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Damita Haddon

Q and A with Damita Haddon | (Questions by Lin. Woods. Answers from Damita Haddon)

By Lin. Woods

Damita Haddon has been on the gospel recording scene for over a decade. Although many know her from her Stellar Award winning work with the Voices of Unity and from singing with her husband, Deitrick Haddon, she is a force to be reckoned with and highly respected in gospel. I recently talked with her about her latest CD, No Looking Back (Tyscot). This is what she shared.

Lin: Your parents were both in ministry. Were they strict on you?
Damita: My parents were both preachers and pastors. Gospel was all I remember hearing in the house, from James Cleveland and Shirley Caesar to the O'Neal Twins. We were a musical family; and it was just church and music. I remember running around the house picking up records, brushes and combs and singing into them when my mom would play a record.

Lin: Who did you listen to that has influenced your musical style?
Damita: The Clark Sisters, Rance Allen, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Sting, Celine Dion, Cold Play and The Winans.

Lin: How did you meet your husband Deitrick and end up singing with the Voices of Unity Choir, which earned you a Stellar Award in 2006?
Damita: We were introduced to each other by a mutual friend in high school. During my senior year in high school I started going over to his church. We started singing together in the choir and traveling together. We've been married for twelve years now.

Lin: When did you get your professional break as an artist?
Damita: In the 1990s my twin sister Margarita and I formed Adoration and Praise; an all girl a cappella group. We were invited to sing at the president of TM Records' birthday party. We didn't even know this guy had a record label. Immediately after we sang, he asked us if we were interested in signing a deal and recording on his label. And within a couple of months we were in the studio. Our first release was Time Is Running Out.

Lin: Besides singing with Voices of Unity, who else have you sung with and what else have you done?
Damita: I went on the road with Rance Allen and The Clark Sisters. I also performed in a lot of plays. Aretha Franklin heard me sing at one of them and asked me to become one of her singers. So I traveled with the “Queen of Soul” as a background singer.

Lin: No Looking Back is your second solo project, the first was on Atlantic. Who worked with you on this one?
Damita: My brother-in-law Gerald Haddon and I produced the majority of this record. My entire career I've been used to working with my husband. We write and produce everything together, but this time around I had to do it on my own. It was very scary for me. So I called Gerald in Los Angeles and I went to work with him in L.A. for about three months. I wrote the majority of the record along with him and his wife Tammi.

Lin: Can you describe the music on it?
Damita: It's universal and youthful. I think that our young people really need this right now. We really need to get their attention. They are faced with so much temptation and if we don't do something that makes them feel special, that moves and motivates them, somebody else will. And I'm hoping No Looking Back will bring a fresh innovative new sound to Gospel and set a tone and a foundation for Urban Contemporary sounds and uplift souls. I want to be one of the etching stones paving the way for the next generation that may be even a little bit more outrageous than me!



Urban Inspired: We Heard
Condolences…

Rev. Timothy Wright survived a head on car collision this summer but lost his wife and co-pastor, Betty J. Wright and grandson, Daniel (DJ) Wright, Jr. in the fatal accident. Rev. Wright is recovering but at press time did not know that his wife and grandson were killed in the crash. We are saddened by Rev. Wright's loss and praying for his continued recovery.

The Mighty Clouds of Joy group member, Michael Cook recently passed away.

UN sympathies to both families and friends.

Congratulations

Marvin Sapp's chart topping CD Thirsty, featuring the crossover hit “Never Would Have Made It” has been certified gold by the RIAA.

Verity Recording artist and pastor of Love Fellowship Tabernacle Church, Hezekiah Walker is being ordained as a Bishop. The consecration service will take place at the 89th Holy Convocation of the Churches of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith, August 3rd, 10:30a.m. at the George World Congress Center in Atlanta.

Live Recordings, Concerts and More…
Donald Lawrence recorded his live CD/DVD Law of Confession on July 30th at Living Word Christian Center in Chicago. This fall Lawrence will headline national concert tour sponsored by Verzion.

Gospel Music Workshop of America annual convention will take place August 9-15 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, TN. For information go to www.gmwa.com

Micah Stampley will record Ransomed, his third CD and DVD live in Atlanta at The Greater Travelers Rest Baptist Church, 7p.m. on Friday, August 15th.

Israel & New Breed will present Deeper Level '08 Worship Conference and Live Recording September 4-6, 2008 at Grace Church in Humble, TX. For registration information to go www.adeeperlevel.com
Judah Music's Judith McAllister will record her next live CD/DVD in her hometown, New York on August 8th at The Greater Allen AME Cathedral.

Verity Recording artist and pastor of Perfecting Faith Church, Donnie McClurkin, will host the inter-faith event The New York Call, Saturday, August 23 in Eisenhower Park, Hempstead Turnpike, East Meadow, Long Island, NY. Musical guests will include Darwin Hobbs, Damita Haddon, Regina Belle and Jason Champion.

The Allstate Gospel Superfest will take place November 1st at the Civic Center in Atlanta. It will feature 25 of gospel's top and up and coming artists. For information log on to www.gospelsuperfest.com


New Releases

Damita – No Looking Back (Tyscot)
21:03 – Total Attention (PAJAM/Zomba Gospel)
Dooney 'Da Priest' – Pull Your Pants Up (Malaco Music Group)
Endurance – I've Got A Home (Ind.)
Wanda Nero Butler – No Failure (Motor City Praise)

And that's what we heard in Gospel!

Urban Inspired: Editors Notes
Lin. Woods
Lin. Woods

Politics
The summer is heating us all up and the political scene is on fire. I am so excited to see so many unlikely people from all age groups, races and sexes engaged in politics. I truly believe this is in part due to presumptive democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and his race for the presidency. The young people see him as someone who understands where they’re coming from and isn’t caught up in the ways of the old establishment or the status quo. Also, the fact that he listens to Jay-Z just sweetens the pie for them. I personally like some of his theme songs I’ve heard at his rallies like Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered.” The middle aged and older adults who support Obama see him as a breath of fresh air and someone who has come up through the ranks of the “have little” to the “have-some-and-maybe-more.” Obama is the product of a white single mother and an African father. His mother had challenges with affordable healthcare so he understands the need to make healthcare affordable to the masses. His Mid-western grandparents also worked hard to help raise him.

Single parent homes and affordable healthcare are still huge challenges that millions in America face today and only snippets of what’s lacking in our great but flawed system. Some, like me, see Obama as a representative of a changing America, a recipient of the fruits of the hard work and sacrifice of the civil rights fighters, and the embodiment of part of the dream the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had for black, white, brown, red and yellow children, to have the opportunity to be all they aspire to be.

I am looking forward to witnessing history in my lifetime. Borrowing from the lyrics of a Sam Cooke song, “I know a change is gonna come.” And that change will be a fresh, undaunted face and different approach to politics in the White House come January 2009. I believe that face will be Barack Obama. And if you want to see a change, become engaged in this history making presidential race and most of all go out and vote in November.

On an Inspired Note…
Times are tough for so many of us today. We are fighting battle after battle just trying to maintain. You may be walking through the “fire” in your life. And even though it may seem like there is no light at the end of the tunnel, don’t even believe that! With belief in God and yourself and His plan for good things to come in your life, there is always a light. God is the light that guides you through the turbulent times and carries you when you don’t even know how you are going to make it. God is the light that gets you through your unemployment phase when you don’t know how you can pay all those bills that seem to show up everyday. God is the light that helped the hospital bill get paid when you had to be rushed to the emergency room and you didn’t have any insurance. God is the light that literally helped you find a way to keep the lights on when your funds were exhausted. And God is the light that kept a roof over your head when you lost your home due to the foreclosure/mortgage crisis or couldn’t pay your rent. So there is always a light in the distance for those who believe in the power of God. If you are going “through” your personal “process,” take this scripture from the 23 Psalm along with you for comfort:

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me: thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
Psalm 23:4 (King James Version)

Stay Inspired!

Lin. Woods
Gospel Dept. Head/Sr. Gospel Editor
Urban Inspired/Urban Network Group
lwoods@urbannetwork.com or lfwoods@aol.com

 

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Lin. Woods

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Lin. Woods, Urban Inspired Dept Head/Sr. Gospel Editor e-mail: lwoods@urbannetwork.com or LFWoods@aol.com

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Stay Inspired!
Lin. Woods
Gospel Dept. Head/Urban Inspired Senior Editor
lwoods@urbannetwork.com

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