Bongo Boy Magazine Issue 107 | Page 37

Kathryn Shipley’s Give Faith Single Review Hej America! The other day my friends at Bongo Boy records asked me to give a listen to and share my thoughts about a single they are releasing. The song is called “Give Faith”. It is written by Gar Francis and is performed by Kathryn Shipley. What really sparked my interest is the fact that Kathryn Shipley won the 2017 Josie Music Award in Nashville for Artist of The Year in the Gospel/Country category. This song will be featured on the upcoming Bongo Boy release Gospel Blues Volume Two. Having grown up in Detroit I have a serious soft spot for Gospel music. Almost every Motown artist, at least everyone I can think of started singing in church. Now, African-American churches are not like Scandinavian Lutheran churches, African-American tend to have soul, that is they ROCK. With that in mind I cued up Kathryn’s single. The guitar starts out strumming some fairly basic chords and then boom the bass comes in and gives the whole thing a funky, solid bottom. Her vocals are spot on and fit the tune and genre well. I dig the beat the drummer is laying down. It is simple, yet powerful. The man is locked in. Every once in a while I hear a little lightning off to the side coming from the electric guitar. The country piano has just enough boogie in it to add a layer of soulful groove. Overall, this is a very good song that fits the Gospel/Country genre perfectly. If you like your faith-based mu-sic to swing, you will like this song. - The Grouch | in the Rockies