Turn to your neighbor and say, “Chicago has great Gospel choirs”.

It’s hard to fathom that one city can have so much zing when it comes to great traditional recording choirs, but such is the case. There’s more of those in the Windy City than you can count on all your fingers.

Now on that list is this project from Steve Jones, who directs The Praise Tabernacle Choir on this national release courtesy of Uptown Gospel Records.

Recorded live at the Praise Tabernacle Deliverance Baptist Church, “God’s Got A Blessing For You” has noted producer Percy Gray in charge and brother Jeral Gray holding down the fort as musical director. So of course, quality is strong.

Off the bat, cuts such as “Halleluiah We Praise Your Name”, “Jesus Promised” and “God’s Got a Blessing For You” make an impression with their comfortable church beats and easy choir arrangements.

Cuts bound for replay include Tony Tidwell’s song, “You Can Make It”, which brings in Pastor Jones and his wife Lady Beverly Jones on trading leads. With Jones’ encouraging narration at the beginning and woven throughout, it’s slowly unfolding beaut with a tender message.

“I Found A Friend” is also a treat. The most contemporary song on this project, Summer Anderson drives some resonant alto vocals on top of rhythmic keyboard grooves. The live remix is a tasty recombination featuring up front bass and guitar with choir patterning a mix of partial phrases from the original (“There is no other one, one, one…”).

With the experience of such stalwarts as Joey Woolfalk (guitar), Jeral Gray (keyboard) and others, band work is consistently tight, gelling the entire 11-track project.

So turn to your other neighbor and say, “This CD is worthy”.