The year was 1997, and to all appearances, the album Love Is An Action Word looked like the last project for Detroit’s highly acclaimed contemporay female group, Witness.

Under the direction of founder and producer Michael Brooks, Witness had been one of the pioneers in the world of contemporary female gospel ensembles, known for their signature close harmonies and musically accessible and deeply scriptural songs.

They had put out a string of albums starting with Keep Looking Up in 1987, and along the way had not only had chart success but had garnered multiple nominations and awards, from Grammy to Dove to GMWA Excellence to Stellar.

Prior to that 1997 album, Lisa Page Brooks, the group’s lead singer and lone remaining original member had embarked on a solo career. She had recently married Michael Brooks and so it seemed that a chapter was closing and an era was coming to an end. Not long later, as if to cement that consensus, the group’s longtime label CGI Records closed its doors.

But as Page Brooks says, “there were letters and phone calls”. People were constantly asking about Witness, and whether they would be coming back.

An Appointed Time

“Clap Your Hands” is a joyous praise, and is a great example of how subtle vocal pronunciations can be worked to maximum effect. Listen to how Witness sings the words “hands”, “stand” and “do” and get tutored! Songwriter credits are shared by.... See full review.

“I’ve been pastoring for six years now with my husband at Restoration Fellowship Church in Detroit. I don’t take anything for granted when doors open, and we’re just really exciting about the comeback. We just appreciate everyone who has supported.”

“The topic of coming back as a group always came up, even in my solo ministry.” Indeed, Page Brooks says that audience requests for Witness songs were a regular part of her concert and ministry experiences. Things came together gradually, and in early 2003, as Page Brooks puts it, “Michael said to me that he was thinking about putting Witness back together.”

She explains that next step was quite simple. “I just met with the girls to see where everybody was at.”

And so we fast-forward to September 2003 to find ourselves on the cusp of a brand new album from Witness. Now on the roster of the growing and respected church-based label out of Boston, Axiom Records, Witness is poised to shower the nation with their patented sounds once again on this new album that is appropriately enough titled An Appointed Time.

It’s a fair question to ask who Witness is this time out. After all, even with the amazing consistency of the sound that the group has maintained over their existence, the actual membership has changed frequently over the years. But as Page Brooks says, “the music is

Witness Discography

Since 1987, Witness has brought album after album and song after song to the Gospel nation. Check the group's complete discography, complete with personnel, CD covers, dates and notes. See Witness Discography. See Witness - Commissioned Connection.

really my husband’s —Michael Brook’s sound. Usually I get creative in the studio, and so we just collaborate with vocal arrangements. But he’s behind the whole sound of Witness."

On An Appointed Time, Witness is comprised of Page Brooks, Lou Stewart, Laeh Jones and Natasha Page.

As Page Brooks explains, “Lou Stewart, she was in the group for the albums Standard, He Can Do the Impossible, and Song in the Night. Lately she’s been busy at her church, at her local ministry, but she jumped in like it was yesterday, so it’s just as it was before. Just locked in!"

“And Natasha Page, she’s my daughter and is the youngest, at 20 year’s old. She’s very excited about being involved, and she’s very familiar with the past history of Witness. We just saw her passion for singing and her voice is very mature for her age. She sang on my first solo project.

Laeh Jones (née Laeh Page —she’s now married to Detroit vocalist Stan Jones) is also no stranger to Witness, having sung with the group on several prior projects as well. She’s also Lisa Page Brooks’ sister.

“Putting my sister in the group, you know she’s family of course, and we used to sing together when we were a lot younger.” Needless to say, it’s hard to get much tighter than sisterly harmonies.

Not that there aren’t any challenges to having family members together in one group. Especially regarding Natasha, Page Brooks sees it as more of an opportunity than a potential problem.

“Well with Natasha, I really want to not ‘mother’ her, and just allow her to be creative. I want to allow her to really grow in what she does, and to just enjoy her music ministry. Of course, I’ll always be ‘Mom’, but I want to be careful to let her be who she is. And it’s really not difficult. So far, so good, and she does know quite a bit since I’ve been doing this myself since the 1980s, and so she knows the industry [by simply being with me over that time]. I just don’t want to stand in her way.”

Page Brooks went to outline some of the other challenges in the Witness reunification project. “Really, the greatest challenge is just staying focused and putting our agendas aside. It’s hard to leave stuff where it is, to minister and to get together with the same mind. You need to constantly stay tuned to the ministry. As women especially, we need to put everything else in the background and take care not to be consumed with self.”

“If we can just remain that way, we can continue to accomplish what God has purposed us to do as a group.”

Turning to the new album, anyone who listens who has any knowledge of Witness, will instantly recognize that the group went back to remake perhaps one of their most noted songs. The piece is “Standard”.

“I love the remake” says Page Brooks. “We added a little twist to it, made it a little different than the original, but it has the same feel, just maybe a little more drive, a little more push. No matter what we do, no matter where we go, somebody always asks us to sing that song. We won a Stellar for it, so on top of everything else, it’s very sentimental for us, in the overall history of the group. The song has also been a blessing to us as well, the words are so encouraging. So we said to ourselves, so many have been blessed by it throughout the various countries, and God has used it to minister to the masses, so what better song for a comeback than “Standard”?

Known for the very clear doctrine expressed in their songs, there continues to be no shortage of that strength on An Appointed Time. Songs such as “Secret Place” and “The Word” are steeped in scripture. Perhaps that’s the secret to the longevity of Witness?

Page Brooks agrees. “Like I say to my husband Michael, the songs are biblical. The Word of God is powerful, whether you are speaking or singing it. And if I am singing what God’s Word says, then that’s encouraging. That ‘s the answer to our success right there.”