Gospel Music Evolution Albertina Walker

Albertina Walker was born August 29th, 1929 in Chicago, Illinois. She began singing in the youth choir at the West Point Baptist Church at an early age, and joined several Gospel groups thereafter, including The Pete Williams Singers and the Robert Anderson Singers. Albertina was greatly influenced by Mahalia Jackson, her friend and confidante. Mahalia Jackson took her on the road when she was just a teenager. "Mahalia used to kid me. She'd say, 'Girl, you need to go sing by yourself.' " recalled Walker in a recent Washington Post Interview. Albertina Walker did just that. In 1951, she formed the group called The Caravans while at the same time, she was given the title "Queen of Gospel Music"[by whom?] after the death of Mahalia Jackson for her outstanding achievements within the genre.
Musical career
In the early 1950s Walker founded her own Gospel music group The Caravans, enlisting fellow singers from The Robert Anderson Singers (Ora Lee Hopkins, Elyse Yancey and Nellie Grace Daniels). The Caravans' membership has included: James Cleveland, Bessie Griffin, Shirley Caesar, Dorothy Norwood, Inez Andrews, Loleatta Holloway, Cassietta George, and Delores Washington. Her discovery of these artists resulted in the nickname "Star Maker". Walker retired The Caravans in the late 1960s, performing as a solo artist.
In the mid 1970s, Walker signed with Savoy Records then Benson Records, Word Records, A&M Records, and other record companies, recording a series of solo projects, many of them with big church choirs including The Evangelical Choir, The Cathedral of Love Choir, The Metro Mass choir, and her own church choir - The West Point Choir. Albertina recorded her first solo project Put A Little Love In Your Heart in 1975. She also recorded several projects together with Reverend James Cleveland. To date, she has recorded over 60 albums, including gold selling hits "Please Be Patient With Me", "I Can Go To God In Prayer", "The Best Is Yet To Come", "Impossible Dream", and "Joy Will Come".[citation needed] Albertina still enjoys an active recording career, often lending her talents to the projects of other artists in addition to her own. These albums have yielded multiple Gold records and Grammy nominations. Walker has sung for United States presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and South Africa's president, Nelson Mandela
Albertina recently recorded a reunion album with her group The Caravans entitled Paved the Way, which was released by Malaco Records on September 5, 2006.[citation needed] Performers included Walker, Dorothy Norwood, Inez Andrews, and Delores Washington. The album was dubbed by Billboard magazine as one of the most memorable releases of 2006[2] and entered the Billboard charts in the top ten and has remained in the top forty for sixteen weeks. She was recently nominated for a Grammy, Dove, Soul Train Music Award and two Stellar Awar.]

Some of Albertina's Music
"I'm Still Here"
"Please Be Patient with Me"
"I Can Go to God in Prayer"
"I Got A Feeling (Everything Will Be Alright)"
"The Best is Yet to Come"
"Impossible Dream"
"Joy Will Come"
"God is Our Creator"
"Work on Me"
"In Shady Green Pastures"
"Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around"
"When God Dips His Pin of Love in My Heart"
"If I Perish"
"Ain't Got Tired Yet"
"Since I Met Jesus"
"Lord Keep Me Day by Day"
"Mary Don't You Weep"
"Remember Me"
"I Know the Lord Will Make a Way"
"I'm Willing"
"Show Some Sign"
"I Won't Be Back"
"Make It In"