LOS ANGELES – Whitney Houston’s brother remembers his young sister listening to their mother during gospel rehearsals before she imitated every tune that was sung.
When Houston rose to pop stardom, her exceptional vocal talents were rooted in gospel music. And now his family – led by sister-in-law Pat and brother Gary Houston – want to keep the foundations of his musical legacy alive through his new posthumous gospel album and a documentary of the same name, “I Go to the Rock.” : The Gospel Music of Whitney Houston.”
“Gospel was in his heart,” said Gary Houston, who recalled his 5-year-old sister wearing their mother Cissy Houston’s wig and heels while using a broom as a microphone. “We’d wake up and go to bed to gospel. I sang exactly what I heard to my mom and her siblings. No secular music. It was all gospel.”
Message of hope and faith
Pat Houston, executor of Whitney Houston’s estate, said she is excited for listeners to hear the six-time Grammy winner’s message of hope and faith and the influential mark gospel music had on her life and career through both projects, which premiered on Friday of last week. The documentary, hosted by CeCe Winans, aired on UPtv and AspireTV and will be available on DVD.
The singer’s 14-song album includes several notable soundtrack tracks, including “Jesus Loves Me” from “The Bodyguard,” “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” from “Sparkle” along with “I Go to the Rock” and “Joy to the World” from the soundtrack to “The Preacher’s Wife,” the best-selling gospel album of all time. The project also includes six previously unreleased tracks, three of which (“He Can Use Me,” “I Found a Wonderful Way” and “Testimony”) were recorded when she was 17 years old.
“You heard the innocence in her voice,” says Pat Houston. “You could see where she started and how she ended all of her hits throughout her career. Any song is a great Whitney Houston song. You’d hear her gospel roots wrapped up in her music.”
He started singing in church
Whitney Houston began singing as a child at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. Between the mid-’80s and the late-’90s, she was one of the world’s best-selling artists, her voice powerful and effortless, rooted in the black church, but tailored to the masses with her pop persona.
It’s understandable that it took time for the family to mourn the death of Whitney Houston in 2012. Her brother, Gary, said he still feels his sister’s spirit every time it rains, or when a bird visits him while he’s home, adding that ” when the doorbell rings, I think it’s her.”
an easter project
But now, Gary and Pat Houston feel like they’re in a better place. That’s one of the reasons Pat thought now was the perfect time to launch gospel-focused projects, especially with Easter next month and Whitney Houston’s 60th birthday celebration on the horizon in August.
“An Easter project is something she’s always wanted to do since her visit to Israel,” says Pat Houston. “It never came to fruition. We’re doing all of this through Whitney’s lens. It’s special because it’s her 60th birthday celebration. This project is definitely a labor of love for her. It represents her in a very spiritual way. “.
Pat Houston said she hopes viewers can find closure through the documentary with various guest appearances including Jenifer Lewis, Kim Burrell and Kevin Costner. It features the singer’s first public performance as well as many others, including “I Go to the Rock” with The Georgia Mass Choir on “Saturday Night Live” in 1996, “Jesus Loves Me” in Santiago de Chile in 1994 and “Guide Me O Thou, Great Jehovah” on “The Arsenio Hall Show” in 1990.
“I wish you could have peace and know that Whitney Houston was a woman of God,” she said. “No one is really exempt from the harsh realities of the world. She certainly understood that. But Whitney expressed her love for God. She knew where her strength came from and she showed it throughout the documentary.”
