Myrna Summers has been a gospel star since the early 1970s. There’s really not much she hasn’t done in gospel – Grammy and Stellar awards and nominations, concerts in the biggest venues in the land ... including Madison Square Garden, the Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center. Today she’s the minister of music at the massive Reid Temple A.M.E. Church in Glenn Dale, Maryland.
I’d be hard-pressed to pick a favorite album, much less song, by this multi-talented artist ... but her 1977 release I Dedicate This Album to You for Savoy would certainly be right up there. In addition to several original compositions, covers of gospel songs by Clara Ward, Stevie Wonder and Jerry Peters, Summers includes a couple of spirituals, including what I believe may be the loveliest, most haunting rendition of “Stand By Me” ever recorded.
I’m Robert Darden … “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” is produced by KWBU and the Black Gospel Music Preservation Program at Baylor University Libraries.
