Stevie Wonder Announces Three New Projects In The Works, Including Orchestral And Gospel Albums

Stevie Wonder is on a roll working on not one, not two, but three new projects. The first two are orchestral remakes of his original work, and the third, a gospel album, is a tribute to his mother.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Wonder said that the new albums with contain primarily old stuff, with maybe three or four new songs. Wonder stated, "We did 'Isn't She Lovely' with the orchestra and I wrote another verse to it. And we did 'I Just Called to Say I Love You' – myself and Take 6 with the orchestra."

Wonder also stated that the new songs will pretty much be done in the same way as the old ones, just with an orchestral flare. "The way that I did it, the original way, I enjoyed that. This is just another interpretation, and we did the arrangement a little differently and it turned out really, really good. I'm really excited about it."

For one of his upcoming albums, When the World Began, Wonder plans to perform it with an orchestra for his next tour. "When The World Began" is also the featured single on the record.

His third project, Gospel Inspired By Lula, is a worship album dedicated to his mother. Before her death in 2006, Wonder had promised her he'd do it for her.

Wonder has been giving heartfelt performances all summer, dedicating multiple songs to his mother and her passing. For anyone else who was at Hangout Fest in May, you know that he got the entire crowd to break down in tears with him as he gave his tribute to his mother in-between songs by quietly saying,"My Mother was born in this state.." (Alabama). He then paused before saying “People told her she would never be nothing, would never have nothing. They gave up on her. But God didn’t.”

Gospel Inspired By Lula won't be a traditional gospel album, although it will contain some deep and personal thoughts in relation to Wonder, his mother, and their deep gratitude for love and religion.

"I'm going to twist it all up in different ways, because I think everyone needs to hear the word of the gospel. The word of gospel really is love and it really is about people following the word, whether they read the Quran, the Torah or the Bible, whatever they read. At the end of the day, whatever you read, you know the god you believe in talking about people loving one another."

Source: Rolling Stone