God Can...and He Will

Prior to this foray into gospel, Peggy Scott-Adams was building a catalog of, not blue material, but definitely music that was deeply steeped in secular concerns of daily life, namely money and sex. It was a style that she had used since her 1997 album Help Yourself, and after six albums it's no wonder that she was ready to try something different. Truth be told, though, God Can...and He Will isn't as different as it might seem. If anything, it's a companion to the commiserating tales of suffering and strife that she detailed on her previous albums. Like Millie Jackson, Scott-Adams has always had a knack for pinpointing the exasperating life moments and detailing them in song, often with a wicked dose of humor. And although it's more sober than any of her other albums, here she simply pinpoints one of the refuges that people choose to take from those low points. She's still working with producer/writer Jimmy Lewis and his studio soul sound, thin at times but effective, is still present as well. It's Lewis' writing too, as much as Scott-Adams' delivery, that gives all of her albums their distinctive feel, and he provided six of the tunes on God Can.... Most of the songs are originals, but two well-chosen covers, the traditional "His Eye Is On the Sparrow" and Jackie DeShannon's "Bad Water," balance out the disc.