The Heavens Are Telling is an album by multiple Grammy- and Stellar- award winning gospel singer Karen Clark Sheard

Karen Clark Sheard

Karen Clark-Sheard is an American gospel four-time Grammy Award winning singer, musician, and songwriter. The youngest daughter of pioneering gospel choral director Mattie Moss Clark, Sheard began her career as a member of the Grammy-Award winning, gospel legendary female group, The Clark Sisters...

, released on November 4, 2003. The album peaked at #3 on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Top Gospel Charts, #11 on the Billboard Top Christian Charts, #44 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Charts, and #188 on the Billboard Top 200.

Though the last release performed well on the charts, the slick contemporary R&B production was not openly-embraced by Sheard's core audience of traditional gospel music listeners. This release returns to the formula of her hugely successful, well-received, and Grammy-nominated debut Finally Karen, by offering half of the album as a collection of live tracks, and half as a collection of upbeat studio productions. Radio edits of the live tracks "We Acknowledge You" and "We Are Not Ashamed (featuring Mary Mary

Mary Mary

Mary Mary is an American gospel music duo, consisting of sisters Erica Atkins-Campbell and Tina Atkins-Campbell . The duo are often credited along with Kirk Franklin for broadening the fan base of urban contemporary gospel in the 2000s by introducing elements of soul music, hip hop, funk and jazz...

)" served as the album's lead singles.

Leaning more toward embracing a contemporary worship

Worship Music

Worship Music is the tenth studio album by American heavy metal band Anthrax. It is their first album of original material since 2003's We've Come for You All and the first to feature original singer Joey Belladonna since 1990's Persistence of Time...

 audience, Karen covers two previously popularized songs penned by Israel Houghton

Israel Houghton

-Other recordings :* "Champions for Christ" - Hi5 * "Where Are the Fathers?" from He-Motions * "Send Me to the Nations" from A Wing & A Prayer...

 and Martha Munizzi

Martha Munizzi

-Award wins:-Award nominations:Munizzi has been nominated for Grammy, Dove, Stellar and Soul Train Awards as both a performer and songwriter. In 2006, Munizzi was nominated for a Grammy for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album...

. In a nod to the mainstream R&B audience that the previous album's style catered to, Karen brings her daughter Kierra in on a gospelized live cover of Jill Scott

Jill Scott

Jill Scott is an American soul and R&B singer-songwriter, poet, and actress. In 2007, Scott made her cinematic debut in the films Hounddog and in Tyler Perry's feature film, Why Did I Get Married? That year, her third studio album, The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3, was released on...

's signature song "He Loves Me (Lyzel In E Flat)". It is also on this song that Clark Sheard first committs to recording the self-echoing ad-libs that have become her signature as of late.

This would be Karen's last album for the Elektra Records

Elektra Records

Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....

 label, which was dissolved into Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

 in February 2004.

Track listing

1. We Acknowledge You - 5:03 Live
2. We Are Not Ashamed (featuring Mary Mary
   Mary Mary
   Mary Mary is an American gospel music duo, consisting of sisters Erica Atkins-Campbell and Tina Atkins-Campbell . The duo are often credited along with Kirk Franklin for broadening the fan base of urban contemporary gospel in the 2000s by introducing elements of soul music, hip hop, funk and jazz...
   
   ) - 7:08 Live
3. Glorious (Make The Praise) - 4:33 Live
4. The Heavens Are Telling - 5:52 Live
5. God Is Here - 8:25 Live
6. You Loved Me (featuring Kierra "Kiki" Sheard) - 6:43 Live
7. Go Ahead (featuring Missy Elliott
   Missy Elliott
   Melissa Arnette "Missy" Elliott , is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actressA five-time Grammy Award winner, Elliott, with record sales of over seven million in the United States, is the only female rapper to have five albums certified platinum by the RIAA, including one...
   
   ) - 3:22 Studio
8. Praise Up - 4:45 Studio
9. I Owe - 4:09 Studio
10. Sometimes - 4:14 Studio
11. Don't Change (featuring Kierra "Kiki" Sheard) - 3:45 Studio

Chart history

Chart (2003)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...	188
U.S. Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999...	44