Bill Moss, Jr. is a Detroit-based contemporary gospel singer/songwriter who released his first album, Manifested Favor: Live from Detroit, in 2008, but his history with the church and its music stretches back much further than that. He was born into a gospel family, the son of Bill Moss, Sr., who led the Celestials. As a child, Bill Moss, Jr. learned to play the piano and had enough confidence to interrupt a Celestials performance when he was only five. From that point forward, music was an essential part of his life. He and his brother J Moss performed as the Moss Brothers during their adolescence, recording two albums before Bill left to attend Marygrove College. There, he attained a Bachelor of Music while continuing to study gospel with his aunt, Dr. Mattie Moss Clark. Following graduation, he landed a spot as National Chief Musician in the Church of God in Christ and opened the Moss Academy of Music in 2000. Bill Moss, Jr. toured regularly in the early 2000s, and he returned to recording in 2005 by co-producing the Voices of Tabernacle Choir's Christmas Joys. Two years later, he produced Anita Myles' R U Willing?, after which he launched a production company called BMJ Productions. In 2008 he released his debut, Manifested Favor (recorded live at the Christian Tabernacle Church in Southfield, Michigan), on Salathiel Records; it debuted on 27 on Billboard's gospel chart. During the decade following its release, Moss continued to produce and preach as a Worship Pastor at Detroit's Third New Hope, eventually returning in 2017 with the live album Songbook of Praise & Worship, a record that featured rearranged versions of CCM classics along with a few originals. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine