usually i like to put a hymn on for lords day. since visiting miss patty this friday, this song has been a melody in my heart and has shed sweet peace into my soul. this week it was an easy choice for me to make, thanks to miss patty. god bless you all this lord's day....love terry http://livingongrace.blogspot.com/2009/06/friday-fave-todays-fave-is-something-i.html
CHICAGO (AP) - Jessy Dixon, a singer and songwriter who introduced his energetic style of gospel music to wider audiences by serving as pop singer Paul Simon's opening act, died Monday. He was 73. Miriam Dixon said her brother died Monday morning at his Chicago home. She said he had been sick but declined to provide additional details.
it was for his gospel singing - religious music that combined the rhythmic beat of blues, jazz and soul - that Dixon first gained attention. It was during an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1972 with his Jessy Dixon Singers that
Dixon also played keyboard with Earth Wind and Fire and guitarist Phillip Upchurch.
Dixon, who began studying music at age 5, aspired to be classical pianist but told The Associated Press in a 1997 interview that he always knew his talent was destined for use in the church.
Born March 12, 1938, in San Antonio, Dixon's professional compass was set by gospel music legend James Cleveland, who heard Dixon's teen group perform at a theatre in the south Texas city. Dixon said Cleveland liked the group, but he liked Dixon more and persuaded him to move to Chicago to join his group, the Gospel Chimes, as both a singer and pianist.
Chicago's South Side was the place to be for a gospel musician, especially in the early 1960s.
"Going to church was like going to school," Dixon said. At church, he heard the likes of Mahalia Jackson and blues pioneer Thomas A. Dorsey, who is credited with creating modern gospel singing.
"Reading his (Dor sey's) music and studying it, he was the one who wrote for Tennessee Ernie Ford, Elvis Presley and Pat Boone," Dixon said. "All these people were singing his music and were making it commercial."
Dixon credited the creativity of artists like percussionist Maurice White and blues singer Willie Dixon, no relation, inspired him to compose. He started with choral music for Chicago's Thompson Community Singers, for which he sat at the keyboards. Several of his early songs have become classics, sung in churches across America, including: "Sit At His Feet and be Blessed," ''These Old Heavy Burdens" and "I Love to Praise His Name."
His more recent compositions gained him even wider acceptance. Dixon's "I Am Redeemed," released in 1993, lingered on Billboard magazine's gospel chart for more than five years.
After his stint with Simon ended, Dixon rode a wave of increased gospel music interest during the 1980s to build a following in Europe.
During his 1997 inte rview, Dixon noted that when he first began touring on his own outside the United States in the 1980s, the small audiences didn't have much respect for gospel as religious expression.
"At first it was viewed as entertainment," he said. "But now when I go, they ask me to share my faith as a Christian."
In the United States, Dixon was a long-time fixture on composer and singer Bill Gaither's Gospel Series, video concert broadcast on religious oriented cable television stations.
During his career, Dixon was able to produce five gold records and garner several Grammy nominations.
Dixon, is survived by a brother and sister.
Diana Ross - "There's an element in Jessy's music that can't be mistaken. That element is love, and wow do I feel it." Bette Midler - "I've heard Jessy Dixon sing many times and in all of gospel music, Jessy Dixon is my favorite. Jessy Dixon has the gospel soul." Bill Gaither - "I have traveled with Jessy Dixon for the past several years and never have I been with an artists with more heart. He is the real thing." Natalie Cole - "Jessy's music is just like him, beautiful."
dearest evelyn..i have been thinking of this hymn for a couple of days as i was thinking of you..i really love this...a few years ago when betty and i went to a southern gospel concert in north carolina, we heard charles johnson and his friends sing it...it really touched my soul and was a help to me...i hope you like this!!....love from your cousin, terry
ps..your mom, my aunt vera had everyone of the bill gaither and friends vcrs and on one of those tapes, you would see charles johnson and the revivers singing, "i can't even walk without you holdin' my hand.
Isaiah 62:1 For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.
this last week from the far side of the sea i have been hearing so much about jerusalem from my beloved friend, felsiol and it has stirred my heart to the utmost. by email and reading at her blog, i could see the love of felisol for god's own people and for god's own city, jerusalem. this lords day, i feel so much thankfulness that jesus has extended his grace to the likes of me and i will be ever grateful for his dying for me!
Dear Lidj, How could I not choose Israel's side and reckon myself a child of the Lord. Psalm 137:5 "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning."
I fear many will try to forget the prophesies in order to gain short time peace and profit. I know from the Scripture that is the beginning to the end.
The beginning of the end time is probably the right expression.
I don't think we should neither fear nor bare able stop the return of Christ.
This is so well described in the Bible.
Nevertheless I am so sad about all the overwhelming aggression against Israel, God's chosen People.
I neither can nor will be silent about this.
these comments were by felisol, herself and they are so full of truth!
Isaiah 31:5 "As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver [it; and] passing over he will preserve [it]."
thank you felisol for your encouragement....love terry
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
this post has been moved to feruary 11...amrita put it in for me! Mark 10:15 "Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
51Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
this is one of my favourite songs by the blackwood brothers. never will i forget the day several years ago now when james blackwood and his quartet came to welland to sing....i asked mr. blackwood before the concert started if they would sing "how about your heart?"...it is a very old hymn and mr. blackwood told me he might not remember the words! after the intermission when the quartet returned to the stage to sing, how my heart filled with joy as james blackwood announced in a soft voice.."this song is by request", and they SANG it! the words to this hymn are soul searching!
I grew up in a family of nine children and each week my mother didn't just send us to Sunday School,she came with us.
We heard the gospel week after week from the year 1956 but were not saved until 1967.
The summer of 1967 my mother,my sister, Betty and I were all gloriously saved.
From that year until now several of my brothers and sisters were saved, but my dad still remains on the outside.
It has been our prayer that he will be saved soon and then the family circle will be unbroken and we will all be on our way to heaven where we will meet the Lord and see our brother, David who has gone on before.
