by Sheilah Belle
After five years since her Top Ten CD “In His Presence” was released, Judith Christie McAllister, prepares for the August 30th release of her fourth CD Sound the Trumpet on Shanachie Entertainment. McAllister’s highly anticipated new project brings praise and worshippers the high-energy anthems and tender songs of praise, expected from this leading female psalmist. After only a few weeks of release at radio, the infectious radio single has already landed on the Top 40 gospel radio airplay charts.
“The title cut ‘Sound the Trumpet’ is a clarion call to the Body of Christ to rise up and be the “Watchmen” we have been called to be. To declare truth to society that there is an impending danger,” McAllister says of the new CD that directs the Church to confront America’s eroding moral values with an exemplary lifestyle of clean living and devotion. If the church does not rise up with Holiness and declare “Thus saith the Lord”, the blood of this society is going to be required at our hands.” (Ezekiel 33:1-8)
Sound The Trumpet was recorded live at the Greater Allen A.M.E. church in New York on 08/08/2008. Immediately following the recording, McAllister faced many aspects of difficulty, but she remembered that she was made for the struggle realizing that just as the number “8” represented new beginnings, that through all of the difficulty in her life, “God was birthing something new within me, I had to bring myself into remembrance that the anointing is birthed through pain! Amid it all, I have no complaints, but see this season of my life as an opportunity to be an example of ‘how’ to go through, how to be hallowed out for the glory of God, just like the process a Shofar has to endure for a pure and unadulterated sound to be emitted.”
Sound The Trumpet was produced along with respected musician Michael Bereal (Marvin Sapp, Smokie Norful). McAllister defines this CD as an eclectic exercise for a new millennium of believing worshippers. The songs range from the rock-edge of “I Will Sing,” to the Caribbean seasoning of “Fire” (featuring T.C. Bereal Jr.). McAllister’s prot?g?e Markita Knight leads the acoustic “Thank You For The Healing” with a pristine pop vocal. Nancey Jackson-Johnson’s stellar voice embodies the ballad “Just For Who You Are” and BET’s “Sunday Best” talent contestant, Michael Pugh, leads “Draw Me Near” with an almost operatic tenor. “I really don’t consider myself a singer. I can’t do all the runs and the beautiful riffs that these wonderfully gifted singers do with their voices, but what I think attracts people to my voice, is the identification with where they are……once you’ve been delivered in an area, that sound of deliverance coming from you can be picked up by someone who recognizes their need for freedom,” shares McAllister.
“One of the individuals who mentored me from afar was Ron Kenoly. I looked to his ministry for how I was going to model what the Lord had given me concerning Praise & Worship,” says McAllister who lives in Nashville with her husband, and three children. “I remember a song on his DVD project Praise From Every Nation, which I watched over and over again. I said, ‘one day I’m going to do just that – full band on stage’ and pretty much we did it with this CD. We had two drummers, two bass players, two lead guitarists, horn section and twelve wonderful singers, all playing and singing at the same time to the Glory of God! By God’s grace, I’m getting there…”
