David Smallwood Well Meet Again Lyrics

Richard Smallwood, 66, at his abode in Bowie, Md. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Gospel singer Richard Smallwood has just deplaned from the US Airways first-class motel. He stops to have a few quick photographs with star-struck flight attendants and passengers, and then hurries through the aerodrome to a car and driver waiting to rush him off to prepare for the evening'due south concert.

When Smallwood and his group, Vision, strutted onto the stage that night at Oakwood University in Huntsville, hundreds of fans, already out of their seats in apprehension, whip out their cellphones and brainstorm video recording, as if choreographed. Tiny white lights shine from the flooring like dancing fireflies. Fans are sitting on the floor and balustrade, and standing along the walls and in the aisles.

During the 40-minute set, fans of the multi-Grammy-nominated author, singer and pianist stand and sing along with every vocal, many with a paw raised in praise to God. Smallwood is center stage, in front end of 11 of his singers in evening dresses and suits, revving the audience with mini-sermons before each number.

"He'south worthy of the glory, he's worthy of the honor, every time I call back of the goodness of Jesus and allllll he's washed for me," Smallwood exclaims as the audience thank you. "Allow everything that has breath praise the Lord." And with that, Smallwood's grouping breaks into the upwardly-tempo "Lift Him Up."

Ushers walk the aisles trying to get audience members to take a seat so people behind them can meet. When the group performs Smallwood's newest recording, "Same God," the crowd's applause forces the singers to extend the song five times.

Wiping tears from her face up, 22-twelvemonth-onetime Oakwood pupil Jodel Bernard, from Grenada, says she has never stood during a gospel concert before. "I picture angels singing around the throne when he sings," she says.

Smallwood's concerts are part performance and part revival. Generations follow the 66-twelvemonth-one-time vocalist. He travels the globe with his music, but Washington has been his domicile since he was 10.

Richard Smallwood, one of the most successful gospel singers in America, performs at the National City Christian Church in Washington, D.C. (STORY: Millions of gospel fans know Richard Smallwood's music. Merely not his struggles./The Washington Post)

After 40 years in the industry, Smallwood has done what no other gospel creative person arguably has done every bit successfully: blend gospel with classical music.

Congregations have translated his songs into Korean, German, Hebrew and other languages. He has eight Grammy nominations and within the gospel music industry has won 4 Dove Awards and 10 Stellars. Three of his xiv albums striking No. ane in Billboard magazine's gospel category.

He has sung for presidents Nixon, Reagan and Clinton. One of his songs was requested for the funeral of a child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Uncomplicated School shootings. His songs have been recorded by non-gospel artists such as Destiny's Child, and his music helped Whitney Houston deliver one of the biggest-selling gospel albums in history for the 1996 film "The Preacher'south Married woman."

Terminal August, 2,000 people, many of whom waited in line for hours, crowded into Evangel Cathedral in Upper Marlboro, Md., as Smallwood and Vision recorded his 15th album, "Album Live," which was released last month and was the No. 1 album on iTunes' gospel list.

[Whitney Houston, Destiny's Child and Chaka Khan among many to cover Richard Smallwood's gospel chart-toppers]

It has been an incredible journey, a life of worship and praise. What few know is that the journeying has been taken while Smallwood staged a private battle: that he is a man who has fought depression and thoughts of suicide. Who has had entire years when he could non write a lyric. Who has establish himself asking God: "Where is the healing in my life?"

Ironically, he credits his pain for helping him to write some of the very songs that inspire around the world.

"Songs of pain terminal," Smallwood says. "They make a difference. My prayer has always been, 'Requite me songs that last.' I want my songs to last subsequently I'yard gone."

Smallwood meets with members of Vision, the group he has been performing and recording with for two decades. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

It's a wintry January evening in Prince George's Canton, Md., and Smallwood has ordered Papa John'south pizza. Within his five-bedroom, four-bath home in Bowie, 12 members of his 20-voice Vision accept gathered to tape overdubs on songs they recorded during the concert in August for "Album." Smallwood wants to make sure the sound is fuller.

He has turned his basement into a makeshift sound studio. To the side are two Nautilus machines. He and the singers first go through a vocal warm-up of aaahs, eees and ooohs. Smallwood, a baritone, stands with two tenors; the altos are to his left, sopranos to his right. His viii-year-old Yorkie, Mozart, is darting around the singers' feet, barking, to Smallwood'due south chagrin.

Smallwood has handpicked his singers, most of whom have been with him for 20 years. An but child and never married, he calls the group his "family," and many of them refer to him as "Uncle Rich" or "Papa Rich."

The producer takes the singers through "Holy Spirit," from 1989. Smallwood, easily in his pockets and optics airtight, faces the microphone.

"We gotta start that high?" he asks.

"All your songs are loftier," one soprano snaps back. "You wrote this."

"I know, but I was younger and then," Smallwood laughs, shaking his head and grasping his throat.

As the group begins singing, Smallwood listens. "No, no, sopranos. Become over that again. At that place'due south a outset and 2d soprano part there that I need to hear," he says.

Mozart starts yelping again. The louder the group sings, the louder Mozart yelps. Smallwood scoops him up and carries him out.

"Nosotros are a family because of Richard and have been for xx years or more," says singer Debbie Steele. "He is a true representative of Christ."

"His ear is magnificent," says Vanessa Williams, a former D.C. art teacher who started singing with Smallwood in 1993, two years earlier he started Vision.

The ensemble begins the "Amen" ending to one of Smallwood's most popular songs, 1996's"Total Praise." He wrote information technology when his mother had begun struggling with dementia and a family friend was dying of cancer, leaving Smallwood to serve as a caregiver at times for both.

The song came in a dream, Smallwood says, which is why he now keeps an sound recorder next to his bed.

"I felt left by God," he says. "I was trying to write a pity-party vocal, but God pulled me to do a praise song. God said, 'I want your praise no matter what the state of affairs you are in, good or bad.' It's near trusting him."

Lord, I will lift mine eyes to the hills

Knowing my help is coming from Yous

Your peace Y'all give me in time of the storm

Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington in "The Preacher's Wife." Smallwood's "I Love the Lord" was on the movie's soundtrack. (Touchstone Pictures / ABC)

Smallwood was born in Atlanta and moved to Washington as a kid with his mother, Mabel, and his stepfather, the Rev. Chester L. Smallwood, a strict, Bible-enforcing preacher and founder of Union Temple Baptist Church in Southeast. (For more 30 years, Smallwood has been a member of Metropolitan Baptist Church in Northwest Washington, where he has served as musician and choir director.)

While Richard was growing upwards, his female parent listened to music all the time, mostly classical and church songs, simply also jazz artists such as Ella Fitzgerald when her husband was out of the house. She would find Richard humming to hymns from the crib.

By the fourth dimension he was 7, he was taking music lessons and continued until he was 15. Simply young Richard had a hush-hush: He could play just past ear. He couldn't read music. He'd have each teacher play a vocal, then he'd memorize the chords and play the vocal back to his teacher's delight. "I was used to getting over on my teachers," he admits.

He formed his first gospel group when he was 11, fabricated up of kids from his Northeast Washington neighborhood. When he was in eighth grade at Browne Inferior High, he had a fresh-out-of-Howard University music major every bit his teacher: Roberta Flack.

He went on to McKinley Technology High Schoolhouse in Northeast, where he auditioned for a music program at Howard. The teacher quickly figured out that Richard could not read music just agreed to admit him if he'd larn.

Smallwood after majored in classical pianoforte with a minor in voice at Howard, beginning in 1967. He was mentored by a talented music major named Donny Hathaway. Hathaway showed him how to play a jazzy version of the hymn "Zip but the Claret," Smallwood recalls. "He told me to play and sing what you experience — it's all God'south music."

Smallwood helped grade Howard's gospel choir, and sitting in a basement practise room in the fine arts department, he penned what became some other of his biggest hits, "I Honey the Lord."

He graduated in 1971 and with his ensemble put out viii albums between 1982 and 1996. The commencement, "The Richard Smallwood Singers," spent more than fourscore weeks on the Billboard gospel chart, driven largely by "I Honey the Lord."

And then, more than a decade afterwards, Smallwood's first hitting became a hit once more with a new generation, thanks to one of the well-nigh successful singers of all time.

Whitney Houston grew up singing "I Beloved the Lord" in her church building in New Jersey, and when she starred in "The Preacher'due south Wife," she wanted it on the soundtrack.

"It was one of her favorites," says composer Mervyn Warren, the five-time Grammy winner who put together the picture show's music. "For me it was a no-brainer. Anybody loves the song."

The vocal helped "The Preacher's Married woman" to become the all-time-selling gospel soundtrack anthology of all time, with more than five million copies sold worldwide, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

I love the Lord

He heard my cry

And pitied every groan

Long as I alive, and troubles rising

I hasten to His throne

Smallwood performing on Mother's 24-hour interval at First Baptist Church building of Glenarden in Upper Marlboro, Md. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

In the late 1990s, Smallwood plant himself having difficulty getting out of bed. He wouldn't bathe. Wouldn't shave. Couldn't write music. He'd be solitary, sobbing, not wanting to leave his house. He thought almost means to kill himself.

"I had no desire to live," he says. "I was consumed with suicide most of the solar day."

In 2002, he was finally diagnosed with clinical depression. "I had no idea. I just idea I was unhappy a lot," he says. "It was debilitating. I knew Jesus probably longer than some folks take, and I suffered. Information technology'south an illness, like cancer, or diabetes. You can't just say, 'Pray about it.' Yous gotta get help."

He somewhen started medication and was able to perform, but one time the concert was over, he would retreat to his bedroom.

[Behind Richard Smallwood's Billboard-charting music was a struggle with low]

"I felt like a fraud. I would become upwardly and talk about Jesus being the center of my joy, but as before long equally I got offstage, I would get into a dark hole," he says.

Smallwood's depression worsened when his mother suffered a astringent stroke and several close friends died. He went to his psychiatrist, who was too a minister, ii to three times a week. The psychiatrist would remind him of the ability of God, and church folks encouraged him to pray.

"Most people in the Bible all had issues. They were flawed, but God gave them grace to go through," says Smallwood.

When in 2003, Smallwood couldn't finish his album "Promises," Joseph Burney, head of artists and repertoire for Smallwood'south label, Verity Gospel Music Grouping, flew to Washington, and the two had dinner at a Cheesecake Factory. Burney remembers how much pain he saw in his friend.

"I completely grew up on his music. When he said to me, 'Aid,' I could assist," Burney says. To permit Smallwood time to recover, the characterization, now chosen RCA Inspiration, released a all-time-of album, "Praise & Worship Songs of Richard Smallwood."

For more than than a decade, Smallwood wrestled with depression. Then one dark in 2010, he had a dream: He was walking downwards a street with his stepfather — odd, as they were estranged early in Smallwood's life — and heard music coming from a huge building. They saturday together listening, and then as they walked away, Smallwood'due south stepfather offered to carry him.

When Smallwood woke upwardly, he broke down in tears. The dream erased the hurting of his human relationship, he says, and cured him of his depression. "At that point, I never had to have some other pill," he says. "It was God'southward way of healing me of some of the things I was dealing with."

"Promises" was issued in 2011. He says the music he heard in the dream gave him a missing instrumental line for "Sow in Tears."

Tears are for cleansing, stress and relief

Created by God just to give united states of america release

They're not in vain, for shortly will come peace

If yous sow in tears you'll reap in joy

A woman moved past the music at the Mother's Day concert. Smallwood's songs also transcend faiths; a Jewish choir has performed "Full Praise" to much acclaim. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

Some of the greatest hymns take come from sorrow, for sorrow is universal. Thomas Dorsey wrote "Precious Lord, Take My Paw" in 1932 after his wife and kid died. Horatio Spafford wrote the hymn "Information technology Is Well With My Soul" subsequently his 4 daughters died in a shipwreck in 1873. John Newton, a onetime slave ship captain, wrote the outset lines of "Amazing Grace" in the mid-1700s following a stormy journeying on a ship.

Before vi-year-old Ana Grace Márquez-Greene was fatally shot along with 19 classmates and vi adults on Dec. fourteen, 2012, at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, she loved singing and dancing to gospel music.

"Ana loved big, rich gospel choirs. Ana loved good music. Ana loved Jesus," says her female parent, Nelba Márquez-Greene. "We did not get a graduation. Nosotros did not become a wedding. Nosotros did not go to meet her encounter milestones. All nosotros had was this funeral."

She asked that "Total Praise" be performed at it.

Ana's father, Jimmy Greene, a jazz saxophonist, remembers standing with his arms outstretched as the choir sang. Smallwood reminds "everyone that the Lord is the source of our strength and that He is the forcefulness of my life," Greene says. "Even at that moment, I needed to lift my hands to Him."

Smallwood's songs even transcend faiths. Cantor Sheldon Levin, conductor of the Makhelat Hamercaz Jewish Choir of Central New Jersey, heard "Total Praise" sung by a choir from the Jewish Theological Seminary about two years ago. He taught information technology to his choir in both English and Hebrew. At a North American Jewish choral festival, they received a continuing ovation. "Information technology blew people away," Levin says.

"Total Praise," like many of Smallwood'south songs, is based on Psalm 121, in which David wrote about relying on God during his nigh difficult times: "You lot are the source of my strength/ Y'all are the forcefulness of my life/ I elevator my easily in full praise to You."

Levin says the words are a universal prayer. "Nosotros can all praise God and thank God. It doesn't accept to be a Jewish composer or a Christian composer," he says. "His music is awe inspiring."

When Destiny's Child was looking to do a gospel medley for the 2001 anthology "Survivor," Michelle Williams suggested "Total Praise" to boyfriend grouping members Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland. Williams was a longtime fan of the song and taught it to the other two. "I'm a church building daughter," Williams said in an interview.

The gospel medley was the concluding vocal on the album, and Smallwood's "Amen" chorus was the final part of the medley. "To stop the album with amen, it is finished, was a perfect fit," Williams said.

She described Smallwood every bit "a brilliant mind who transcends gospel music."

The wall of his sunroom, next to his baby g piano, is covered with awards and proclamations. Then-mayor Vincent Gray alleged Sept. 16, 2013, Richard Smallwood Day in the Commune. Smallwood also worked on a team of producers including Mervyn Warren and Quincy Jones on 1992's Grammy-winning "Handel'south Messiah: A Soulful Commemoration."

Still, he has watched RCA Inspiration's younger artists, such as Donnie McClurkin and Fred Hammond, register platinum sales, while he has however to have a single album sell more than 500,000 copies to reach golden status. Smallwood says that before his diagnosis, he felt his depression was brought on by comparing his success to others'. "I accept e'er been very insecure nigh my souvenir," he says.

But longtime gospel publicist Bil Carpenter says: "Richard is not for the masses. He's for a more sophisticated, smaller group of people. He'due south a thinking man's gospel. It's the chitlin' circuit versus the Kennedy Center. Richard is the Kennedy Middle."

Smallwood's legacy has long been established, according to those in the industry. For 34 years gospel legend Bobby Jones has hosted a one-hour show on BET. For gospel artists, existence on Jones's show did for careers what "The Ed Sullivan Show" in the 1960s did for Motown. Jones's weekly plan, now entering its 35th and concluding year, has the distinction of being the longest-running original serial on any cable network. Smallwood'south music, says Jones, is dissimilar whatever other artist's.

"You listen for what his words are. Yous're going to hear clarity. The audition loves it, and they go into an atmosphere of praising and worship," Jones says.

Some gospel artists, such as multiplatinum Kirk Franklin, take achieved wider commercial success by mixing in hip-hop. But Smallwood has remained with his classical audio.

Jacquie Gales Webb, who for more 20 years has hosted a popular gospel segment on Washington's WHUR radio, says Smallwood's songs are distinctive because of the importance of the pianoforte — not electrical pianoforte or keyboard playing, just a grand-piano style.

"No affair what genre he'south playing, in his music the piano is the prominent feature," Webb says. "That'southward how you know it'due south a Richard Smallwood song."

Valerie Simpson, who helped create the Motown sound as function of the married man-and-wife songwriting duo Ashford & Simpson, likens Smallwood to Stevie Wonder, considering his lyrics, she says, "transcend a moment" and capture a sound of a generation that lasts for decades.

Simpson says something happens in her Sugar Bar in Manhattan when a jazz or R&B artist starts singing "Total Praise." The energy in the room shifts, and "everyone is wiping tears from their eyes," she says.

The power to write a song that becomes, and remains, a classic for generations is what every songwriter strives for, Simpson says. "Richard Smallwood has done that," she says.

"His songs will live on and go on to be sung long after we are all gone."

Jesus, You're the center of my joy,

All that's good and perfect comes from You

Smallwood's major releases include: "The Richard Smallwood Singers" (1982); "Psalms" (1984); "Textures" (1984); "Vision" (1988); "Portrait" (1990); "Testimony" (1992); "Alive" (1993); "Adoration: Live in Atlanta" (1996); "Rejoice" (1997); "Healing: Live in Detroit," "Memorable Moments" (1999); "Persuaded: Live in D.C." (2001); "Praise & Worship Songs of Richard Smallwood" (2003); "Journey: Live in New York" (2007); "Promises" (2007); "Anthology Alive" (2015).

Smallwood has come to realize that it was during his depression that he was able to write songs that connect about to people and their own pain. That, he says, is true ministry.

"And then many people, from the pulpit to those ushering on the door, are suffering with depression," he says. "And, yes, I believe God tin heal annihilation. But I too believe that He puts things in our lives so that we can truly minister to others."

These days, Smallwood is focusing on the release of "Anthology." He also has plans to work on his autobiography and somewhen sees himself teaching music on the college level.

"I accept lived such a very blessed life. I am so thankful to God," he says. "What a journey this has been. This is non about making money. It's well-nigh winning souls and encouraging people through Christ. He takes intendance of it all."

Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen

Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen

Keith L. Alexander covers D.C. Superior Courtroom for The Post. His last story for the magazine was on Michelle Obama's makeup artist.

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