Vickie began to make waves with her live appearances, and capitalized on them with the release of her 1997 album Live in Detroit, recorded at the city's Straight Gate Church. That album sold over 200,000 copies, a strong success by gospel standards; it remained on Billboard magazine's Top 40 Gospel Albums chart as of the summer of 1999. It spawned a follow-up, Live in Detroit II released in 1999.
Her music continues in "Woman to Woman: Songs of Life" released in 2006. As much as anything else "Woman to Woman" is a celebration of family, calling on the talents of son Mario ("Thirty Reasons"), husband Joe McLemore (check out his buttery smooth vocals in the duet "We Need Your Love"), and various family songwriters.
The double-disc set contains 33 tracks the combine musical elements for people of all ages under one Christian umbrella.
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Vickie explains her concept by saying, "I am a very family oriented person [coming from a family of 12] and so many times families splinter because they don't have anything in common...the children will listen to one thing while the parents listen to something else. I wanted to create a musical vehicle everyone in the family can come together and listen to Gospel music as one." |
Featuring children's songs such as "Happy and You Know It," a clever take on the children's standard that encourages and promotes praise and "Kids Love Jesus Too," where children are actually heard praising and laughing. Vickie said she had fun watching the reactions of the kids while they were recording the album.
Vickie Winans' eldest son, Mario "Yellowman" Winans took hold of the single and proffered up a banging remix of "Shake Yourself Loose" which is a bass heavy, Middle Eastern beat that sets the album on fire. The song is straight up hip-hop praise!
Continuing with the "family" theme, Vickie chose her youngest son, Marvin "Coconut" Winans, Jr. to co-produce with her. He wrote, tracked and performed on several cuts on the album. A high point is definitely the beautiul and soothing ballad, "Superman." The song draws a parallel between the natural Superman and her real-life ‘Superman' Jesus, and although there is no comparison, she relays the message that there is strength and power in Him. "Coconut writes very much like his father...as the song talks about Jesus being our everything," explained Vickie. "People let us down so much and what always remains is His strong arm...Jesus is my strong tower for real!"
Abiding on the extension of her legacy as "the hardest working woman in gospel music", Vickie's latest releases "Praise & Worship" (2008) and "How I Got Over" (2009) will please the listeners from start to finish. If you love gospel music, you are guaranteed to love these collections.