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Tonight's LIVE In The Vocal Booth Show we rate and review along with YOU the listener Kim Burrell's new CD release "The Love Album"

Here is our rating system: 5 Stars: It's blazing hot – on fire
4 Stars: It's a hot song – pump it up
3 Stars: It's alright-good song
2 Stars: Thanks for the album cut-what's next
1 Stars: I won't tell nobody about that if you don't…lets keep that a secret

Kim Burrell | The Love Album

“I’m a writer, first…” Those are the words Kelly chooses to describe herself, her talent. When you listen, closely, to her songs, it’s evident that she writes and sings from her soul. It’s a place she’s come to know quite well. “Music saved my life,” she says. “Writing has been like therapy; it’s the most incredible gift.”

At this juncture, Kelly Price has learned to loosen the reins on her creativity. Sure, she still reaches for a pen-and-pad and rattles off lyrics into her Dictaphone, but she’s also learning to be more patient, allowing the songs to reveal themselves. Sometimes, the words will come. Other times, she’ll hear the song as a fully-orchestrated composition. Either way, the results of her efforts are illustrated beautifully, truthfully, on her new album entitled, simply, Kelly.

Leading the album out of the gate is the spirited single, “Tired.” Produced by Shep Crawford and inspired by a creative heart-to-heart she shared with fellow musician and past collaborator, R. Kelly, the song sheds light on the social ills that not only cause her distress, but also seem to be plaguing our world community. Even before she starts running down the list of things that consume her thoughts – from guilty feelings and broken dreams to baby mommas and ghetto dramas – you’ll know where she’s heading from the opening verse…"there’s a hole in my heart, my soul is bleeding I need to free my mind, and say what I’m feeling, ‘cause Lord knows...I’m tired."

Along her journey, she’s collaborated with the likes of Mariah Carey, George Michael, Elton John, The Isley Brothers, Brian McKnight and Sean “Diddy” Combs as well as Faith Evans, Whitney Houston, Donnie McClurkin, Eric Clapton, the late James Brown, Shirley Murdock. She’s also expanded her reach as a model for Lane Bryant and Ashley Stewart and taken her talents to the screen and stage with roles in Soul Food, the series, Bringing Down the House and the stage plays Why Did I Get Married? and The Bible Experience. In 2005, she added the title of ‘self-published author’ to her resume with the release of the inspirational tome, Inscriptions of My Heart. The audio book is currently in the works. For this new musical offering Kelly departed from the “machine” of the major labels where artists and their visions can often be sacrificed or lost. Instead Ms Price chose to do it her way and forged a musical partnership with Producer Warryn Campbell whose start up label My Block Records was just forming. A conversation led to a joint venture and the joint venture led to “KELLY”, a body of work that Ms Price calls her best yet.

There’s no denying that music is where Kelly Price’s heart resides, always. With the release of Kelly, one might wonder what she hopes to accomplish this go ‘round. “When I was growing up, I’d put on a record and let it play until the needle lifted,” she remembers, fondly. “My goal for this project was to create a contemporary R&B album that you can listen to without skipping a single song, whether you’re cleaning the house or driving up the coast. Hopefully, I got it right…I think I did.”

Tonight's Topic: Treat My Neighbor As Myself

Long gone are the days when the feeling of true community existed.

How can we bring back community? What must be done to forge relationships with one another? How did we get to the point where we don’t even know who we live next door to?

What about the children? Do we know the neighborhood children by name? Do we encourage them in their efforts or ask them how school is going? When is the last time you did something to support a youth that wasn’t your own?

What will it take for people to become connected to their communities? What must be done to get people to be more active in their communities? Let’s talk about it “Live in the Vocal Booth on bks1radio.com

Special Guests: The cast of the order of love" a Kingdom works production

Ursula Derios
Dennis Akins
Catherine Gore
David Davis
Tamara Stewart Marc Covington
Renee Jones
Ronald Allen
Marcia Howard
Ted Stokes
Darah Derios