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There comes a time in the lives of even the
most successful people where serious questioning
and self-evaluation are inevitable, even essential.
For Lamar Campbell & Spirit of Praise, that
time is now, and the dramatic results of that
soul-searching are found on the 15-voice ensemble's
fifth major-label release, Confessions of a Worshipper.
"It's important to reach out to the world with gospel music and try to draw
them into the church," says Lamar, who wrote or co-wrote six of the album's
ten songs, "but once they are there, they still need something that's going
to feed them, and teach them, and minister to them, and keep them there. That's
what I want this album to provide...to create music that gets to peoples' hearts
that puts them into relationship with Jesus Christ and with the people of God."
With meaning, message and instant accessibility to the masses, as always, hallmarks
of the group's songs and sound, Lamar says Confessions of a Worshipper carried
him to a place of closeness in his own personal walk with the Lord that was nothing
short of life-changing.
"This project is the most personally significant to me of the five albums
I've done," he says. "God led me to take time off from touring and
performing on the road to focus on seeking direction for the record, writing
the songs, and getting a fresh vision for where He wants us to go. If I never
made another record, this would be the one that I could say I truly asked and
listened to what God wanted me to do."
Though known to most people outside the Indianapolis area through their exposure
on CDs and gospel radio, Lamar's preeminence as a true leader of worship shines
throughout Confessions of a Worshipper. "You can put the label of artist
on me, and that's accurate," says Lamar, "but I'm a worshipper first,
and I don't want anyone to be so busy looking at the 'artist' that they can't
see the worshipper, because the worshipper in me is what is going to penetrate
a person's heart for Christ."
So deeply does that heartfelt commitment pervade Confessions of a Worshipper,
that choosing any one song as a stand-out over another is difficult, though several
selections nonetheless shine with a particularly brilliant glow. Produced by
Daniel Witherspoon, best known for his work as musical director for gospel luminaries
Fred Hammond and Donald Lawrence, Confessions of a Worshipper is church-rooted
gospel music with inspired and eclectic touches of pop, R&B, jazz, pop, rock
coloring it throughout, and with a surprising preponderance of jubilant, uptempo
numbers from an act best known for its soul-grabbing ballads. "Oh Give Him
Glory," written by Lamar, adds a Latin flavor to a punchy gospel groove. "That's
a praise song to God, pure and simple," Lamar explains. "In the song
we talk about having a 'glory, glory service,' which is a service where you continue
to give God the glory until you get to the highest level you can attain."
"Nothing Too Hard For God," featuring Denise Clark on lead vocals,
is smooth gospel/R&B. "I was specifically trying to write a song that
would touch the core of the church," says Lamar. "I wanted to make
sure it was about something that everybody could relate to. There's nothing we
ever go through that is too hard for God. Sometimes we think we're at a dead
end, but if we persevere and cross over it, we realize it was in fact a finish
line, and our reward was waiting just on the other side."
"Close To You," with lead vocals by founding SOP member, Carl Jackson,
is a moving ballad, and another Lamar & SOP classic-to-be. "Wherever
we are with God, there's always a higher level we can be aiming for," Lamar
says. "This is a song that's trying to not only get people into relationship
with Jesus Christ, but actually grabs your heart and makes you really want to
be at that closer place with God." Using same lead vocalists on all the
Spirit of Praise projects, including Confessions of a Worshipper, featuring Denise
Clark (heard on SOP's hit, "Closer,") and Michelle Boner (best known
for SOP's "All About the Love of Jesus") lends a sense of both continuity
and cohesion that can only come with time and togetherness.
"We really have grown and coalesced, as a family and in our sound over the
years we've been together," says Lamar. "On some of the unison vocal
parts, it's almost as if it's 15 people singing as one voice. I really want the
people listening to us to get the words—the message—of the songs, and the only
way to bring that across in a really powerful way is through a dynamic vocal
sound that just pulls people in and doesn't let them go. That's an integral part
of telling the story."
Lamar was born and raised in Indianapolis , Indiana , active in the church and
musically gifted from an early age. Playing piano in his home church from the
age of eight, he became music director of another church when he was only 15.
Though he was steeped in both the gospel and secular music of his youth, it was
in gospel that he found his greatest love and passion, and he has spent the better
part of the last two decades as the music minister of several Indianapolis churches,
including Light of the World Christian Church, where he currently serves as musical
director. After graduating high school, Lamar had pursued studies in several
different areas in search of a vocation, including mechanical drafting, computer
technology, and accounting before feeling a call into music ministry as a career
calling. He studied music at the Jordan Music College of Butler University in
Indianapolis before founding his first group in the late '80s, known then as
simply Lamar Campbell & Praise. That ensemble released a major-label album
two years later that performed moderately well nationally, yielding a major hit
titled "This Debt of Love I Owe," and made the act a significant name
in Indianapolis and the surrounding area. Lamar, however, disbanded that group
after three years, in 1992, when he felt attention had shifted too far toward
himself and Praise as personalities, and away from a more God and ministry-centered
focus, leading him to form Lamar Campbell & Spirit of Praise in 1995. Eight
years later, even as he continues to strive for an ever-greater degree of excellence,
Lamar admits that Confessions of a Worshipper occupies a special, and sacred,
place in his heart.
"Everything seems to have come together in such a perfect way on this album," Lamar
concludes. "Awards, and hit records, and accolades are all great, but you
can't let them become the defining elements of your ministry. I can really say
that for the first time in my life I truly believe God is going to do what He
says He's going to do, without me looking over His shoulder. And that's a wonderful
place to be." |
