOICES an artist makes– did you stick to the melody only, or did you go exploring?  was it tasteful?  did you do something that I can’t hear elsewhere?  Jessica channeled a little of everybody (did y’all hear that Anita Baker-esque deal she did?!).  Ok, I’m moving on, but I’m just sayin’… Jessica Reedy.

Clifton Ross III - “Total Praise”:  I agreed with the judges that Clifton seemed a bit more nervous this time around.  I also agreed with Erica Campbell that he should have done a bit more in the beginning instead of saving the killer vocals ’til the end.  That said, he still gave a smooth, consistent vocal that I really enjoy.

John McClure Jr. - “??????”:  Umm… I ain’t never heard the song, but it was something about having a testimony.  Anyone know???  In any case, he’s got a great voice.  He reminds me SO much– vocally and appearance-wise– of Smokie Norful.  He did a good job on the song and I still wanna hear more from him.

Y’Anna Crawley - “Grandma’s Hands”:  She’ll sing out the side of that mouth, but SING, she does!  She’s absolutely another fave of mine.  Any time the host asks a contestant to do some MORE of the song they just sang, it’s sayin’ something.  She delivers– vocally and with stage presence– like she’s been doing this for decades.  She’s already a pro, in my book, and we’re just kinda waitin’ for the album.

Zebulon Ellis - “He’s Able”:  Another reaaally nice arrangement of a classic Kirk Franklin tune.  I think he did a great job.  His spot was kinda unfair cuz he had to come on the heels of audience members laying slain in the aisle cuz of Y’Anna’s performance, but I think he held it down.

Jeff Spain - “Yesterday”:  He did Mary Mary’s hit, and he did a nice job.  I really like him as person, for sure.  And I love that he’s only been doing gospel for a couple of years, but that he’s determined to do it.  I mentioned on my tweet last night that I dunno if he translates well for gospel audiences.  By that, I mean that the MAJORITY of the gospel audience often wants a vocalist to come and slay us with the squall and the riff.  “Churchy” is not Jeff’s style.  Funny thing:  Though he’s got more of a voice for R&B, he doesn’t want to use it for that and I respect THAT.  For that reason alone, I say that if we don’t have room for him, we try to make room for him.  We like you, Jeff Spain.

Carolyn Johnson-White - “Secret Place”:  Now, I typically don’t like folks doing Karen Clark-Sheard cuz I think 9 out of 10 will only embarass themselves.  And, while she had a few theatrics that I didn’t need (”shush”-ing folks and what not), I think she really made the song her own and, to be honest, I kinda didn’t think of it as a KCS track anymore– I thought of it as a Richard Smallwood track (which it is), sung by a great vocalist in a way that really captured what the “secret place” may be like.  And, to that, I say “very good and well done, ma’am!”

Kalind Haynes - “Healing”:  Alright, sir, with the hip new look!  Got the hat and what not… I see you.  Kalind gave a nice, smooth vocal, as usual.  I didn’t feel like the performance was necessarily strong enough to keep him in the game, but I enjoyed him.

Latice Crawford - “Praying Spirit”:  So, this is one of those songs that I don’t ever want people to touch because I’m almost certain they won’t do it right.  So, when the music came on, I thought “uh oh.”  To that, Latice said “ummm… I can kinda sing my face off, so BOOM!”  And WOW.  This woman delivers every time.  And the reason that I enjoy her is that she REALLY has some of the hardest, most nostalgic tunes to do each week (remember her doing Vanessa Bell Armstrong’s cut a few weeks ago?).  That’s tough.  And to not just do them, but to do them like you own ‘em… great stuff.  Definitely a fave.

As great as EVERYONE was, the judges had to cut the 10 down to 5.  They are:  Jessica, Dontavies, Y’Anna, Latice and John.  Plus, there’s a wildcard contestant from the Top 10 that will be selected to perform next week… I’m kinda hoping it’s Clifton.

Thoughts about the show???  Do you agree with the Top 5?  Who do you wish was in there that isn’t?  Among the Top 5, who’s your fave?  HOLLA!

YesSUH!

Y’all should be watching anyway, but make sure you don’t miss Kirk Franklin step away from his hosting duties for a hot second to perform his hit single, “Help Me Believe,” on BET’s Sunday Best this Sunday at 8pm ET/PT.

I’m lookin’ forward to it, but lemme make one thing clear:  I don’t wanna see those contestants singing background on it.  I want Nikki, Anaysha, Ashley, Charmaine, Isaac… HIS people!  So… yeah.

Tune in!