Great Day

This stunning recording beautifully documents this, the first chapter, in the story of the Southern Gospel Choir. And for those who have ears to hear, you need now to experience at least once in your lifetime the uncontainable and irrepressible joy, spirit and exhilaration that is gospel music, and that is the Southern Gospel Choir.

Details

Tracks

Track	Title	Time
1	Great Day	0:04:02
2	It's Raining	0:03:44
3	He Loves Me	0:05:53
4	Show Yourself Strong	0:05:53
5	How I Got Over	0:04:14
6	Caught Up	0:06:49
7	You Did It All	0:07:14
8	Field Of Souls	0:04:58
9	He'll Take The Pain Away	0:06:29
10	Holy Thou Art God	0:05:52
11	It Is Well	0:03:41
12	My Life Is In Your Hands	0:05:39

The Southern Gospel Choir is unique within Australian music. Their groove based gospel sound is pure passion, energy and spirit and draws heavily on the influences of Clara Ward, Aretha Franklin and James Cleveland as well as the more recent superstars of African American Gospel, Kirk Franklin and Fred Hammond.

The SGC is based at the Conservatorium of Music in Hobart, Tasmania and was founded in 2001 by the head of the contemporary music program, Andrew Legg. Andrew has performed and toured regularly in the USA since 1997 where he was invited to lecture and perform as one of five 'featured artists' at the 30th Anniversary Gospel Music Workshop of America. After returning from the U.S. in 2000, Andrew was invited by the University of Tasmania to establish a gospel choir in Hobart, and, following their first public performance in July of the same year, the SGC began a remarkable journey that has taken them from a 30 piece outfit playing to a 160 seat recital hall to a 130 voice choir complete with their own driving gospel band, who now regularly perform for television, radio and to packed concert houses in excess of 1000 people, all of which now culminates in this, their debut CD release, Great Day.

Great Day is produced and engineered by Llew Kiek and Guy Dickerson. Llew and Guy have several ARIA wins and nominations to their credit and together they have produced and engineered CD's for Café Of The Gate Of Salvation, the Renaissance Players, Coda, Voice Squad, Tenzing Tsewang, Jeanne Lewis, Babe - Pig In The City, and of course the dual ARIA award winning MARA! band.

Llew first encountered the choir whilst co-directing the Choral Island project with Mara Kiek for the 10 Days On The Island music festival. Llew and Mara, like many others, were captivated by the choir's power and conviction in live performance, and the product that Llew and Guy have captured here is not only completely faithful to the SGC's sound and Legg's vision, but is one that lifts the choir to a completely new level of emotional impact and professionalism.

Great Day features the magnificent voice of Maria Lurighi. Maria and Andrew have been making beautiful music together for some time now, focusing on creating musical sound scapes that incorporate the best of African American gospel music, jazz and soul, with a unique Australian flavour and a contemporary twist. Maria travels effortlessly from classical music to jazz, funk and gospel and has the rare power to deliver a riveting and authentic performance in every genre. Maria is renowned for her stage presence and her gorgeous voice, which was described by David Bates (Spiegel tent owner and musical director) as "pure velvet, a delight to the ears."

This stunning recording beautifully documents this, the first chapter, in the story of the Southern Gospel Choir. And for those who have ears to hear, you need now to experience at least once in your lifetime the uncontainable and irrepressible joy, spirit and exhilaration that is gospel music, and that is the Southern Gospel Choir.