Happy 25th Anniversary to Yolanda Adams’ sixth studio album Mountain High… Valley Low, originally released September 21, 1999.
To understand the near-impossible feat Yolanda Adams pulled off in 1999, one needs a quick history on American gospel and its paradoxical relationship to the world outside it.
Ever heard of The Great Commission? That’s the all-important biblical mandate to go and make disciples of all nations. However, other references also say “do not be yoked with unbelievers,” “come out from them and be separate,” and “what fellowship can light have with darkness?” Depending on the church, they might emphasize the going out or the being separate. This made it difficult to attempt getting the work done, and traumatic if one somehow succeeded.
When The Clark Sisters’ “You Brought the Sunshine” caught on in gay dance clubs in 1982, governing COGIC church officials severely reprimanded the ladies for appearing to entertain more than they evangelized. Later that decade, Tramaine Hawkins’ “Fall Down (Spirit of Love)” made similar progress and her spiritual elders were so incensed, they demanded she apologize to their congregation. For a time, she was branded a traitor and nearly lost her livelihood. This is the culture Adams would have to circumnavigate.
But who could ever be upset with gospel’s favorite daughter? Since first standing out with the Southeast Inspirational Choir, Adams built her career the old-fashioned way: church by church. Beginning with Just As I Am (1987), the 6’1” songstress recorded a string of Top 10 gospel albums that established her as a song interpreter with an elegant jazz sensibility and raw charismatic aptitude. Once she fulfilled her Tribute/Verity Records contract, she went in search of broader opportunities.
While on tour with Fred Hammond and Kirk Franklin, Adams’ electrifying live performance floored one influential fan: Sylvia Rhone. The famed executive of Elektra Records was intent on bringing Adams to her label—which initially seemed a mismatch. Outside of providing distribution to smaller labels supporting Andrae Crouch, Walter Hawkins, and The Clark Sisters in the early ‘80s, Elektra had virtually no experience in the genre. Still, Rhone was prepared to put her entire kingdom at Adams’ disposal.
“[Rhone] came to the last leg of the Tour of Life. She told me ‘You don’t have to change a thing. I love exactly what you’re doing,’” Adams explained during a 2001 GospelFlava interview. “Those were the magic words. Because I told God that I’m not trying to be Whitney. I’m not trying to be Mariah. I’m too old to be Brandy! I need to be me, but I need to broaden my music base so that everyone can hear Your word.”
To help achieve this goal, Elektra tapped Warryn Campbell, Fred Hammond, Richard Smallwood, Buster and Shavoni, Kevin Bond, Keith Thomas, Walter Milsap III, and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis along with “Big Jim” Wright. Together they built the multiformat Mountain High… Valley Low, an intrepid bridge across the R&B-gospel divide where diligent preparation could meet culture-shifting opportunity.
Listen to the Album:
The ride begins with two Campbell productions: the just-slightly-street “Time to Change” and the first single, a strummed pop-groove entitled “Yeah.” The former’s a gentle “what goes around comes around” reminder with a hip-hop flourish. The latter is lyrically light, but focuses on Adams’ urbane new sound, complete with trendy shards of AutoTune as one might have heard on Cher’s 1998 trailblazer “Believe.” That simple choice in 1999 communicated something relatively new: gospel could indeed be cool.
That was merely a preview of Adams’ potential. It was her next single, “Open My Heart” that catapulted her into a higher class. Co-written by Adams with producers Wright, Jam, and Lewis, the song is essentially a desperate prayer. Sung so intimately, its first verse begins to read as a love song; turning earnest and unfiltered in its second, it starts to feel more like blues. The combination of this delivery with solid, ‘70s-rooted balladry had urban media transfixed. The music video was in rotation on TBN as much as BET. “Open My Heart” changed everything.
With the single #1 on Billboard’s Adult R&B chart and #10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, this prayer fared better on R&B stations than gospel ones. Gone were the days of castigating Tramaine and the Clarks. Here, dance remixes by Junior Vasquez, Steve “Silk” Hurley, and the Pound Boys helped get her clarion voice heard by those who would never venture into a house of worship. Gospel audiences knew Adams was capable of this type of crossover, and hoped for as much as they feared it, thinking she might abandon church and go secular full-time.
Their fears proved unfounded as her scintillating “In the Midst of It All” affirms she’s still God’s woman. This type of performance built her reputation as one whose gift could lay a whole church flat on their backs. Beginning softly, a choir gradually propels her to a powerful, testimonial vamp (“I tried my mama / And I know she loves me / I tried my family / And I know they love me / But nobody but Jesus… / he brought me through!”). In another corner of traditional gospel, Smallwood’s “That Name” bears his neo-classical handprint with exquisite orchestration to complement Adams’ sophistication and heavenward posture.
Wedged between traditional worship and modern R&B was an emerging contemporary subgenre that catered to the churchgoing young adult demographic. Fresh from an enthusiastic reception to it on his Pages of Life: Chapters I and II (1998), Hammond brings that sound to “Continual Praise” here. Though backed by Hammond’s Radical for Christ ensemble, their swaggered approach belies as much influence from Mary J. Blige and Jodeci as Vanessa Bell Armstrong and Commissioned.
Like them, throaty diva Kelly Price was virtually born on a pew but earned dual citizenship in R&B via hits with The Isley Brothers, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, The Notorious B.I.G., and others. This credibility makes her perfect to match Adams on “He’ll Arrive (Coming Back).” The directive is to repent before Christ’s return, and it was sonically 100% in-step with mainstream urban radio. The same could be said of Jam and Lewis’ “Wherever You Are,” the thematic center from which the LP derives its title (“Mountain high, valley low / desert heat, arctic cold / Wherever you are, that’s where I wanna be”). Beneath its Timbaland-styled beats and sultry allusions to Michael Jackson’s “I Wanna Be Where You Are,” Jesus is still central in focus.
In 2000, Adams and then-husband Tim Crawford were thrilled to be expecting a daughter. It wouldn’t sideline her though. The mom-to-be continued working with promotional appearances on Showtime at the Apollo and The Rosie O’Donnell Show to perform bittersweet third single “Fragile Heart.” Though she wrote it in tribute to a dearly departed friend, she turns the grief into gratitude. She appeals to humanity again on “The Things We Do.” Here, CCM master Keith Thomas (architect behind smashes for BeBe & CeCe Winans, Amy Grant, and Vanessa Williams) costumes Adams’ dignified delivery in buoyant pop production, flanked by clips of historic addresses by Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy.
Mountain High… Valley Low finishes strong with the celebratory, extemporaneous “Already Alright.” The jubilant victory lap is appropriate as the project would ultimately notch Billboard peaks at #5 on R&B Albums and #1 on both Gospel and Christian Albums charts. It was her first time, but it wouldn’t be her last. The critical and commercial response to this release put rocket fuel into Adams’ output, spinning off holiday release Christmas with Yolanda Adams and live set The Experience, both in 2000.
Also, Mountain High… Valley Low provided a soft launch for sisters Erica and Tina Atkins who co-wrote and sung backup on “Yeah” and “Time to Change.” By the next year, they would be known as urban gospel duo Mary Mary with their own, even larger massive crossover single “Shackles (Praise You).” Inarguably, their success was aided by the slipstream of Yolanda Adams’ mainstream breakthrough as a Black female artist. This platinum-certified disc won multiple Dove, Stellar, NAACP Image, Soul Train, and BET awards. She even became the first gospel artist to win an American Music Award and after being nominated six times by the Recording Academy, finally won a GRAMMY for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album.
Soon, familiar players like Jam & Lewis, Campbell, Bond, and Buster & Shavoni had reconvened for Adams’ studio follow-up Believe (2001). These gains plunged Elektra into gospel as never before. They signed both Karen Clark Sheard and Kim Burrell, and for a time, even installed Warryn Campbell as vice president of A&R.
With its intergenre diversity, Mountain High… Valley Low had a unifying effect that communicated tacitly that all of this was gospel music, and all of it supported a Christian message of love and salvation. That was important to communicate both inside and outside the church walls. And because of Adams’ talent, charisma, beauty, and favor—finally we could all hear it.
Listen: