Before I begin, I just have to say, this episode of Sunday Best was SICK! *whoosh* on full blast! Alright, let’s get to it.
Chrisette Michele opened the show with “Stand.” Now I usually don’t enjoy Chrisette too much. It’s not necessarily that she can’t sing, but I generally think she tries too hard to sound “different.” Sing with the voice you have not the voice you want…. But tonight something about it worked for me. She did her good singing! Chrisette, you may have just made me a believer.
Kirk Franklin lets us know that the theme for this show is “One Mic” meaning there will be limited instrumentation from the band. The minute he said this, I got nervous because that could turn out to be really good or really bad! Lol
What also hit me was at this point in the competition, everybody’s good. How in the world are the judges going to send anyone home?
The first performance was Dathan Thigpen singing Israel & New Breed’s “Friend Of God.” This performance was “good” just like all of his performances are. The thing is, he and everyone else have sort of put him in the “worshipper” box and although that’s a wonderful thing, I think it’s kind of played against him. Most of his performance have either been praise and worship songs or at least in a worship style. Even when he sang “Speak To My Heart” it felt like he was a worship leader. So I think having him sing “Friend Of God” felt like more of the same and he didn’t get to show his versatility and got sent home. If I were him, I would have taken the song and churched it out just because! Just to show them he could, because I believe he can.
Tiffany Carlin-Laird came next with the Hawkins classic “Going Up Yonder” and I must say, I didn’t think that song could be sung with an “acoustic treatment” but the way she did it, showed me otherwise. She showed an entirely different side to her voice and pulled back so perfectly. It was POWERFUL RESTRAINT at its finest. I might have thrown in one good “holla” and came back down just to give it one more dose of “oomph” but I mean really, I’m nitpicking at this point. It was near flawless!
Next up was Durward Davis with Kirk Franklin’s “Lean On Me.” So umm, am I going to have to expand my search for guest bloggers to include writing about Durward too? Because I’m almost speechless! His tone is everything to me! And he has just mastered his voice. It was equally smooth AND powerful. Did you hear that part where he went up gave you some good hard singing for just a second and came right on back to the Marvin Winans place? My goodness………………. *whoosh*
Following Durward was Martha Buries with the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy.” Ok, so these singers are really trying to take me out of here tonight, because they were already good and now they’re showing greatness! One of the things I loved about Martha’s voice was her kind of interesting and raspy tone. And it’s still there, but what did she do tonight? She switched it up on me and showed that she had almost operatic clarity that was impeccable. Her runs were so perfect and so clean and so……. *whoosh* Somebody call the usher. Wilcard or not, she deserves to be right where she is!! Amazing!
Next came Brian Smith with the praise and worship staple “Lord I Lift Your Name On High.” Dude has a great voice but I think tonight was his time to go HARD and he didn’t. He kept it a little too “in the pocket” for me and the way singers like Durward and Martha brought it tonight, I needed him to push a little harder. I don’t want to say I was bored, because that’s not exactly the right word, but I’m having a hard time finding the right word. It just wasn’t exciting enough.
Next up, Leandria Johnson came and just akdja;dpaidahpdioqieahdakl;kh, AND THEN SHE a;uidapudipaeha;hdka;jdka;jda;, AND THEN SANG ME TO THE GROUND AS SHE ipakd;ahjdipyoaia;jdk…. Oops, my bad, I’m still trying to find words for her performances so I figured I’d just type in tongues and hope to make some sense! Ha! Leandria’s version of the Clark Sister’s “Endow” was just brilliant. Just brilliant. She gets me every single time. And to think, she’ll only get better…. *whoosh*
Finally to close the show Elder Goldwire McClendon also brought a hymn, “How Great Thou Art.” Man, Elder is holding his own. I love that he plays around with a song in that he doesn’t just sing it straight out but he goes in and out of different vocal placements and will put a slight run “just so” on just the right spot. He’s really an “artist” in that he’s so creative with his singing. I’m over talking about his age; he’s so much better and bigger than that. He’s more than the 79 year old dude who kills; he’s just the dude who kills!
So Brian and Dathan were sent home and although I’m fans of both of them, I think the judges got it just right. Again, like I said earlier, we’re at the point in the competition where we have no choice but to see GREAT SINGERS go, nobody sucks so we just have to deal with it.
The top 5 left contestants are:
- Martha Burries
- Tiffany Carlin-Laird
- Durward Davis
- Leandria Johnson
- Elder Goldwire McClendon
I can’t wait for next week because now that we’re down to 5 singers, they’ll have time to really dig into some songs, so I think it’ll only get better! Whew, can’t wait!
Torrence