The nine tracks on Donnie McClurkin, the artist's self-titled Warner Alliance debut, features an amazing range of musical and spiritual expression, as well as a stellar list of guests and producers. Cedric and Victor Caldwell, Mark Kibble, Andra Crouch and Bill Maxwell share production credits, and Helen Baylor, Abraham Laboriel, and Howard and Linda McCrary are only a few of the Gospel greats and personal friends who added to the album's power, joy and reverence.
Donnie gained that sense of stability through the strength and faith he found in the face of a childhood filled with domestic violence. McClurkin, who grew up with a drug-addicted mother and an alcoholic father in a house from which drugs were sold, believes God can turn any life around. He began seeking solace in the church when he was 9 and was greatly influenced by gospel great Andrae Crouch, with whom one of his aunts sang.
Fortunately, the chaos of his home was offset by God's saving grace. Donnie committed his life to Christ when he was only nine, and when he was 11, an encounter with Andra Crouch helped bring form to the course God had set for him. Donnie's Aunt Bea Carr sang backgrounds for Andra and so he came to Donnie's church to minister. In the course of the evening, Andra spent time with Donnie, encouraging him to play the piano. Donnie remembers, "From that time on, Andra Crouch would send me postcards from the cities where he played, saying `We're in Akron. Ask Bea what happened here.` He'd put a scripture down and say `read this.' That changed my whole outlook on singing. Andra fostered ministry, rather than fame. It was more ministry to him than anything else, not some glamorous career."
He joined the staff at Marvin Winans' church in 1989, but shortly thereafter was diagnosed with leukemia. Two months later, however, the leukemia was gone, a turnaround that McClurkin attributes to a miracle from God. When he was a child, McClurkin remembers, he found a scriptural passage predicting that he'd become a successful singer. But he was in no hurry. It took him six years from the time he signed with Warner Alliance Records in 1991 to put out his album. God, he says, was making him wait until the time was right. Now, reluctant or not, he's one of gospel's biggest stars.
