My Life's Lyric

Album Review

A gospel artist and praise & worship testifier, Kansas City, MO native DeWayne Woods hit the public radar in 2007 when “Let Go,” a single drawn from his debut solo album, Introducing DeWayne Woods & When Singers Meet, became the gospel song of the year, earning Woods a whole bushel of awards. My Life’s Lyric is his follow-up album, and it expands on the template of the first, featuring upbeat, positive, and rhythmically funky tunes that Woods alternately sings, testifies, and ministers through with an undisguised joy. The whole album has an immediate, live feel, and paces itself half like a live concert and half like a praise & worship service, although there’s probably not much of a difference between the two in Woods' view. It’s an energetic, positive affair, and there are places where Woods reminds one of a non-secularized Curtis Mayfield, on “Good Times” in particular, one of the highlights here. Other highlights include the revved-up opener, “Living on the Top,” and the closing track, “Positive,” which is a straight-out praise & worship rock song with fuzzed-out grunge guitars and the whole deal. Woods never strays from his positive, upbeat, and joyous stance, and fans of his first album may well like this one even more.