It’s been a while since choirs like The Mississippi Mass Choir and The Thompson Community Singers dominated the gospel radio airwaves back in the `80s and `90s but a Clinton, Maryland-based ensemble is changing all of that with their current radio hit, “Rejoice.” It’s hit the national Top 100 on both the Mediabase and BDS weekly gospel chart surveys and is just spins away from cracking the Top 30 on both charts.
The Greater Refuge Ministries Choir is a vibrant, soulful, and unique ensemble comprised of regular everyday folks who sing at the Greater Refuge Ministries church every Sunday morning. Its radio journey began in December 2009 when Bishop Devaughan Moore prophesied to his minister of music, Darnell Moore, to prepare the church’s choir for big things because they were about to take off nationally. After writing over twenty original songs, Darnell Moore, began to teach them to the choir and almost a year later they hit the stage for their first live recording in November 2010.
The resulting CD, “Bless the Lord… LIVE”, was released in July 2011 and the current radio single, “Rejoice”, is making some serious noise at radio. The rousing, upbeat tune led by Jeremiah Hicks is garnering radio love from such disparate parts of the USA as Reno, Nevada’s KRNG 101.3 FM in the west to New Jersey’s WEHA 88.7 FM to the east. Then, they are getting played as far south as Baton Rouge, LA’s KQXL 106.5 FM right up into America’s heart land with KPRT 1590 AM in Kansas City, MO.
“I just enjoy praise and worship, the whole aspect of just appreciating God for things that He has done, things He’s going to do and who He is,” Moore recently told Examiner.com’s Sarah Hearn in discussing the theme of “Rejoice”. “Why be sad? Why worry about anything else that goes on throughout the day?”
