Recorded live in July 2011 at Greater Victory Christian Center in Atlanta, Marica Chisolm's Simply Worship is a textbook P&W album.
The live and clearly audible audience, the compulsory celebratory opening selections, the dynamic ebbs and flows of the music, and the concluding "Corporate Worship," which gives everyone an opportunity to sing along, follow the spirit and tone of a twenty-first century worship service.
A vigorous singer and practiced worship leader, the Atlanta-born Chisolm uses her Baptist and COGIC influences to stretch her performance so every ounce of utility is eked from each song. As a result, with eleven selections representing a variety of songwriters, the CD nearly surpasses its 80 minute limit.
After the energetic and rhythmically thumping "Oh Give Thanks" and Darius Paulk's "Hallelujah to the King," Chisolm settles into a groove of simple and gentle worship songs, such as "Breath of Glory" and the current single, Tasha Cobbs' "Used." Chisolm's pulpit-tough voice, in fact, bears some resemblance to Cobbs's, as well as to Tonya Baker, another fellow P&W songster.
Interestingly, the most dynamic performance of Simply Worship occurs during the reprise of the P&W song, "Desperation." First Chisolm and then Bishop Stephen B. Hall break into what sounds like an impromptu version of "I Need Thee Every Hour." The power of the old hymn appears to wreck pew after pew until it ushers in a spirited praise break. It reinforces how the old songs of the church, when skillfully rendered, are the columns upon which all else stands.
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