Music Highlight: Karen Clark-Sheard-ALL IN ONE

Anyone that knows me know how much I love gospel music, not only the messages, but the incredible, and incomparable voices. One woman without doubt helps emphasize my point about the voice, and that is non-other than Karen Clark-Sheard. Her range is flawless and vocal abilities and attributes are second to none!

Recently, Karen Clark-Sheard just released her 5th solo album, ALL IN ONE. This album has been long awaited, especially after coming off a grammy high, winning 3 grammys with her sisters, The Clark Sisters, and another grammy with Pastor Donnie McClurkin. But not only is this album special for that reason, but also because this album has been produced on her own label, KaRew Records.

I listened to the album and well I must say that vocally, she's the baddest, and always will be! But as far as the sound of the record goes, I'm a little disappointed. Instead of giving a K. Sheard sound(basically the live sound), her album sounds more like her cousin J. Moss album, and/or daughter Kierra Sheard album. I am not saying that either of them are bad, but the albums do sound quite similar. But I guess they should sound alike given that J. Moss produced some of Karen's songs on this album (he'd produced on all her albums) and her son J. Drew also produced on this album (and who also produced for his sister Kierra Sheard). So in many ways, its not the songs that are bad, but its because Karen Clark-Sheard chose to go with a sound that is all too familiar. But to be quite optimistic, that is what people love about her, the fact that she is able to do many different sounds and that she is not bound to any particular one.

Karen Clark Sheard singing Prayed Up, LIVE

The songs on the album are real, uplifting and many of them go-hard like her first single off the album, Prayed Up. When the song is playing, you can't help but want to get up and dance, and that also goes for the track Crazy Praise! My favorite song on the album is Blessings; the flow on that song is tight!!! Other notable tracks include Take Me which features her daughter Kierra Sheard and her niece, Angel Chisholm, Jacky Chisholm's daughter. Also, the track, He Knows, which features her sister Dorinda Clark-Cole, is another dynamic track on the album, if its only for the vocals!

All in All, I think the album was great especially since everyone needed there Karen Clark-Sheard high! Although its not exactly the Finally Karen that everyone remembers with the choirs, and the organ, it's still Karen Clark-Sheard, and her voice accompanies any sound well!

KOOL KICKS FINAL

Finally Kool Kicks ends! Hope you enjoyed the ride!

KOOL KICKS 6

MORE! MORE! MORE! MORE KICKS!

KOOL KICKS 5

These kicks are rockin' hard!

There is nothing like High tops!

These are the new Gucci kicks

KOOL KICKS 4

I told you, there is always gonna be more kool kicks

Let's Fiesta!


These are fly!

KOOL KICKS 3

They just keep comin'! More shoes!

They don't get any better than this!

KOOL KICKS 2

More Kicks that will drive you insane!

I just like the color of this shoe!

KOOL KICKS 1

Yeah, I'll rock them!!!

This shoe is the Christian Louboutin! My Fav!

What shoes are you wearing on Valentine's Day?!

I'll be rockin' these......

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

DEDICATED TO HAITI

I began to think about the devastation created by the earthquake in Haiti and how these people who have nothing lost everything. I began to write, and write and write. I refuse to give these poems names because I did not want the poems to be polluted with my so called artistic evaluation in choosing a title.

Poem1

100, 000 dead.

100, 000 different souls.

God are you listening to their cries of dismay and confusion?

Children lost, moms and dads looking, and there comes no relief.

I can not imagine how the ground shook, maybe like a rattle perhaps.

Maybe it was a rumbling of ground cracking and hell releasing itself furiously.

I’ve never been in a quake before.

I can’t imagine the stone from buildings falling as rain.

There is a picture of this dark skinned child.

Hair like that of carpet, dreary eyes, gray even, the light was took from them.

Lips crusted as old bread and a face as dry as dust.

He was alone, under the rubble, dead.

Now God I return to you.

Trying to understand the point you’re trying to prove and

How many lives you let families lose.

I am a praying man, understanding too, is this how it ends?

Poem2

I find myself hurt; it is not that I understand their pain,

But simply because I was complaining about mine.

Suddenly, I feel blessed like all my cares are careless.

I wanted a new phone

The Haitian girl wanted a drink of water

I wanted a car

A Haitian mother wanted for her son to live

I wanted for America to get out of this financial crisis

Haitians wanted food

I wanted more money

Haitians wanted to be able to fit into a health center

I wanted to pass French

The Haitian man wanted his wife not to be buried in a garbage bag

I wanted Grace Ozinga

The Haitians wanted to sleep in a house

I wanted to be a RA

A Haitian mother did not want to see her new born buried under rubble

I want to help the Haitians

The Haitians want me to help them.

Poem3

The scar on your face paints a picture of the day. Maybe it was the tons

Of bricks on top of your head that caused it.

The bandages, soaked in blood, tell of your struggle to live, to breath,

To see your family again and to live.

Your eyes seem glossy, reflecting the look of fear, but not cowardly, but humble,

Still, fear.

Your face is stained with death; a paradox of your youthful age.

You seem worried because tomorrow seem as far away as far can stretch.

Your red, grubby, worn-out shirt is a characteristic of the blood stained streets.

I wonder even if you were posing for the camera;

Or if that is a look of consternation.

Maybe they’ve told you that all your friends are dead

Or your entire family is missing.

I wonder what you’re thinking?

Poem4

You could not find Haiti on a map before,

You still can not find it, the quake took it out.

I looked for it and could not see it.

We could not even spell it correctly,

Or even knew if it had its own language or not.

We never knew what to call them, but Haitians it is for now.

I found America though.

It invaded the map; standing out like the sun

Stands out from the other stars.

Haiti must be Pluto then.

Something seems odd when we have one less planet.

Poem5

Its been a week now God,

When will the Haitians stop suffering?

When will they have clean water to drink?

When will they have enough food to eat?

It’s not that I’m angry, I know better than that,

Because I certainly don’t want to find myself next.

But really, God?

Poem6

And when Times reported the 100, 000 death toll,

There was nothing else to be said.

HAPPY NEW YEARS!

HAPPY NEW YEARS!

Welcome not only to a new year, but a new decade! Whatever you believe or don't believe, have faith that this is your year! Let nothing come in between you and what you want. It is important to remember that because the year have changed, yourself will automatically follow. True change come from determination and preservation. Again, HAPPY NEW YEARS!
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