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Donald Lawrence
is a man with destiny on his mind. In a world
already reeling from the mayhem of everyday
life, Go Get Your Life Back, the latest and
highly anticipated release from renowned hit-makers,
Donald Lawrence & the Tri-City
Singers, was first conceived as a “spiritual
vitamin” to reenergize a church teetering on
the precipice of spiritual despair and desolation.
As the catastrophes of September 11, 2001 unfolded,
that need was heightened immeasurably.
“I see Go Get Your Life Back as a message to
people to never lose their love for living,” says
Donald, “especially when trials and sadness—even
death and devastation—seem to knock us off the
road to our destinies. It can be hard to get
back up and on that road again. What this album
is saying is that even though you've been through
some really rough times—from which you may have
felt you could never come up and out of—you did
make it, and now is your time. Go ahead and claim
that destiny and walk into it.
“Still it's impossible to fathom tragedies the
magnitude of 9-11,” he adds. “We had begun production
on this album by then, and seeing and feeling
all that misery and confusion and fear just strengthened
my conviction that the Lord was telling me, and
all who would listen, something that we really
need to hear and take to heart.”
Donald & Tri-City's 40-strong roster includes
a razor-sharp five-man band backing the group's
dynamic and dramatic 34-member vocal ensemble.
Produced by Donald, Go Get Your Life Back was
recorded both in the studio and live in Charlotte
, North Carolina 's beautiful University Park
Baptist Church . It follows up the group's phenomenally
successful, year-2000 tri-city4.com. With major
gospel chart hits like “Never Seen the Righteous,” and
the crossover dance-chart smash, “Testify,” tri-city4.com
sold over 200,000 units and now sets the stage
for Go Get Your Life Back to be one the best-selling
releases of 2002.
In addition to kickin' jams familiar to all
Tri-City fans, Donald carefully crafts a shining
veneer of gentle acoustic and orchestral sounds
that movingly portray his and the choir's deep
commitment to these 14 news songs, all but one
written or co-written by Donald.
“I've always done my best work when I follow what my heart is saying
to me, and write and record what I'm feeling,” Donald comments. “Go Get Your
Life Back has very warm, inviting sound. I felt a need to put people at ease.
I just want folks to hear this and be lifted. It's a really feel-good album.”
The pulsating, rock-steady,
dance-floor-ready “I
Can't Complain” is classic Donald Lawrence & Tri-City,
with Donald in his signature, fluid modern gospel/R&B
voice, atop Tri-City's smooth-as-silk, contemporary-but-timeless
take on vintage choral gospel.
“The Best Is Yet to Come,” the album's
funky, rocking first single, is driven by punchy
horns and Latin-flavored percussion, as Donald
does vocal riffs off the melodic, ever-soulful
Tri-City. “This song could be described as tidings
of joy and blessings multiplied many times over,” says
Donald. “I want everybody to know that even when
things are looking up, and starting to change
for the better, it's not all that God has in
store for you. In fact, compared to the wondrous
things He still has to lay on the table before
us, we haven't seen anything yet.”
Donald approached gospel's
legendary chart-topper Bishop Walter Hawkins—an artist he cites as one
of his definitive musical influences—with an
invitation to make a guest vocal appearance on
Go Get Your Life Back. The Bishop's response
was immediately and enthusiastically affirmative.
The resulting duet between Donald and Walter, “Seasons,” is
one of the many high spots of the new album.
First Donald, and then the soaring Walter, accompanied
by the passionate Tri-City, lay down breath-taking
vocals over a tender acoustic guitar, gradually
building to a full-tilt band and choir crescendo
with majestic echoes of traditional gospel.
Donald co-wrote “Bless Me” with
another one of his longtime mentors, gospel
great Andrae Crouch. A divinely delicate offering
of praise and worship, the song grows into
a glorious gospel power ballad, proving to
be the perfect melding of two enduring talents.
“Andrae and I met fairly recently when I arranged a song for him” Donald
recalls. “He was very complimentary, and we stayed in touch. He told me he had
part of this song written and asked if I would be interested in working on it
with him. He sent me a tape which I lived with for a while, and that evolved
into ` Bless Me. ' It was an exciting experience for me.”
Donald Lawrence—songwriter, producer, singer
and director-extraordinaire—whom Billboard magazine
has hailed as a “timeless…tunesmith, lyricist
and master of the mix,” was a child born with
a love for music, who grew up to earn a Bachelor
of Fine Arts degree from the prestigious Cincinnati
Conservatory. Anticipating a career in musical
theater, his plans were abruptly changed a year
after his graduation when pop/R&B superstar
Stephanie Mills—the friend of a friend of Donald's—met
the rising young prodigy and quickly hired him
to be her musical director.
By the mid-‘90s Donald had spent almost 10 years
working and touring with the multi-platinum-seller
Mills, and had produced two of her albums, in
1992 and '94. Along the way he'd also established
himself as one of gospel music's most esteemed
producers, with a sterling resume comprising
work with gospel/ R&B/pop superstar Kirk
Franklin, hit-maker Peabo Bryson, and gospel
giants Daryl Coley, and the late Thomas Whitfield.
Other entries on Donald's dazzlingly diverse
list of credits include writing and directing
several highly successful gospel musicals and
plays, and serving as vocal coach for ‘90s chart
royalty, En Vogue.
In the early-90s, Donald began
his association with the Tri-City Singers,
who had first come together in 1981 as a community
choir performing in local and regional churches
throughout the North and South Carolina , where
they and Donald all still reside. A close friend
of Donald's, who had served as the group's
musical director, resigned his position, suggesting
to Donald that the choir—already a tight, ready-for-primetime
unit—would be a willing and able outlet for the
burgeoning catalog of original choral music Donald
had compiled on the side during his tenure with
Mills. Donald accepted and the choir's reputation
and nationwide recognition soon began to soar,
with awards and nominations—Grammys, Stellars,
and Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMWA) among
others—amassing with each of the group's four
previous releases.
With hopes for a future that includes not only
his irreplaceable work with Tri-City, but movies,
musical theater and TV as well, Donald speaks
like a man still moving into his own ever-evolving
destiny, and with an optimism that rings throughout
Go Get Your Life Back.
“Life is a gift, and God didn't bless us with
this gift to live our entire lives in sadness,” he
concludes. “Sadness will pass, and then it's
time to get up, dry your eyes, re-boot and grab
back your life. And when you do, by all means,
live it…to the fullest. ” |
