Hey folks, last night the  2 day memorial festivities  for Bishop Walter Hawkins began with the memorial concert “The Man, The Music, The Ministry: A Musical Salute to Bishop Walter Hawkins” . I wanted to make it to Oakland  to attend but prior commitments and logistics just didn’t allow it, but thankfully our good friend of the blog BJ Daniels was able to attend and was willing to recap the night for us for those who didn’t make it. As I’m sure most of you know, I’m pretty active on the social media platform “Twitter” and it’s proven to be a rather remarkable way to bring people together and share information. Although most of us were unable to be at last night’s concert, you were able to get some updates of what was going on from different people on twitter. For example, the program photo tot he right was captured and posted by gospel artist DeWayne Woods. And our guest blogger today, BJ Daniels was able to offer his recap to me via twitter when he realized that I wasn’t there. How dope is that!

BJ Daniels is an administrator at Greater Mt. Calvary Holy Church, Washington, DC, graphic designer, former gospel radio announcer and gospel enthusiast. He also has his own blog, so you should check it out here!

***passes mic to BJ Daniels*** Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve spend the week honoring the life and music of Bishop Walter Hawkins but today I’m taking a bit of a different approach. I reached out to a bunch of folks in the gospel industry and gospel radio to share their thoughts on Walter’s passing but one story stuck out to me and I wanted to give it it’s own space.

One of the reasons this stuck out to me because many times in gospel, inside and outside of the industry, we tend to get a little jaded or even sometimes forget what makes this music and ministry so important. We sometimes forget about the power of gospel music to change people’s lives. Kurt Carr’s reflections on Walter Hawkins brought it all back and I wanted to share it with you.

***passes mic to Kurt Carr*** Read the rest of this entry »

More details are coming in for the funeral/homegoing celebration of Walter Hawkins. Some of gospel and even r&b’s most talented and influential artists are coming to salute and pay tribute to Hawkins.

“The Man, The Music, The Ministry: A Musical Salute to Bishop Walter Hawkins” – Tuesday July, 20 @ 7:30 p.m.

Masters Of Ceremonies: Bebe Winans, Marvin Winans, & Dr. Bobby Jones Read the rest of this entry »

As we all know, one of the greatest singers, songwriters and vocal producers, Bishop Walter Hawkins died yesterday from complications with pancreatic cancer at the age of 61. It’s still rather surreal and feels like it just shouldn’t be and pulling together this blog is no easier than yesterday’s.  As we, members of the gospel music industry, deal with this tremendous loss; many have taken the time to remember Walter and his legacy so I wanted to share with you. So I’ll be passing the mic to some industry colleagues and artists now.

****old school COGIC mic toss**** Read the rest of this entry »