Stephanie Mills kicks it with LSR and talks about Church, a compilation of inspirational and gospel songs performed by R&B/Soul legends.

Sometimes we fall to the wayside. Who hasn’t looked up and realized it’s been a minute since they’ve been to church? Busy at work, busy with the kids, or just plain busy, but eventually you find your way back. Well, soul music has done the same, found its way back to the foundation, which spawned the careers of many, if not most, R&B/Soul artists past and present. Church, a CD featuring Jennifer Holliday, Patti Austin, Patti LaBelle, Shirley Caesar and other sisters in song, brings our music back home. Stephanie Mills glows as she speaks about the project. “I love all the women that participated,” she gushes. “It’s not a lot of times when we can get together and sing like this.”

Originally unable to participate as she tended to her ill mother, Stephanie decided to tackle the project after her mom passed. “I found it very healing. Women have power,” Stephanie says excitedly. “A project with women expressing our feelings and being positive is so necessary, especially where we are in the world right now.”

World issues like war, recession and crime have us seeking refuge in music, but the truth is the music industry is in need of inspiration as well. As the industry fights slumping record sales and piracy issues, Church is a bold move away from today’s top-selling tunes influenced by hip-hop. When rules #1 through 10 in the industry are sell records (and by the way we mean sell millions), it’s no small feat to launch a gospel/inspirational album against more video worthy tracks. It is indeed David versus Goliath. So the cycle goes, videos sell music and if you’re face isn’t up in the place at 106th and Park or TRL – how will you sell records?

Understand, Church isn’t just a feel good piece uninterested in selling, but it is a stirring reminder of where our music has come from and where it should begin heading if we’re to sustain a healthy and diverse music business. “I think that our industry is in a slump and things have to change to get back to real music,” Stephanie says pointedly. “And I definitely think we should acknowledge our spiritual background because we all come from the church.”

That’s right, before many of today’s artists made the play lists they were probably nurtured by a church family’s hollers of ‘sing it,’ and ‘go head.’ We know it. Church is often our first taste of songs packed with feeling and emotion; the first time we get that solo and the standing O, the fuel that powers black folks’ life-long affair with music. Church, the CD, blurs the line between gospel and inspirational offering a mix designed to feed the soul. From Stephanie’s stirring rendition of “Reach Out And Touch,” to the power packed “His Eye Is On The Sparrow,” by Shirley Caesar, the project goes far and wide to arouse senses usually untouched by commercial tracks.

Yet, the status of commercial success is the Holy Grail for any form of entertainment, that’s why Church taps into the star power of artists like Mills, LaBelle, Chaka Kahn and Ann Nesby. There’s a diva for every generation on the project and enough talent to shame listeners that may snub it in favor of the bootylicious flavor of the month. Simply done, Church is without pretense, glitz or glitter, which is why it shines. “Less is more,” Stephanie points out. “We got the review in People magazine and I never thought they’d say it was good because it was so simply done, but that was the observation.”

As it says ‘thank you’ to the home that continues to incubate black talent, Church also foreshadows a silent uprising among listeners. The reality is that more and more grown folk music is being played on the radio, creeping from the Midnight Love hour to prime time. An album like Church would have never made it past the suits at the label if they did not believe listeners were ready to embrace it. “With the Internet I think people will have more power over what they hear,” Stephanie predicts. She adds for emphasis, “When Sting and other prominent artists from the past and Norah Jones swept music award shows this year, I think it was a shock to younger artists. I believe the consumer is calling the shots now.”