Album Reviews On GospelFlava.com

Check out the reviews of The Malaco Music Group holiday releases “We Have Seen His Star” by Mississippi Mass Choir & Christmas With Luther Barnes on Gospelflava.com (click on the pic):

Spread The Word!

Thank you for your continued support!

Happy Holidays!

We Keep Topping The Charts

The Soul And Blues Report has spoken. Two of our favorite Malaco artists have the top 5 singles getting major props on the airwaves!

Congrats to Vick Allen and his hit single "Baby, Come Back Home" - now #1 on the Soul and Blues Charts! Vick is a talented guy, giving it his all.

Also, congratulations go out to another talented and hard workin' man at Malaco, Floyd Taylor. His single "You Still Got It" is #3.

We are proud of their accomplishments!!

See it for yourself at: http://www.soulandbluesreport.com/

Shirley Brown In The House!

Malaco's own Soul Diva, Shirley Brown, is in the studio recording new material for her album.

It's sounding GOOD, folks!

We snapped a few pictures in the meantime.

With songwriter Vick Allen

Mississippi Mass Cracks Billboard Gospel Charts

The Mississippi Mass Choir has cracked the Billboard Top Gospel Album Chart as the Hot Shot Debut this week with their first ever holiday release, "We Have Seen His Star."

With so many contemporary Christmas and Holiday releases in the marketplace, it's great to see that fans are proving their purchase power: A Traditional Gospel Holiday album is still prevalent and important in their hearts and minds.

~D.A. Johnson,
Executive Director Of Gospel

Welcome back, Denise!

Denise LaSalle, the First Lady of Blues, recently signed with Malaco Records. After several years of pursuing other projects she decided to join us again and we couldn't be more excited.

We look forward to seeing what else this talented performer and songwriter will do.

Denise is back and hotter than ever!

Denise LaSalle's Bio:

Unlike so many other blues vocalists who just re-interpret material given to them by songwriters, Denise LaSalle is a seriously talented songwriter. Although her soul blues style has strong urban contemporary overtones at times, it's best to think of LaSalle as a modern-day Bessie Smith, because that's really what she is. She writes funny songs full of sassy attitude and it's an attitude she carries with her on-stage. Off-stage, LaSalle accommodates all autograph seekers and gladly obliges journalists and radio disc jockeys.

The Jackson, TN-based LaSalle was raised in Belzoni, MS, (also home to Joe Willie "PineTop" Perkins some years earlier) but she got started singing in local churches around Leflore County.

Growing up, she listened to the Grand Ole Opry radio broadcasts and then in Belzoni, lived across the street from a juke joint. LaSalle's early influences, from the jukeboxes around Belzoni and over the radio, included Ruth Brown, Dinah Washington, and LaVern Baker. LaSalle moved north to Chicago when she was in her early twenties and would attend shows at the Regal Theatre, always returning home to write songs.

She got to know blues musicians and began giving her songs to them, until one day a Chess Records executive stopped by at Mixer's Lounge, where LaSalle was working as a bar maid. He listened to one of her songs and took it down to Chess Records, and the company later signed her as a vocalist, but never recorded her. Two years later, LaSalle recorded and produced her own record with the help of Billy "The Kid" Emerson, the Chess executive who'd originally shown an interest in her. After the record made some waves on local radio, Chess stepped in and purchased the master and took it to Europe.

Meanwhile, LaSalle continued writing songs and sitting in with blues musicians around the Chicago clubs. LaSalle's first big hit came about in 1971 when her "Trapped By a Thing Called Love" broke on the radio in Chicago and then Detroit. That record was for the Westbound label and then she signed with ABC Records in 1975, cutting three albums in three years until the label was sold to MCA. She continued performing as much as she could in Chicago and Memphis.

In 1980, a Malaco executive called to ask her to write a song for Z.Z. Hill. A positive relationship with the company was quickly developed, which resulted in LaSalle recording 11 discs for the label, including Lady in the Street, (1983), Right Place, Right Time, (1984), Love Talkin', (1985), Hittin' Where It Hurts, (1989), Still Trapped, (1990), Still Bad, (1994), and Smokin' in Bed (1997). While her Malaco sides are probably her most important recordings, other than the original of her early-'70s hit "Trapped," she still releases excellent gospel crossover material, including This Real Woman (2000) and There's No Separation (2001) on Ordena Records.

~courtesy of www.allmusic.com