NW Arkansas choir debuts album at Wal-Mart
Posted on Saturday, October 4, 2008
The choir stood in the men’s section, near the No Boundaries pants rack and the Faded Glory shirts, and began to sing.
The music rolled down the frozen food aisle and poured over the produce section, seeping into the deli section and past the doughnut display.
Shoppers stopped and stared.
“All over this place, come on and glorify Him. Magnify Him. He’s worthy,” Arkansas Gospel Mass Choir founder Charles E. Moore told startled shoppers Saturday at the North Little Rock Wal-Mart.
Soon, 100 people had gathered.
“It’s all right to lift your hands. Even in Wal-Mart,” one of the vocalists said, and the crowd responded.
Near the Hidden Valley Ranch dressing shelf, a woman waved her hands heavenward. Soon, others were worshipping, too.
“Oh God, you’re the King of Glory, the Lord Strong and Mighty,” the choir sang, as customers nodded their heads and tapped their feet.
Monique Monanu, 30, held her baby, 5-month-old Deonna, and enjoyed every number.
The new mother had come to Wal-Mart to buy diapers, but the songs had stopped her in her tracks.
“It’s wonderful. I mean, it sounds really good,” she said. “It’s very energetic music.”
Wyoma Metcalf, 46, also drifted toward the men’s section to get a closer look.
“It was awesome. It was very, very inspiring... I could feel the Spirit,” she said afterward. “You can tell that they put a lot of work into it.”
The music continued for nearly 45 minutes, as about 30 choir members performed the songs on their debut CD, Hold on for Life.
As the concert ended, the audience applauded before shuffling off with their shopping carts. A few dozen stayed around to buy CDs, and get autographs.
“Fantastic. Fantastic. It was just fantastic,” said Winston Donahue, a 62-year-old North Little Rock man who saw the show.
A nearby display case held 200 copies of the group’s CD. “I’d much rather have too many than not enough,” explained Mike Giesler of Anderson Merchandisers, a company that helped get the album onto Wal-Mart’s shelves.
Although the music got rave reviews, some shoppers said they were surprised to encounter the choir in a Wal-Mart Supercenter.
The men’s section, after all, isn’t exactly Carnegie Hall.
“The interesting thing is, a lot of the choir members actually work for Wal-Mart, so it’s a good tie-in,” said choir member Jeff Fleming. The 32-year-old Lowell man works in the retailer’s innovations division.
Moore, the choir’s director, is a regional human resources manager in the company’s transportation division. A former lead singer with the Georgia Mass Choir, Moore had appeared with that group on Good Morning America and Saturday Night Live. He once sang with Whitney Houston.
He moved to Northwest Arkansas in 2004.
“I came here because of Wal-Mart,” he says. But he missed the mass choir so he started his own.
Most choir members live near the Interstate 540 corridor, but people from Little Rock and Jonesboro (among other places ) have also joined up.
The choir has 130 members when everyone is able to make it.
Hold on for Life was recorded live at Valley Harvest Ministries in Bentonville in February. It hit the shelves Sept. 23. The choir celebrated the release by performing a mini-concert at a Wal-Mart in Fayetteville.
The group’s first single, “I Lift My Hands,” is one of the top 20 gospel songs in the nation, on the Radio & Records charts.
Moore visited Richmond, Va., about a month ago and says he heard the single at least twice a day on the radio while he was there.
“It’s almost like a dream,” he said of the song’s success.
“I Lift My Hands” was written by Natasha Brown, a secretary in the track and field department at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
The song is gaining popularity on the airwaves and in the choir lofts, Moore said.
“We think that we made a perfect choice by performing that song. It’s simple, easy to learn and yet powerful.”
Brown, 28, says she created the song while driving along Wedington Drive in Fayetteville. “Usually when I write gospel songs, I’m in the middle of worshipping, just praying and singing and communing with God, and that’s how this song just came to me.”
The melody that was born in Brown’s red Chevy Cavalier is now playing on radio stations from coast to coast. Brown is the lead vocalist on the single.
This is her first nationwide hit.
“The first time I heard the song on the radio, I don’t think I took a breath until the end. Then I just started crying,” she said. “I didn’t believe it was my voice going out all over the nation like that.”
Now that the song is popular, record industry people want to know if Brown has other songs. And she does.
“I’m just plain old me and I’ve got all these people calling. It’s unbelievable and amazing and I’m so grateful,” she said.
Brown predicts the Arkansas Gospel Mass Choir won’t be a one-hit wonder.
“This sound that’s coming out of Arkansas is top-notch,” she said.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
![[NWA Churches]](http://www.nwanews.com/Advertising/Buttons/cusunday.gif)