Donald Lawrence began working with several gospel and non-gospel mainstream figures and musicians, during the mid and late 1980s. He eventually became the producer and music director for Stephanie Mills, which was prominent during the late 1980s. He took on The Tri-City Singers after a friend vacated his position as musical director. It was in this capacity, when Donald Lawrence decided to record music of his own compositions, songwriting, arranging, and singing, in which he sought in recording the debut album for the Tri-City Singers in 1991, before the debut was sold in early 1993. The three cities that The Tri-City Singers had resided in, were of
Spartanburg, SC,
Gastonia, NC, and
Charlotte, NC. The debut record ''A Songwriter's Point Of View'' on a then-brand-new independent record label called
GospoCentric Records. The set debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Top Gospel Charts. It was the first to be billed as Donald Lawrence & The Tri-City Singers and featured black church-ubiquitous hits such as "A Message For The Saints", "I Am God" and "Stranger". The album was released on Lawrence's newly minted label Crystal Rose Records which was distributed through
Sparrow Records. In 1997, Donald Lawrence produced the live portion of
Karen Clark Sheard's Grammy-nominated
Finally Karen debut. Lawrence & Tri-City also released the seasonal
Hello Christmas the same year. Later, Lawrence signed a contract with the Island Records imprint
Island Inspirational. Though a live recording did take place for release, When
tri-city4.com was finally released in late summer 2000, the set peaked at #2 on Billboard's Top Gospel Charts and #13 on Billboard's Heatseekers Charts. The album also got a profile boost from the all-star standout "God's Favor", featuring vocal turns from Karen Clark Sheard,
Kim Burrell, and
Kelly Price. Lawrence waited almost two years before delivering the follow-up
Go Get Your Life Back in early 2002. "
The Best Is Yet to Come", a song sonically much in the vein of the previous smash "Testify," was chosen as the album's lead single. This release featured guest appearances from
Ann Nesby (formerly of
Sounds of Blackness) and gospel pioneer
Bishop Walter Hawkins. The momentum continued with the 2003 release of
Restoring The Years, a greatest hits album featuring two new songs. The next album would mark a fresh start for Donald Lawrence.
I Speak Life was his first solo album, the debut for his newly inked recording contract with Verity Records, and also the first release under his new sublabel Quiet Water Entertainment. Though the album was without The Tri-City Singers, guest appearances were plenteous.
Donnie McClurkin,
Hezekiah Walker,
Faith Evans,
Richard Smallwood, and
Carl Thomas all contributed to the album. Even jazz notables
Ramsey Lewis and
Lalah Hathaway were on hand for a remake of the
Bible Stories classic "Don't Forget To Remember". The effort earned Lawrence a total of 7
Stellar Award nominations, and 6 wins. In March 2006, The Tri-City Singers announced that they would retire, but not before one last live recording.
Finale: Act One and
Finale: Act Two were released simultaneously on April 4, 2006. Each release was a CD/DVD set that chronicled the audio and video of one half of the concert, with packages that locked into one another respectively. A special edition of
Finale was later released with both CDs and DVDs. The blowout concert included guest appearances from
Bishop Walter Hawkins,
Karen Clark Sheard,
Vanessa Bell Armstrong,
Daryl Coley,
LaShun Pace,
Darwin Hobbs, and many other gospel luminaries. The album's lead single "The Blessing Of Abraham" was nominated for a
Grammy Award for Best Gospel Performance in December 2006. His sophomore solo album,
The Law of Confession Part I was released in February 2009. Soon after, Donald said in an interview that
The Law of Confession, Part II would be released soon, but that he was focusing on other projects. Donald Lawrence was featured on the title track "Released" by Bill Winston presents Living Word". He was also the host of Verizon's "How Sweet The Sound Choir Competition". ==Discography==