Here’s my recap for you kind people– ‘ppreciate your patience. If you’d rather NOT wait, though, don’t forget that you can always follow me on Twitter for my live recap every Sunday night: http://www.twitter.com/gospelpundit.
I think last night’s show was a bit more mellow than previous shows. Everyone kinda had slower, building arrangements of songs made famous by gospel FAMILIES, which was a nice lil’ concept. Don’t get me wrong– they still brought it, but it wasn’t as flashy and high-energy as previous episodes have been.
The show opened with The Williams Brothers singing “Living Testimony.” These gentlemen have some of the sweetest voices in the game– I loved it. Wished they had done a little bit of “Cooling Water,” but I can’t have it all. Or can I? 
Up next came the contestants, one-by-one, and I was kinda shocked to see that they didn’t do a joint performance this go ’round– the show featured songs from families that were gospel groups (i.e., Clark Sisters, Pace Sisters, Williams Brothers, Winans, Mary Mary)… seemed like this was THE WEEK to do a group song together. But whateva…
Each contestant sang two songs, throughout the night, but I’ma recap both songs as I chat about each contestant. Got it?
Jessica Reedy opened the show with “The Question Is” by The Winans. It’s a classic song which she, of course, put her own little smooth and jazzified spin on it. She was clearly a bit hoarse, as was evident by a couple of cracks in her vocal performance, but (as was noted by Tina Campbell), she was SUCH a pro, turning those cracks into intricate riffs that just WORKED. Great job.
Her second song was “Still Here” by The Williams Brothers. Before she performed, we got a chance to see footage of her prep time with Donald Lawrence and the singers. THAT YOUNG WOMAN was arranging the background vocalists, changing stuff up, and did a DERN good job, you hear me?! The performance was SOOO in the pocket– she’s just got it. She’s my fave, no doubt.
Latice Crawford started with “Is My Living In Vain” and did a great job, also, putting her own spin on it. She revved up like a pro towards the end of it and definitely left me wanting a bit more. Her second song was “I’ll Take You There” and she really sang on that thing, as always, but it just didn’t quite CLICK for me.
I enjoy her, always, but I have to admit that I zoned out a little for some portions of her performances. Tina Campbell said it best– there was a disconnect that made us uncomfortable cuz SHE didn’t seem as confident.
Y’Anna Crawley (another fave of mine) started with “Heaven” by Mary Mary. I thought she did it well, though a lot of the ad libs sounded just like the stuff that the Marys did at first. Toward the second part of the song, she flipped it sho’ nuff, though, and I was like “THAT’S what Y’Anna brings!”
Her second song was the classic “Ain’t No Need To Worry” by The Winans and Anita Baker. I immediately thought “noo… y’all shoulda given this to Jessica” because her voice is so right for the Anita Baker deal. BUT LEMME TELL YA, this was a perfect song for Y’Anna and here’s why: it finally gave us the opportunity to see that she can also do the smooth, jazzy thing. We’ve always seen her CLOBBER a song, but we’ve not really had the opportunity to see her work it from a quiet place. She delivered in a BIG way for me. Great job, ma’am!!!
At the end, NONE OF ‘EM got sent home. We’ll see ‘em all next week for some “Sing Off” they’re gonna have. I feel some kinda way about that cuz I don’t think the “sing off” should be the criteria for whether someone should be a gospel artist or not. We already have too much of that in the industry (but that’s for ANOTHER post… showboatin’ and what not).
Folks, at the end of the day, EACH of these three women are phenomenal vocalists who just HAVE it. They are all artists. Any one of them will be on my iPod for a good month and, if given the right songs/producers, could have award-winning albums.
The Anointed Pace Sisters wrapped up the performances by rippin’ into “Already Done.” I was already jammin’ (“already done done… already done done done done done”), but when Lashun Pace came onto stage… 
Loved it!!!! She looks great (they all did, really) and they killed. Glad that they got some BET exposure, too… long overdue.
Soooooooooooooo??? What did y’all think???
