Over Stellar Awards weekend, Karen Clark Sheard announced the signing of the newest artist to her label, Karew Records– Jonathan Nelson!
After that, Jonathan tweeted and confirmed it, as did his twin bro, Jason Nelson. Jonathan was previously signed to Integrity Music, on which his latest album, Better Days, was released in 2010.
We can expect new music from Jonathan Nelson THIS YEAR.
Congrats Jonathan and Karew!
In stores today is Kierra Sheard’s Free, an urban and pop-themed praise and worship album featuring tons of energy, inimitable vocal acrobatics and Kierra’s BRL Choir. With it, she stands firmly in a space of gospel music that may not have even existed previously, and she sets the bar for others to follow, if they can.
Kierra’s first release on her parents’ label, Karew Records, Free is intricately produced by her brother, J Drew Sheard II, and was recorded live in Chicago earlier this year.
Fans will appreciate her cover of Chris Tomlin’s ”Indescribable,” the playfully melodic “People,” and the whimsical choir cut “Victory,” which features James Fortune (it’s my personal fave on the project).
Other standout tracks include the hard-driving single “You Are,” the pop-flavored “War,” with a chorus that reminds me a bit of something the Black Eyed Peas might do, “Since I Found Christ” with Mali Music, and the title track, “Free.”
Kierra Sheard has said that this album is her best to date, implying that it represents her better than any other. Consumers may be surprised to hear that, as many considered her 2006 sophomore album, This Is Me, to be sonically definitive of her artistry. Or, at least we want it to be.
But it’s clear– on Free, Kierra is probably most “herself.” She is vulnerable and transparent, at times absolutely overcome with emotion and tears as she worships God or challenges the crowd to a lifestyle of holiness.
Undoubtedly, Free is a musical wonderland with plenty to take in. I had to listen repeatedly to even get a sense of all that was happening. Still, I can’t help but wonder if a segment of her earlier audience will feel a bit lost among the complicated melodies and arrangements.
For those expecting an urban album, this isn’t it. For those expecting a churchy project, it isn’t that, either. Free is the recorded result of a live worship experience featuring Kierra and the BRL Choir singing songs as imaginative as they could dream, reaching out to a God as mighty, but as personal, as He is.
Free is in stores NOW. Listen to snippets and/or buy it right here–
Word has it that Kierra Sheard will be having a live recording at the end of this month, featuring her BRL Choir, on Monday, February 28, 2011 at the Harold Washington Cultural Center in Chicago, IL. The recording is for her upcoming project, titled Free, which is set to be released on Karew Records, the recently formed label of parents Karen Clark Sheard and Bishop J Drew Sheard.
BRL, which stands for Bold Right Life, is the youth initiative she began years ago, through which she’s hosted conferences, concerts and skating parties. Tapped to produce the project is none other than Kierra’s brother, rising producer J Drew Sheard II (“JDS“) who’s already earned a more than impressive list of production credits.
Admission to the recording is free, but for $35, you can grab the VIP Experience Package, which guarantees preferred seating, a meet & greet with Kierra, and a pre-order of the recorded album. To purchase the VIP package, contact Juan Kirkman at (312) 545-4775 or info@juanandonlyevents.com.
Is it just me, or is anyone else noticing how many moves Light Records is making?
I alluded to it last week, in discussing how well their team had coordinated publicity, radio and retail to make a splash for William McDowell. But as I continued to think about it, I was reminded that they JUST signed Ricky Dillard, JUST signed Dorinda Clark-Cole (didn’t we all think she was going to Karew?!), and is releasing a compilation project with some great new tunes via GospelFlava.com.
They may be an “indie” label, but they’re making some major strides. I see you Light Records!
Is it just me?
All In One, the fifth solo project from legendary vocalist Karen Clark Sheard has debuted at #3 on Billboard’s Gospel Albums chart. This is a great return to the marketplace for her, on her newly formed label Karew Records. Congrats, KCS!
Also, Smokie Norful’s Victory Cathedral Choir has hit #4 with their debut recording! That’s awesome.
The top 10 run-down looks a lil’ something like this…
#1 | Marvin Sapp – Here I Am
#2 | WOW Gospel 2010
#3 | Karen Clark Sheard - All In One
#4 | Victory Cathedral Choir - Smokie Norful Presents: VCC
#5 | BeBe & CeCe Winans - Still
#6 | Fred Hammond – Love Unstoppable
#7 | Tamela Mann - The Master Plan
#8 | James Fortune & FIYA - Encore
#9 | Hezekiah Walker & LFC – Souled Out
#10 | Sho Baraka - Lions & Liars
How many of you have YET to purchase Karen Clark Sheard’s new project? What about the Victory Cathedral Choir’s album?
Both are great… definitely encourage you to check ‘em out.
Click here
Click here
Tell me what you think!
Things stay the same for one more week in the top 5 slots of Billboard’s Gospel Albums chart–
WOW Gospel 2010 rests at #1, BeBe & CeCe Winans‘ Still is at #2, James Fortune & FIYA’s Encore is #3, followed by Tamela Mann and Fred Hammond at #4 and #5, respectively.
In terms of drama and excitement, the chart has been a little “blah” for the past month or so. The last albums to enter the marketplace and make a splash were WOW Gospel 2010 and James Fortune & FIYA’s Encore at the end of January.
Kudos to Bishop Paul Morton, whose Memorable Moments album remains at #8 for the second week straight, and a big “I see you, dude” to Earnest Pugh for re-entering the top 10 at #9.
Next week, Marvin Sapp’s Here I Am (which hit stores yesterday) will land at #1 and stay there for quite some time… like, MANY MONTHS, I’m predicting. If you saw my post yesterday, you know that even Billboard is predicting that he’ll have the highest debut across all genres next week, with at least 70,000 units expected and a top 5 showing in the Billboard Top 200 (not just the Gospel Album chart).
Following Sapp’s release, the only other albums that I expect to make strong debuts in the near future on the Gospel Album chart are Myron Butler & Levi’s Revealed (due March 30th, EMI Gospel) and Karen Clark Sheard’s All In One (April 6th, Karew Records).
I doubt that they’ll move 70,000 units in their first week, but both albums are INCREDIBLE to me and I think you’d be wise to cop ‘em as soon as they hit… no lie. Full album reviews of those two projects coming soon.
Whatd’ya think???
You’re hearing it here FIRST, folks!
It’s the EXCLUSIVE web premiere of “Prayed Up“
the newest single from the one and only
from her forthcoming album, All In One!
It’s at radio NOW, too, so make sure you call and request it!
And make sure you visit the official websites of The Clark Sisters (http://www.theclarksisters.com) and KaRew Records (http://www.karewrecords.com) for more info!
Also, click here to check out the e-card for the Clark Sisters’ Family Christmas album. Make sure you pick that up if you haven’t already done so!
AAAAAND, tell me what you think of this track!!!
I interviewed Karen Clark-Sheard on Friday. I’m telling you guys, but I’m partly reminding myself, because it was just a little incredible.
She had just shared advance music from her upcoming album (click here for that recap), so life was already feeling a little surreal. But to realize that we now sat across from each other in a conference room, me with a BUNCH of questions and her with a willing heart to answer ‘em… FOR REAL?
I’ll admit that I kinda broke protocol and became the UBER-FAN for a minute before launching into the interview, telling her how I used to watch her when I was a kid and blah blah blah… whatever! I have no regrets EXCEPT for the fact that I totally forgot to grab a photo with her. 
So, what did we chat about? LOTS.
The Clark Sisters were in Nashville on Thursday night for the taping of a TBN Christmas special. It was actually historic for them because it was the first time that The Clark Sisters have ever had their own TBN program (she shared that they’ve always been invited by other hosts, but never had their own special). The 30-minute musical program will PROBABLY air sometime next week– I’ll let you know details when I get ‘em.
We chatted briefly about her new album and its direction. Karen went the studio route for her upcoming album, All In One, instead of doing a live album because, as she explained, “it was just time” to do it this way. She’s been writing more and the studio afforded her the opportunity to really take her time and put her heart into her writing, a gift that she’s not always felt comfortable with.
Compared to Twinkie Clark, and more recently to Dorinda Clark-Cole, Karen shared that she often ”felt inadequate” as a songwriter. She was encouraged, though, when God allowed her to win a GRAMMY for Gospel Song Of The Year in 2008 for her hit “Blessed And Highly Favored.” “It was God’s way of saying ‘don’t question the gift’ that was placed inside of me,” she recounted.
In addition to her GRAMMY win, Karen has recently started her own label, Karew Records. She’s incredibly proud of it because it’s truly a family affair– even her kids, J Drew II and Kierra, have positions in the company. The first project on the label was the Clark Family Christmas album, which will be followed by her own project. After that? Expect to see a new album from The Clark Sisters.
Take note– despite all of the hard work and success, Karen really doesn’t see herself as a celebrity. As hard as I tried to explain that she’s considered one of the greatest female vocalists alive, she kinda doesn’t get it. LOL
Instead, she tries to remain as accessible as possible, especially because of her role as a pastor’s wife. “The people of our church need to be able to reach me and have access to me,” she shares. That attitude hasn’t been without its problems, though, as she has also had to change her mobile number in the past. “People would call and just be breathing on the other end, or they’d call and play one of my songs and hang up,” she shared.
I asked Karen why she doesn’t have a Twitter account yet and she said she wasn’t sure about using technology much because she’s seen how negative it can be. “I saw how some people had hurtful things to say about Kierra for doing the track ["God In Me"] with Mary Mary.” Apparently, Karen even reached out to encourage Mary Mary after fans came down on them for not featuring Kierra on the BET Awards. “We weren’t even thinking about that stuff. Kierra was just so happy to have been included in the song, she didn’t care about all of that. She’s just happy for them.” Karen shared that it’s sad to see how nasty things can get on the internet.
Still, I tried to convince her that the web has some merits and, no promises, but we may see a Karen Clark-Sheard Twitter account soon… y’all can thank me later. 
Before we wrapped up her chat, we talked a bit about the new track that she recorded with Aretha Franklin. It was actually completed a while ago, but the opportunity was unreal to Karen because Aretha is her favorite singer. I got the impression that the song, which will be on Aretha’s upcoming project, turned out very well.
Aaaaand that’s about it. To say that I enjoyed interviewing Karen Clark-Sheard would be an understatement. At its core, though, it was just a really great conversation.
Hopefully, you guys got some cool info out of it, too. Whatd’ya think?
On Friday, I was fortunate enough to be invited to the offices of EMI Gospel, where the INCOMPARABLE Karen Clark-Sheard visited with the execs of the company to share some music she’s been working on. (I also interviewed her, so check back here in a couple of hours to read what she had to say in our one-on-one!)
After she shared a bit about her heart, her vision and her new label (Karew Records), she played some tracks for us– REALLY GOOD STUFF.
Some info about the album…
The upcoming album, her fifth solo project, is titled All In One. Her daughter, Kierra Sheard, came up with the title as a way to represent all that her mother does– she’s a wife, a mom, an artist, a pastor’s wife, and now a label president… and she wears each hat well.
Karen played several tracks for us and all were really good. “Take Me,” which features her daughter, Kierra, and her niece, Angel Chisholm (Jacky’s daughter), has a sort of urban/acoustic feel to it. Her son, JDS, produced the track and it captures a great performance from all three ladies.
The styles of music are varied, but she handles each genre well. For example, “Never Let Me Go” is a strong praise & worship track, while another tune, ”Crazy Praise,” starts with an urban vibe before going straight churchy. A sure favorite for the album will be “He Knows,” which is written by J Moss and features Dorinda Clark-Cole. It’s kinda got an ol’ skool soul vibe to it. “What He Did” is J Moss-written, PAJAM-produced, and has so much ear candy that you’ll wanna repeat it just to make sure you didn’t miss anything.
The single from the album, which has hit radio as of last week, is “Prayed Up.” It’s got a tight sound and is written by Karen & her son, JDS.
AS IF that wasn’t enough, Larry Blackwell (VP of EMI Gospel) convinced Karen to do a little impromptu performance in the board room. She kinda tossed out the first verse of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” like it was NOTHING, but managed to leave all of us speechless. I tried to clap for her, but I was all late… mesmerized and what not. LOL
In any event, that’s the deal on the album. It’s expected to drop in early 2010, so save up NOW. It’s Karen Clark-Sheard… it’s worth it.
Major shout-out to Ken Pennell, Larry Blackwell and Cameron Hilson for the invitation and hospitality. Thanks also to Karen Clark-Sheard & Cynthia Ellis for sharing with me.
Word has it that Karen Clark-Sheard will release a new solo project in January of 2010.
During her set last night at the GMWA Gospel Festival concert, she praised God that she’s now “an entreprenuer.” The first album on the newly formed Karew Records will be the Clark Family Christmas album, due in October, followed by her own album due at the top of the new year.
I’m WAIIIITIIIIIING!!!
