Hezekiah Walker & LFC have amassed such a rapport with worshippers and performance ensembles that his rousing, heartfelt compositions have become synonymous with Sunday morning. It's difficult to have church and not include at least one of his songs in the set list.
Souled Out, Walker's long-awaited 13th recording, is set to advance his calling to keep alive the choir tradition, a mission the GRAMMY®- and Stellar-winning choirmaster has upheld victoriously for more than 20 years, even as gospel music itself has shifted to more contemporary expressions of praise.
"We're trying to keep choirs alive," Walker says. "Everyone's trying to do away with choirs, but you can't delete choirs. As long as there's a church, there's always going to be a choir."
But Walker's mission goes a step further. Mindful that it is in these trying times when the souls of God's people are most tested, the pastor wants for Souled Out to serve as a reminder that now, more than ever, is the time to give one's all for the Lord's cause.
"In this day and age —with high gas prices, the mortgage crisis, job problems, the economy—a lot of times that can really hold people back from giving themselves to God and to the church," he says. "We decided that regardless of what we go through, we're still going to remain souled out."
It sounds like a snappy catchphrase, but Walker is serious about it, adding "what I'm trying to communicate to everyone is that we have really made up in our minds that there's no turning back. We're going all the way with this Jesus thing."
A transplant of Brooklyn's notorious Fort Greene projects, Walker had a good life growing up, thanks to a mother who encouraged his passion for choir-based gospel music in spite of the tumult surrounding him. It was then, when he was barely 8 years old, that his love affair with gospel began.
"I remember listening to some of the music my mother was playing and it brought tears to my eyes," Walker recalls. "I made up my mind from that point on that I was going to sing music that was going to touch people like that.
"I was the odd man out," he continues. "There was so much stuff to get into in those projects, but music kept me occupied. I got so involved with it that I wouldn't let myself get involved with anything else."
Walker never looked back. By the time he was 14, and without any formal musical training, he was already leading a choir of his own at a local congregation and learning the ropes of creating songs and arrangements that strike a chord in hearts of people from all walks of life.
It wasn't long until Walker became a heavyweight of gospel music in his own right, scoring a bevy of best-selling releases recorded stateside and abroad, all of which have made appearances on Billboard's gospel charts, including 1994's Live in Atlanta at Morehouse College and 2001's Love Is Live!, both of which snagged GRAMMY® trophies for Best Gospel Album by Choir or Chorus.
At the song level, the church-at-large has sung the praises of Hezekiah Walker for almost two decades, rising to its feet with such classics and anthems as "I'll Make It;" "Oh Lord We Praise You;" "We Made It;" "Second Chance;" "How Much We Can Bear;" "Clean Inside;" "Power Belongs to God;" "Jesus Is My Help;" "99 ½;" "I'll Fly Away;" "Let's Dance;" "I Need You to Survive;" "Faithful Is Our God;" and "Lift Him Up" among many others.
