Michelle David - The Gospel Sessions Vol. 2

A title like 'The Gospel Sessions Volume 1' holds the promise of a Volume 2. And hurray, it's here now. 'We've moved forward a few decades in time', says Onno Smit, which musically means that more percussion, strings and an organ have been added. While the debut was also an ode to pioneers like Sister Rosette Tharpe, The Gospel Sessions now stands on the shoulders of Sam Cooke & The Soul Stirrers and the Womack Brothers, for example. The beautifully arranged 'Carry On' is a good example of that.
.
The cheering and clinking that was missing on that album returned in the glowing reviews and the ecstatic reactions of the sometimes frenzied audience in the halls, churches and at the festivals where they played. 'Grandiose', Oor judged. 'Het Woord has become Rock 'n Roll', the Leeuwarder Courant cheered. 'Album of the year', the listeners of NPO Radio 6 thought.

Volume 2 is not only richer musically, it has also become even more Michelle David's album. It contains songs that are part of her life, such as the adapted traditional 'Tradewinds'. 'My first solo in church', recalls David, who was born in North Carolina and raised in New York. 'I was five years old. It suddenly came back to me during the recording session for the second album. I hadn't thought about it for years, but I sang it again.' The modest 'There's a Place', an original, is an ode to the aunt who raised her. 'I heard the melody and started improvising. The words came naturally, I wrote it in a few minutes.' The live-recorded, toe-sung 'Baptized' is the account of Michelle's baptism in the Atlantic Ocean. And there were more songs that were so mature that they only needed to be picked. 'I don't know what Onno and Paul do to me, but during the sessions we do it's like they can look through a hatch into my head, it's magical.'

Evangelizing isn't the goal of The Gospel Sessions, "but the best compliment I ever got after a show was from someone who said, 'You're making it hard for me to be an atheist,'" Michelle chuckles.
Gospel is powerful music, in many ways. It is music that can lift, that can impact. 'A question that has bothered me my whole career is: am I good enough? For the first time I can let go of that, because what I do has become personal.'

And yes. Volume 3 is already in the bud