In the same week, two beautiful, spiritual shows entertained Austinites. The Festival Of Praise Tour (FOP) led by Dallas native Fred Hammond at Frank Erwin Center and The Austin City Limits TV Show Taping of CeCe Winans at the Moody Theater.
For the third consecutive year, Grammy®, Stellar, Dove, BET and NAACP Image Award-winning Gospel Singer Fred Hammond returned to Austin with the Festival of Praise Tour 2016. This years lineup featured Hezekiah Walker, Israel Houghton, Regina Belle, Karen Clark-Sheard and Casey J. View the complete photo gallery on our site Austin 101 Magazine. Watch a video of Fred Hammond here singing “I Will Trust”. You can watch more FOP videos here. The show is incredibly joyous, inspiring and uplifting.
Photo by Scott Newton Cece Winans (Priscilla Marie Winans) is the Best-selling Female Gospel Artist of all time. She came to ACL TV for the first time bringing her own blend of Gospel and R&B Music. We truly felt like we were in Church at the Moody Theater.
The ten-time Grammy Winner sang her latest single -which sounded so much like Whitney and old school gospel” Never Have to Be Alone” which is beautiful and powerful. Dressed in all black looking youthful and gorgeous, she says “I am a woman in love- I grew up in love of Jesus-you want that love full of mercy and grace. I accepted his love. He manages to love me better than any man could”. Her voice is exceptionally clear, strong and powerful.She had a full band including drums, 2 pianos, and brass section which gives her songs incredible broad sound. When she sang songs of peace, she said “Our nation needs peace right now”. The show included gorgeous classics such as “When the Saints Go Marching In” and a medley of “Victory is Mine” and “In the Name of Jesus We Have Victory”. The most famous of the classics is probably her version of the Kris Kristofferson song “Why Me Lord?” (watch here on Youtube).We knew we were in church when CeCe said “Turn to your neighbor tonight just like at church and say hello”. She debuted several of her new songs including“Run to Him,” a love song to Jesus. See the ACL Full photo gallery here.
CeCe is a Detroit native where she and brother, BeBe started in 1982. They were hugely successful with several best-selling gold and platinum albums and top 10 single “Count on Me” -a duet with close friend Whitney Houston. She said her ‘goal is to bring you encouragement, joy and love.…In life we face challenges… music helps pull me through’. CeCe hails from the religious, legendary Winans family including nine siblings.The family performed as The Winans, recording such songs as “Ain’t No Need to Worry” featuring Anita Baker. Read this interesting article on the Winans family history WashPost including the recent musical, Born For This in Washington D.C.
Her first album in 9 years Let Them Fall In Love releases in early 2017 and we can’t wait!
