Over the last half dozen years, Earnest Pugh has established himself as Gospel Music’s Leading Man with soul stirring, #1 radio smashes such as “Rain On Us” and “I Need Your Glory” that also hit the Adult R&B Airplay charts. Now, he’s joining the ranks of Johnny Mathis, Mahalia Jackson and Nat “King” Cole by creating a holiday album, “Christmas with Earnest Pugh & Friends” (EPM Music Group/$15.98 MSRP), due in stores on October 16th that is sure to become an annual yuletide listening treat.

The fourteen-track set marks Pugh’s first time sitting in the producer’s chair and he shares the mic with some of his best and most talented friends in the music biz. The initial radio single, “Ring Dem Bells”, a rousing mid-tempo ballad features impassioned backing vocals by Charles Butler & Trinity. A soulful “Silent Night” features the smooth tenor of Quadrius Salters. Baritone Keith Williams joins Pugh on “Holy 2 U” while powerhouse soprano Chrystal Rucker does a majestic rendition of “Do You Hear What I Hear?” with a simple piano arrangement. Lisa Knowles of the Brown Sisters and Pugh trade adlibs on a churchy rendition of “O Come All Ye Faithful”. Vincent Tharpe & Kenois create a warm and cozy groove on “Go Tell It” while newcomer Martha Buries brings a jazzy vibe to Ann McCrary’s “Remember Not 2 Forget”. Veteran vocalist Nikki Ross sits us down on the front pew of a Sunday morning church service to deliver a dramatic version of  “Walk in the Light”. 

Christmas music has always been a staple In Pugh’s home. “With very little money and twelve kids – music was all we had when I was growing up,” he remembers. “Our household was filled with love, music and good food during the holidays. This CD is near and dear to my heart because it was one of the final requests that my mother made just prior to passing away on New Year’s Eve 2006, that I make a Christmas CD. The concept of the CD catches me interacting with some kids during a choir rehearsal to prepare them to go caroling throughout the neighborhood”. There are currently plans in the works for a 10-city Christmas with Earnest Pugh Tour that would also feature EPM Music Group artists such as Vincent Tharpe & Kenosis, Chrystal Rucker and Keith Williams. For more info on EPM and it’s various projects, visit www.epmmusicgroup.com.

It’s been over 3 years and Dontavies Boatwright is still one of the most memorable finalists from BET’s Sunday Best. And now, the time has finally come for the Season 2, top 5 finalist as he releases his debut single “Glory to Glory-Sunday Best Medley”.

The song, a blend of two Fred Hammond classics: ‘Glory to Glory’ and ‘Blessed’, was arranged by Boatwright while on season 2 of the hit gospel program.

“I decided to let this be the song I start with because it would be what many will remember about me from Sunday Best”, Boatwright says. “I am grateful for the opportunity and platform that the show gave me, and releasing this first song is in part tribute and thanks to the show and all the viewers, and a salute to one of my favorite artists, Mr. Fred Hammond”!

Glory to Glory-Sunday Best Medley, the first single from Dontavies Boatwright’s self-titled debut project on the PEInc Gospel label, is due out in the winter of 2013.

“GLORY TO GLORY-Sunday Best Medley” by Dontavies Boatwright will be available everywhere online starting Tuesday, September 25th.

About PEInc Gospel: Pronounced ‘pink’, PEInc Gospel is a division of Parriscope Entertainment Inc., in Jacksonville, Florida, and was established in 2011 by Executives Elisha Parris and Robin Williams. The pair tapped Elder Dwight Follins and radio personality Wanda Patterson, as President and Vice President of the label. Dontavies Boatwright is the first artist signed to the PEInc Gospel label.

Learn more about Dontavies Boatwright at www.boatwrightsings.com.

Follow Dontavies on Facebook: boatwrightsings and Twitter: @Don_Boatwright
 

Brandon Heath returns to his roots, while creating new ones, with his fourth full-length album Blue Mountain releasing October 9. The first single “Jesus In Disguise” is climbing radio charts and its music video premiered on VEVO this week.

Heath, a Nashville native, merges ancient tones and modern music-making on Blue Mountain, a 12-track journey full of heart and back-porch ease. He fleshes out characters created for, and residing in, the fictional Appalachian setting called ‘Blue Mountain,’ which, as is frequently the case with great art, are slices of the storyteller himself. “Through the characters on ‘Blue Mountain,’ I’m more outside of myself, but maybe more true to myself than I’ve ever been. Funny enough, by the time I had finished this record, I realized that ‘Blue Mountain‘ is me.

Jono Davies of louderthanthemusic.com, notes, “Sometimes being creative can mean being unusual, but not with Brandon, he basically lets his songs grow into interesting pieces of musical art.” “These aren’t just good songs, they are also great stories about how Brandon feels about life, love, God, hurt and everything else in-between.” Read the entire review here: http://bit.ly/OlEPWp.

Teaming again with producer Dan Muckala, Heath aims for a rootsier musical space with Blue Mountain, crafting tracks that are a hybrid of the driving acoustic music of both his youth and this project’s imagined locale, together with the loops and beats that have become part of Heath’s signature sound.

Heath will celebrate Blue Mountain‘s street day by taking center stage for his debut performance on the Grand Ole Opry — a childhood dream. “For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to perform on the Opry. The fact that it’s on my album’s release day is even bigger! For a kid from Nashville, it’s a dream come true.”

Later that week, Heath will team with label-mate Matt Maher for the 24-city “Blue Mountain Tour” which kicks off on October 11 in Milwaukee, Wis. For tour information, please visit www.brandonheath.net.

About Brandon Heath
Since Brandon Heath’s debut on Reunion Records with Don’t Get Comfortable (2006), he has become one of Christian music’s most beloved and respected artists and songwriters.

Heath has twice been honored as GMA Male Vocalist of the Year (2009 and 2010), additionally garnering an Emmy Award, five GRAMMY nominations, an American Music Award nomination and multiple GMA Dove Awards and songwriting honors. His award-winning songs and signature vocals reflect a soaring radio career that includes four No. 1 hits: “I’m Not Who I Was,” “Wait and See,” the 2009 GMA Dove Award-winning Song of the Year, “Give Me Your Eyes” and the eight-week chart topper, “Your Love.”

Heath, a Nashville native, first began writing at age 13 and credits his hometown’s legendary hotspot for songwriters, the Bluebird Café, as the place he first experienced music that moved him. His artistry and ability to connect with audiences have compelled countless media outlets across the nation to platform his story and music. Highlights include Billboard magazine, “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,” Relevant magazine, a 2011 feature by the Wall Street Journal and selection as a presenter during the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards.

Other key spotlights include Discovery Channel’s “On The Case With Paula Zahn,” which highlighted “Give Me Your Eyes” (What If We 8/19/2008), and a feature by The New York Times Sunday edition, touting Heath as a GRAMMY-nominated newcomer “that shouldn’t be allowed to slip through the cracks.”

Heath’s third album, Leaving Eden, (1/18/2011) debuted No. 1 on the Billboard Christian Sales chart and is supported by non-stop direct-support and headlining tours. Blue Mountain will be available everywhere on October 9, 2012.

For more information on Brandon Heath, please visit: www.brandonheath.net and follow Brandon Heath’s Twitter atwww.twitter.com/brandonheath

It’s that time again, time to vote for the Stellar Awards nominees.  The ballot is open for fans to vote, so make it count by voting for your favorite artist.

The ballot is open for public voting from September 17 – October 15, 2012. The awards will be announced during the awards telecast on Saturday, January 19, 2013 in Nashville, TN.

The 28th Annual Stellar Awards is still Gospel’s most coveted award.  Artists across the country will convene at the Grand Ole’ Opry hotel located in Nashville, with high hopes of getting the recognition that parallels a successful singing ministry. 

To vote go to www.thestellarawards.com and click the ‘final ballot’ button on the homepage.  

Atlanta West Pentecostal Church Choir of Lithia Springs, Ga., was named regional winner of Verizon’s How Sweet the Sound competition and received $10,000 and other prizes. The choir will go on to represent the Atlanta area at the grand finale in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Nov. 4. The first runner up prize of $5,000 was awarded to Out For Souls, led by Cedric Sesley. Atlanta West Pentecostal Church Choir also won Verizon’s People’s Choice Award and $5,000.

The evening was hosted by GRAMMY(®) Award-winning gospel legends Donald Lawrence and Yolanda Adams, and award-winning artists CeCe Winans, Hezekiah Walker, Erica Campbell and Fred Hammond served as judges.

In addition, participating choirs were encouraged to collect and donate no-longer used wireless phones to HopeLine from Verizon. The choirs collected nearly 150 phones combined, and Anointed Voices received the HopeLine Champion Award for collecting the most phones. Verizon, through HopeLine, will award a $2,500 grant in support of a domestic violence program chosen by Anointed Voices. Verizon’s long-running HopeLine program puts the nation’s most reliable wireless network to work in the community by turning no-longer-used wireless phones into support for those affected by domestic violence. Proceeds from HopeLine are used to provide wireless phones and airtime to victims of domestic violence and cash grants to local shelters and non-profit organizations that focus on domestic violence prevention, awareness and advocacy.

Since the launch of the cell phone recycling program in 2001, HopeLine from Verizon has collected more than 9 million phones, given out more than $14.2 million in cash grants, and distributed more than 123,000 phones with more than 400 million minutes of free wireless service for use by domestic violence survivors.

For more information on Verizon’s How Sweet the Sound competition and to view photos from the regional competition, go to www.howsweetthesound.com. To learn more about HopeLine from Verizon, visit www.verizonwireless.com/hopeline.

Sarah D. Henson, daughter of Bishop T.D. Jakes, recently announced that she is divorcing her NFL linebacker husband Robert Henson after four years. On her personal website, the bishop’s daughter asked for prayer while explaining that her marriage was ending.

Henson, who reportedly leads the Women’s Ministry at The Potter’s House in Dallas, spoke about building her ministry on being a good wife and trying to make things work before ultimately deciding to go through with a divorce.

“I have built my ministry and identity around being the best wife and a mother I can be. For quite sometime I have tried to steer through some serious troubles at home,” Henson wrote on her personal website, www.sarahdhenson.com. “As much as I wanted my marriage to last, it cannot.”

While Henson admitted that she received counseling and prayed about her situation, she seemed firm in her decision to end the marriage. The bishop’s 24-year-old daughter said she felt her reason for divorcing her husband was biblical.

“After professional counseling, and prayerful consideration I have decided to end my four-year marriage,” Henson wrote. “There are biblical grounds supporting this decision and I have attempted every other recourse but after multiple infractions over the course of the union, and for my personal safety and that of my children, I have come to this painful decision.”

Henson is no stranger to sharing personal decisions with others on her website. Last year, she wrote about her decision to give birth at 14-years-old in a blog titled “Guided Home.”

“I can remember feeling like everyone was staring at me, thinking negative thoughts. I became very familiar with shame, learned quickly how loud whispers can be, how fast rumors travel,” Henson wrote about her experience as a teen mother. “More importantly I learned to never let anything or anyone convince me I was no longer worthy of dreaming, living my life to the fullest.”

Now with her decision to divorce her husband, Henson is calling for privacy and prayer instead of negativity.

“Now that it is made, I would ask for privacy while I navigate through this difficult season in my life so that I may now concentrate on being the best parent for my children possible,” Henson wrote in her conclusion. “Thank you for your prayers.”

Three of the faith-based market’s leading companies have joined together to announce the IXIST Tour: urban music label Xist Music, the formidable artist & booking agency Elite Talent Agency, and top Christian media & events group, FrontGate Media. The tour comes as Christian hip-hop and urban music is exploding, evidenced most recently by last week’s Billboard charts milestone: TobyMac’s “Eye On It” debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

IXIST is more than a concert tour. It is a ministry campaign dedicated to helping people share their testimony. The IXIST team believes that God has blessed us all with a purpose, and that purpose has taken us all on a journey of different paths, struggles and victories. Throughout all our life experiences we have made many choices, some good and some bad, but as children of the Most High, we have all come to common ground, that is, we are all here because of His grace.

The IXIST Tour will allow concert attendees to tell their story at each venue. Each night, one local market testimonial will be chosen and posted from an ongoing international YouTube campaign, created to inspire others to share their story and consider the work that God is doing through their lives.

Coming this Winter 2013, the IXIST Tour will kick off in late February, routing across the U.S. through March and then on to Africa, where the tour will travel to six countries. The tour will include IXIST Media Sessions featuring on-site interviews at each location; afternoon IXIST In-Stores in select cities, and of course the IXIST Concert each night.

This year’s IXIST Tour features the Xist Music roster of leading Urban Christian artists & their ministries, anchored by the Billboard and SoundScan best-selling artists The Ambassador and Sean Simmonds. Supporting artists for the tour include Yaves, D-MAUB, UK based artist Jahaziel, and Nate “NF” Feuerstein.

The IXIST TOUR is being routed and booked by ELITE Talent Agency. Dates will be announced in the near future. To book a tour date, contact Jamie Warden at ELITE Talent Agency at 615-983-6600 or online at http://www.eta-live.com.

About Elite Talent Agency
Elite Talent Agency was founded by music industry veteran Mark Claassen (William Morris Agency.) Elite is unique in that we are able to be a full-service agency, focused on more than booking concerts, we have strategic partnerships with agents in the film/TV, literary, commercial/sponsorship areas. Elite also has an in-house tour marketing agent that walks alongside every tour buyer to maximize each individual show’s potential. http://www.eta-live.com.

About Xist Music
Xist Music is the recording label of Xist Worldwide, which produces innovative projects from our award-winning artists, who are leaders in the inspirational urban music industry. Xist Worldwide was founded by Terverius Black and Sean Simmonds to become the leading producer of inspirational urban entertainment, lifestyle and media content. With properties in music, film, publishing and other lifestyle projects, Xist Worldwide acquires, produces, markets and distributes inspirational urban content.http://www.xistmusic.com.

About FrontGate Media
FrontGate Media is the largest internet & event media group and marketing service reaching the culture-engaged faith and family values audience which represents $4.6 billion worth of Christian products purchased by consumers annually according to “USA Today.” The firm has received the Crystal Statue in the Internet Advertising Competition from the Web Marketing Association. The FrontGate Media group creates relationship and reach for organizations and companies to engage their more than 15 million email subscribers, 25 million monthly page views, and 600,000+ attendees at annual events, and though its Audience Delivery Services which include social media, public relations and pay per click marketing. The media group is #1 in reach to several consumer and leadership demographics in the faith and family values audience including event attendees, entertainment fans, music fans, church musicians and worship leaders, and political conservatives. FrontGate plays a key role in the success of faith-based, faith-friendly and family-friendly movie studios, non-profit organizations, publishers and authors, record labels and artists and more seeking to engage the Christian audience. http://www.FrontGateMedia.com.

Sacred steel ensemble, THE LEE BOYS, are set to release the high-energy Gospel CD TESTIFY on October 23, 2012, distributed by RED/Provident. The first single from TESTIFY, “Smile,” is impacting Gospel radio now. The family group, raised in the House of God church, brings its joyous, spiritual sound of sacred steel to the masses with the release of TESTIFY.

“It has been my dream for years to reach a larger audience with the Gospel message, and I feel likeTESTIFY will be the best way to do it,” said Alvin Lee, founder and band leader.

The Lee Boys are one of America’s finest sacred steel ensembles. Brothers Alvin Lee (guitar), Derrick Lee and Keith Lee (vocals) lead the family band, along with their nephews Roosevelt Collier (pedal steel guitar), Alvin Cordy Jr. (7-string bass) and Earl Walker (drums).

“The inspiration and feeling that comes along with our music is the reason that people feel good,” said Alvin. “It is like the new music on the block, and it’s just getting ready to explode.”

In TESTIFY, songwriters Alvin, Keith, and “Li’l” Alvin Jr. repeatedly touch on the comfort that faith has given them in times of family illnesses and death. The new songs also celebrate their joy in spreading The Word as they travel the world. In the past 5 years, The Lee Boys performed for more than 750,000 music fans at festivals throughout the United States and Canada.

“I was called to take this music and His Word outside the church’s four walls,” said Alvin. “When The Lee Boys have Sunday service at a big rock festival, it makes my heart warm to know kids who might not ever have gone to church in their lives are hearing The Word.”

On this CD, the traditional sacred steel sound is transformed into high-energy arrangements leaving fans dancing, shouting and having fun. Stellar production, expanded instrumentation, and notable guests contribute to the captivating mix of Gospel and traditional R&B on TESTIFY. Guest players include Warren Haynes (Gov’t Mule, Allman Brothers Band) on vocals and lead guitar; Gia Wyre on vocals; Matt Slocum (Sixpence None the Richer) on organ, piano, and keyboards; Nate Worth on percussion; and producer/engineer/mixer Matt Grondin on electric and acoustic guitar, keyboards, and backing vocals. Horns were arranged by Mark Mullins.

ABOUT THE LEE BOYS

Born and raised in Miami, Fla., each of The Lee Boys grew up within the House of God church, where their father and grandfather, Elder Robert E. Lee, was pastor and steel player himself. At the church, they each began their musical instruction through a rigorous course of training in a variety of instruments. In 2005, Alvin Lee was called to bring The Word to a mass audience, brought the sounds of the sacred steel out of the church, and started performing at secular events while continuing to play in the church. The Lee Boys have performed with and/or been invited to tour with artists such as The Blind Boys of Alabama, Mavis Staples, Take 6, and The Harlem Boys Choir. They appeared on numerous national television outlets including Good Morning America (ABC), Fox and Friends (FOX News), CNN, Conan O’Brien (NBC), and The 700 Club (CBN).

For more information about The Lee Boys, visit www.leeboys.com.