Johnny Ray Daniels Whatever You Need (CD)

(Bible & Tire Recording Co.) 9 tracks, digipack.

The late debut album from a gospel star who has been in the business for over 50 years - powerful, funky and very warm.

Johnny Ray Daniels was born in 1946 near Beaver Dam in Greenville, North Carolina. When he was 20, Daniels and some friends formed an R&B band called The Soul Twisters.

One night, Daniels' life changed forever. He was on stage at a white nightclub in the neighboring town of Wilson, looking out at the faces in the audience dancing and drinking. "I saw them like a picture," he recalls. "In the blink of an eye, it was like I could hear the Lord saying:  "You're in the wrong place." He played the rest of his booking duties with the Soul Twisters and then left the band.

Daniels then began his music career all over again - in the church. He married a woman named Dorothy Vines, who performed with her sisters as a gospel group under the name Vines Sisters. When they found out he could play guitar, they encouraged him to play piano - something Daniels had never done before. He started with just two fingers. "I said, 'Lord, give me this gift and I will play it for you.' My fingers opened up and I've been playing ever since."

Daniels has written the music for every Vines Sisters song.