Angie Pretlow

Angie PretlowAngie PretlowAngie Pretlow: PressSat, Dec. 29, 2007

THE FREE LANCE–STAR ENTERTAINMENT /Weekender Caroline Culpeper King George Fredericksburg Louisa Orange Spotsylvania Stafford Westmoreland


>> LOCAL SINGER ANGIE PRETLOW EXTOLS POSITIVE MESSAGE IN GOSPEL PRETLOW SERVES A HIGHER POWER

A church singer for 25 years, Angie Pretlow got serious about songwriting while working as a youth choir director in town.

Angie Pretlow made the right choice both spiritually and musically when she picked gospel over R&B

Date published: 12/27/2007


BY MIKE ZITZ

At age 14, Chancellor High School student Angie Pretlow came to a fork in her career and spiritual road.

She wanted to be a professional singer, but could not decide between the genres of R&B and gospel.


It was a tough decision, but "being raised up in the church" led Pretlow down the gospel path, she said. As much as she loves R&B, she was concerned about the signals some record labels send to young people, she added.

Now 31, Pretlow has already been singing in public--often in churches--for 25 years. She has just released her debut album, "My Soul," featuring the song "Made Away," which is getting air time on 104.7 FM, a gospel station in Richmond.

The daughter of David and Florence Hughey, Pretlow is part of a family of musicians and singers, including one brother and five sisters who happen to be musical. She began singing and drumming for the family band, the Hugheyettes, at age 4. For the next seven years, she traveled and sang with the group, often singing solo at church as well.

Now her husband, James F. Pretlow Jr., and daughters, Candice and Janazia, live in Ladysmith. They travel with her when she goes on the road to sing. Her daughters join her on the album in singing the song "I Don't Know."

Pretlow began writing songs at age 12, about the time her family moved from Caroline County to Chancellor Green in Spotsylvania County. But she really got serious about writing songs career-wise four years ago, when she was youth choir director at Tower of Deliverance Church in Fredericksburg. Pretlow said the young people she worked with there urged her to go for it then, and they continue to follow her musical career and to offer her encouragement to this day.

"When I started writing music again, a lot of people said, 'When are you gonna do your own thing?' So I stepped out and started doing it."

Performing at a big gospel festival in Arkansas last May was a breakthrough for her, as is getting air time on Richmond radio. On Sunday, she performs at a major youth event at Bible Way Baptist Church in southeast Washington.

Pretlow still loves R&B. But she says that in choosing gospel, she believes she's working for a higher power than a record label, and that gives her faith that good things will happen.


Mike Zitz: 540/846-5163
Email: mikez@freelancestar.com






What: Angie Pretlow performs gospel music in concert Where: Bible Way Baptist Church of Christ, at the corner of Rhode Island Ave., S.E., and South Dakota Ave., S.E., in Washington D.C. When: Sunday, 4 p.m. Cost: Free. Info: For samples of Pretlow's music and to buy her album, go to angiepretlow.com on the Web. For directions to Bible Way Baptist in Washington and details on the gospel show, call 202/529-7780.




Date published: 12/27/2007

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Dottie Peoples headlines 7th Annual Arkansas Delta Family Gospel Festival
April 2, 2007

HELENA-WEST HELENA--HELENA-WEST HELENA – Darrell McFadden & The Disciples and The Pilgrim Jubilees also to appear at May 26 event Gospel Music Hall of Fame inductee Dottie Peoples will headline the seventh edition of the Arkansas Delta Family Gospel Fest, slated Saturday, May 26, at the Cherry Street Pavilion in historic downtown Helena-West Helena.

The festival, a production of the Delta Cultural Center’s Delta Music Documentation Project, feature live musical performances throughout the day and evening by national, regional, and local gospel acts. Also slated to appear are Darrell McFadden & The Disciples, The Pilgrim Jubilees, Billy River & The Angelic Voices, and Kevin Davidson & The Voices.

In addition, performances are also planned by The Selvy Singers, The Myles Family, The Sons of Wonder, God’s Harmony, Leomia Boyd & Praise, Jerusalem, Grace & Gravity, Vision, The Lord’s Creation, Gloryland Choir, Angie Pretlow, The District Two Choir, Daniel “Slick” Ballinger, Beverly Trice & New Life, The Hughes Singers, Promise, North Mississippi Jurisdictional Orchestra, West Helena Baptist Drama Team, and the West Helena Baptist Youth Choir.

Admission is free of charge. Music begins at 10 a.m. and continues until midnight.

Dottie Peoples, a 2003 inductee into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, was born in Dayton, Ohio, but learned much about gospel music in the front pew with her grandmother on summer visits to Alabama. It was then that she began her dreams of being one of those rare legendary singers of the music she loved. “I wanna be like Mahalia Jackson,” she would proclaim to her grandmother.

She would hone her skills in church and high school choir, and toured with Dorothy Norwood and Shirley Caesar soon after graduation. Later, she joined a jazz ensemble led by organist Richard “Groove” Holmes. After joining Atlanta’s Salem Baptist Church, Peoples developed and managed the congregation’s Church Door Records on which she recorded her earliest releases.

Not long after she began hosting, directing, and producing a showcase gospel program for radio station WAOK, Peoples’ signed to Atlanta International Records in 1991 where her career began in earnest. Her debut there, “Live at Salem Baptist Church,” was rewarded with her first Stellar Award nomination for Best Female Solo Performance. In 1994, her “On Time God” album reached Number One on the gospel charts and won the Stellar Awards for album, song, female vocalist, and choir of the year. Her “Count on God” album debuted in 1996 at Number Four on the charts and would eventually be named Gospel Album of the Year by the Dove Awards, the Soul Train Awards, the Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMWA), and the National Association of Independent Record Distributors.

Again in 2000, her “God Can & God Will” was a Dove Award winner for Traditional Gospel Album of the Year. In 2006, she was named Traditional Female Artist of the Year at the Stellar Awards. Peoples is also a three-time Grammy nominee.

Her most popular songs include “Testify,” “Pure Love,” “It’s So Hard to Get Along,” “He’s an On Time God,” “God Can,” “He Is Concerned,” “What Kind of Love Is This,” “Closet Religion,” “Get Your House in Order,” and “We Shall Be Changed.”

Peoples also appeared in the touring stage play, “What Men Don’t Tell.”

Darrell McFadden and the Disciples mine their own rich vein of gospel quartet music – or as they prefer to call it, “Modern Classic Quartet” music. It is a sound that reflects performers influenced by the secular sounds of the Temptations, as well as the legendary gospel acts like Willie Banks & The Messengers and the Gospel Keynotes.

McFadden has been singing solos in the church since he was 11. Today the pastor of Galilean Deliverance Temple in New York’s Bronx, McFadden was born and raised in Brooklyn and spent every summer of his youth with relatives in rural South Carolina, gaining an appreciation of gospel’s music in both the North and South. After high school, he formed the Golden Sons in Brooklyn, working constantly and building the group’s reputation throughout the New York area, eventually releasing four small label albums. Frustrated by members’ resistance to the sacrifices of taking the group to a national audience, he left the Golden Sons and formed Darrell McFadden & The Disciples in 1992. The group followed McFadden’s principles of constant touring, gaining a growing following up and down the East Coast. After five independent projects, they signed to EMI Gospel.

Other core members Gene People and Spanky Williams have divided their time for several years, working with mainstream R&B act Men of Vision and becoming part of the production team of hit-making producer Teddy Riley. Today, McFadden, People, and Williams meld the classic sounds of gospel quartets with contemporary production skills and a love of ‘60s soul, creating the music that made 2006’s “I’ve Got a Right” one of the top gospel albums of the year.

Chicago’s Pilgrim Jubilees trace their origins back to 1934 in Houston, Mississippi, when Elgie Graham and Willie Johnson formed a duet. When three more members were added in the mid-1940s, the Pilgrim Jubilees were born. Membership changed when the Graham family moved to Chicago in 1950; Elgie Graham reorganized the Jubilees to include Major Roberson, Kenneth Madden, and his brothers, Cleve and Clay Graham. In 1955, Elgie Graham bowed out of the group, but encouraged the other members to continue the Jubilees – they have to this day. Madden would depart in the 1960s and Ben Chandler came aboard in 1970. All of the other core members have remained aboard.

The Jubes – as they are known to loyal fans – gained national recognition and a gold record with the gospel classic “Stretch Out” more than 40 years ago. Other hits would include “Rich Man, Poor Man,” “I’m Happy With Jesus Alone,” “Whensoever I Pray,” “Put Your Trust in Jesus,” and “I’m Glad You Looked My Way.” Signing with Malaco Records in 1987, the Jubes would continue to garner airplay and new fans with such acclaimed releases as “Gospel Roots,” “Back to Basics,” “Family Affair,” “I’m Getting Better All the Time,” and “In Revival.”

Today, the Jubes continue to perform on stages from the Kennedy Center to the Apollo Theatre. Favorites at major festival, the Pilgrim Jubilees gospel sound regularly touches fans from the Bahamas to New Orleans’ Jazz & Heritage Festival.

As in past years, the DCC continues to provide opportunities for area performers to participate in the Arkansas Delta Family Gospel Festival. A limited number of slots for performers remain and will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Also, non-profit church groups and organizations are invited to take advantage of the large audiences the festival draws by establishing food vending operations during the event -- at no charge for concession space.

For more information, interested persons can contact the Delta Cultural Center at (870) 338-4350 or (800) 358-0972.

The Delta Cultural Center shares the vision of all seven agencies of the Department of Arkansas Heritage – to preserve and promote Arkansas heritage as a source of pride and satisfaction. Other agencies within the department are the Historic Arkansas Museum, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, the Old State House Museum, the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, the Arkansas Arts Council, and the Natural Heritage Commission.
















- The Department of ARKANSAS HERITAGE

Eighth Annual Arkansas Delta Family Gospel Fest
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Helena-West Helena - Cherry Street Pavilion
www.deltaculturalcenter.com
The Delta Family Gospel Fest is an annual event sponsored by the Delta Cultural Center, a museum of the Arkansas Department of Heritage. The festival features the finest local, regional, and national gospel performers.
Announced guests include The Canton Spirituals. Also: Dorothy Norwood, Billy Rivers & The Angelic Voices, Daniel Ballinger, The Brown Singers of Memphis, The Myles Family, The Gospel Mellowtones, The Supreme Harmonettes, The Reel Brothers, The Jonestown Crusaders, Reverend Cheairs & The Gospel Songbirds, Pastor Cedric Hayes & The Gloryland Choir, and Angie Pretlow.
For more information, please contact Thomas Jacques or Michelle Briggs at the Delta Cultural Center at (800)-358-0972 or (870)-338-4350.
Admission is free.
























- DELTA BLUES MUSEUM