Tamela Mann enjoyed her biggest debut yet with her number two bow on the Billboard Top Gospel Albums Chart last month with her new release The Master Plan, which not only demonstrated her standing in gospel circles, but tested the viability of the new Central South sales force and most likely reflected the popularity of her TBS series, Meet the Browns, the #1 rated television show for black audiences.
Now resting at number three, the album remains all the more impressive given the competition in new releases from such A-list gospel artists as Byron Cage, Fred Hammond, and Shirley Caesar.
It is the third release for Mann, who co-stars opposite her husband David in Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns, on the couple’s five-year old, Tillymann Music Group recording label. Their first project, Tamela’s 2005 CD, Gotta Keep Movin’, debuted at #3 on Billboard and was followed by The Live Experience, which earned her two Stellar Award nominations.
Produced by GRAMMY Award-winning Myron Butler and Terrell Carter, The Master Planfeatures a more contemporary urban/R&B twist for Tamela who also gets to show off her writing skills on “I Trust In You,” “Here I Am,” “Anything For You” and “In Him.” Highlights also include Tamela’s moving rendition of “The Lord’s Prayer.”
“It’s a bit out of the norm for me,” she states. “I’ve done a couple of new urban pieces
“We’ve put some love songs on there,” David explains. “It’s Christian love music for couples.”
Yet a bigger part of the excitement over the album for Tamela is that it showcases her love for church. In fact, it all boils down to church for the Fort Worth native who first met her husband of 22 years through a mutual friend just prior to joining a singing group he’d formed, the Humble Hearts.
“It’s all ministry to us,” states Tamela, who now maintains a marriage ministry with her husband called Biblical Marriage in a Practical World, to encourage couples and families to come together.
In 1999 Mann and her husband joined forces with Perry when they were cast in his first stage play, I Can Do Bad All By Myself and have been working together ever since parlaying their success in Perry’s stage plays to recurring appearances on his TV series, Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, on the silver screen in such movies as Meet the Browns and Medea Goes to Jail and most recently their top-rated TBS series.
And while these entertainment veterans – who maintain a home in Dallas – got their start on stage, it was not in theater, but in gospel, most notably for their stirring lead vocals with GRAMMY Award-winning gospel superstar Kirk Franklin’s former back-up group, The Family.
Their debut CD, Kirk Franklin & The Family, earned a GRAMMY. The couple, who both performed lead vocals, went on to record two additional CDs with Franklin while rewriting the face of gospel with the revolutionary urban contemporary style, and Tamela leading such classics as “Now Behold the Lamb” and “Lean On Me,” which also featured Bono and R. Kelly.
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Article courtesy of: gospel music channel
