The "Clips of the Day" will consist of a sermon excerpt and/or a song from some of my favorite preachers and singers. I hope they will bless you as much as they have blessed me. --Editor
For a man who has declared that he may at any moment cease making music to concentrate fully on his passion for ministering, Donnie McClurkin can never stay away long from recording profoundly uplifting music for the soul. The evidence: his latest collection We All Are One (Live in Detroit) - his breathlessly anticipated first music recording in five years! Along for the momentous celebration are very special guests CeCe Winans, Yolanda Adams, Mary Mary and Karen Clark-Sheard. Once again, Donnie, his singers and musicians share the joy of God’s bounty - live before an on-fire congregation where platinum-plus Pastor McClurkin’s vocal and testimonial gifts have always shined their brightest.
He earned a trophy case full of Dove and Stellar Awards plus other honors including an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Gospel Artist. In 2001 Donnie graduated to establishing his own Perfecting Faith Church in Freeport, New York, all the while continuing to release the magnificent musical works Again (2003) and the double-CD Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs (2005) each one garnering the coveted Grammy Award.
Today, McClurkin’s commitment to spreading God’s word far and wide is most evident in a last minute addition to the We All Are One album titled “Purple,” composed expressly for Donnie by Darren Atwater and performed by his truly inspiring Soulful Symphony in Baltimore, MD. “I’ve known Darren for years,” Donnie states. “I was doing a concert in Baltimore with him last year as a guest with his 40-piece orchestra. During rehearsal he introduced this new song of praise and the minute I heard it I went to hollerin’! I asked him what it was. He told me it was called ‘Purple’ and he’d written it just for me. I loved it so much that even though we were 90% finished with the album, I made room to add this song, which Darren produced himself. Darren Atwater is a genius as an arranger and conductor - manifesting real cultural exchange by bringing classical culture into the gospel environment. He also leads workshops that introduce young African Americans to acoustic instruments and the works of Chopin and Bach without a Pro Tools in sight! It gives them inspiration to maybe pick up a viola or a cello that they may never have experienced within their monoculture.”
“I’ve always been in awe of God,” Pastor Donnie McClurkin concludes. “I didn’t want anything on my latest offering, We All Are One, to reflect suffering or ‘climbing up that mountain’ in the way to which traditional Black gospel is accustomed. I wanted to luxuriate in and celebrate in the greatness of God.”