Mountain High...Valley Low (CD - 1999)

Personnel includes: Yolanda Adams, Kelly Price (vocals); Ron Huff (conductor); Warryn "Smiley" Campbell, Buster, Shavoni, Kevin Bond, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis (various instruments); Bruce Gaitsch (acoustic guitar); Dave Forman, Mike Scott (guitar); Ricky Grundy, The Nashville String Machine (strings); Tim Carmon (piano); Keith Thomas (keyboards, bass, drum, programming); Stokely (drums, percussion); Jeremy Haynes (drums); Mark Hammond (drum programming); Mary Mary, Victoria Purcell, Vanessa Williams, Raymond Reeder, Richard Smallwood, Vision, Debbie Wynans, Marva King (background vocals); Bryant Pugh, Darrin Atwater, Anthony Lyons, Mark Walker, Roger Ryan.

Producers include: Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Richard Smallwood, Fred Hammond, Warren Campbell.

Engineers include: Anthony "A.J." Jeffries, Buster, Shavoni.

MOUNTAIN HIGH...VALLEY LOW won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album.

Yolanda Adams is too beautiful and talented to have escaped the bickerings of some narrow-minded people within the gospel community. She has been criticized in the past both for her manner of dress (more glamorous than seductive) and for her "secular" music (which focuses on faith-driven lyrics while branching out into R&B and pop styles). With the release of Mountain High. . .Valley Low, her first album on a major, mainstream record label, it would seem that she has provided her attackers with their most potent ammunition ever. The album has been heavily promoted by Elektra Records, and has world-class producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, and Keith Thomas stretching Adams' musical boundaries further than ever. While at times they take her in strange directions (the hip-hop flavor on "Time to Change" sounds like a lost track from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill), each song, taken independently, works. The album is incredibly varied and makes use of a full grab-bag of effects, from heavy over-dubbing (on some tracks Adams is singing up to three layers of vocals at the same time, while backup vocalists add even more textures) to swelling pop-orchestra string lines to funky electronic effects. The bottom line, though, for critics and fans alike, is the message. Before they crank up their pitching arms the stone throwers should take note: this is an incredibly inspirational album in which every song focuses on spreading the message of Jesus. Adams just gets to have a lot of fun along the way. In a time when most gospel albums don't make a dent in music sales outside of the Christian community, an artist with Adams' kind of appeal is a blessing, not a curse. ~ Stacia Proefrock

'90s gospel phenomenon Adams' major-label debut is about as high-gloss as it gets--the great production team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis is all over it--and if you weren't paying careful attention, you might not even notice that it was religiously themed; the opening "Time to Change," for example, with its lyrics about "a woman from down the streetàtryin' to get the attention of a married man" sounds more like hip-hop social realism than a paean to the Lord.

It's not long before the listener gets the message, though; by the time "That Name" comes up, a massive production number that goes from a placid piano/strings intro to a mass choir blow-out with Adams' sultry alto soaring serenely above the din, you know there's some serious testifying going on here. The bottom line is that while the album's mix of gospel, hip-hop, and soul is designed for maximum cross-over appeal, it undeniably works, and has the capacity to strike even the secular as uplifting; in fact, you'd have to be pretty cold not to be moved by "The Things We Do," a hymn of praise complete with samples from JFK's inaugural address and Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. minimize