Smokie Norful was meant for such a time as this. With seven years in gospel music, he’s become a heavyweight of the genre, reaching benchmarks that have taken others a lifetime to achieve: Among other accomplishments, he’s a GRAMMY, Dove, and Stellar winner, a bona fide Billboard chart-topper, a two-time gold-selling artist, and a crossover star responsible for the unforgettable, multi-format smash, “I Need You Now.” Smokie Norful Live, the latest chapter in a vertiginous rise to the very zenith of gospel, is the project he was destined to make. It brings together both of his personas–artistic and pastoral–for an in-concert experience that’s also the closest representation of who he is as a singer and minister. “If you catch me on Sunday morning, I sound just like this,” Norful says.… Smokie Norful was meant for such a time as this. With seven years in gospel music, he’s become a heavyweight of the genre, reaching benchmarks that have taken others a lifetime to achieve: Among other accomplishments, he’s a GRAMMY, Dove, and Stellar winner, a bona fide Billboard chart-topper, a two-time gold-selling artist, and a crossover star responsible for the unforgettable, multi-format smash, “I Need You Now.” Smokie Norful Live, the latest chapter in a vertiginous rise to the very zenith of gospel, is the project he was destined to make. It brings together both of his personas–artistic and pastoral–for an in-concert experience that’s also the closest representation of who he is as a singer and minister. “If you catch me on Sunday morning, I sound just like this,” Norful says. “I don’t have a Sunday-morning me and then a concert-night me. It’s all the same person. I dress the same. I sing the same. I preach the same–the Word that you get in between songs is the same you get at church.” With that clear-cut sense of purpose, Norful went on to make Smokie Norful Live, his fourth EMI Gospel outing and first-ever live recording. The disc and accompanying concert DVD serve as a fitting capstone to everything that’s transpired in the most recent season of Norful’s life, a musical reminder of the faithfulness of a God Who sees us through every trial, every tear, and every suffering. Recorded before a crowd of more than 2,000 at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts in Memphis, Tenn., Smokie Norful Live is in many ways a family affair, as many of the onstage musicians and sidemen are fellow worshippers with Norful at Victory Cathedral Worship Center, the church he founded. One of them is project co-producer Jason Tyson, the singer’s longtime music director on the road, as well as a minister of music at Victory, business partner and a trusted brother and friend.
