Title: "Tell It Again"
Description: The Kirklands
Chadley - April 28, 2007 05:27 PM (GMT)
Group Name: The Kirklands
Website: www.kirklandsingers.com
Album Title: “Tell It Again”
Song Titles:
1. In His Arms
2. They Just Don’t Know The God I Know
3. I Think I’ll Tell It Again
4. Walk Through The Gate
5. He Will Come Through
6. He Pilots My Ship
7. I Got What I Needed
8. Victory Party
9. Jesus Christ The King
10. One Time Too Many
11. When I Could Not Pray
12. Expecting God To Move
Hailing from the state of Georgia, the Kirklands are a family group that is starting to make its mark on Southern Gospel after many years of singing together off and on. The group consists of Leon “Mann” Kirkland, his wife Janie, their son Cliff, and their daughter, Regina Williams.
“Tell It Again” is the group’s latest album. It contains songs that would mostly be classified as current/progressive Southern Gospel. The album cover is simple and straightforward, featuring a clear picture of the group (clad in coordinating outfits) along with the group name and album title. As I always do, I looked to see if the song lyrics had been included in the album cover. Unfortunately, they were not there.
Now, let’s take a look at each of the songs on the album.
The album starts off with the ballad-style “In His Arms”. This song features Janie singing the lead, and the blend behind her is very nice. As I’ve noted several times before, the blend between family members is some of the best you’ll find in any type of music.
Song #2 speeds the tempo up just a bit with “They Just Don’t Know The God That I Know”. Mann is featured on this song’s lead vocals, giving the group a slightly different sound. The tempo speeds up considerably for the third song, “ I Think I’ll Tell It Again”. Regina takes the lead on this song, and her soprano voice is strong and clear. The blend of voices with her as the lead singer is probably the strongest of any of the family’s vocal arrangements.
Song #4 is a medium-tempo song. “Walk Through The Gate” once again features Mann on the lead vocals. The fifth song, “He Will Come Through”, gives us another chance to hear Regina take the lead. Let me just say that I am very impressed with her voice. It has an excellent quality to it that is pleasant to listen to. The next song is a familiar one to most Southern Gospel fans, “He Pilots My Ship”.
The tempo speeds up once again for Song #7, “I Got What I Needed”. Once again, Regina’s vocals are in the forefront. The tempo stays the same on the next song, “Victory Party”. This song gives us our first taste of Cliff’s lead vocals. He has a sound reminiscent of any one of the 3 boys in the Crabb Family- a rough, country-style sound. I must say that I really like the blend of voices with Cliff on lead as well.
Song #9, “Jesus Christ The King”, is a ballad-style song that features Cliff again. This slower tempo continues into “One Time Too Many”, the tenth song on the album. It sounds as though Cliff is featured once again on this song. I think that he interprets a slower ballad very well. “When I Could Not Pray” is the eleventh song, and it is the latest release from this album. It has essentially the same tempo as the previous two songs, and Cliff is once again featured.
The family closes out the album with the up-tempo “Expecting God To Move”. Janie is featured for the second time on the album, and this song is a fitting way to close the album.
This album has a lot of strengths. First and foremost among them, in my opinion, is the “family blend”. This is a big advantage when it comes to singing as a group- voices from the same family have an almost automatic blend. Again, I think that the blend and the sound is strongest with either Regina or Cliff singing the lead vocals, so this might be something that the group wants to keep in mind for future albums. I also think that the song selection was a strong point. There was a good mix of song styles and tempos, and each song had a clear message to it.
I only have a couple of suggestions after hearing this album. The first one is for the family to work on their word pronunciations. Being more careful in this area will put more of a “polish” on their sound that will serve them well as they become more well-known. Also, even though I thought they did very well on the slower ballads, they might want to work on softening their voices just a bit more on those songs. Mann, Janie, Cliff, and Regina all have strong voices, and this is something that folks with strong voices often have to work on a little bit.
In closing, I want to thank the Kirklands for the opportunity to review this album. They have a lot of potential, and I look forward to hearing what they do in the future. This is a family that sings with a lot of energy, and that will get the attention of their listeners very quickly. Overall, I would give this album a solid rating of 3 ½ out of a possible 5 microphones!
Personal Favorites: “I Think I’ll Tell It Again”, “He Will Come Through”, and “Victory Party” and “When I Could Not Pray”