The Hardest Working Woman in Gospel – Vickie Winans - has been working overtime for the last month preparing for the release of her new CD “How I Got Over” that is in stores now. The title song is spinning heavy on gospel radio stations where it just hit #20 on the Billboard Hot Gospel Songs chart after only four weeks in release. The CD of the same name has just debuted at #3 on the Billboard gospel album sales chart.

The song is based on a hymn Mahalia Jackson used to sing. Winans added new verses and segues from a traditional gospel tune to a jazzy funk number featuring her nephew Tim Bowman Jr. scatting. This past Sunday, she debuted the song and concept music video at the Motor City’s posh Seldom Blues club where Winans treated her fans to a free dinner and concert. “We had to turn almost 250 people away,” Winans says. “The fire marshal kept threatening to close us down because we had wall to wall people but everything worked out. We had a great time and I was able to say thank you to some of my most loyal fans.”

Tickets were given away on a first come first serve basis at Winans’ Accents By Vickie Winans gift shop in Lathrup Village, MI. “The tickets were gone in an hour and a half,” Winans says in disbelief. In fact, fans were lined up and sitting in lawn chairs wrapped around the block three hours before the store opened on the day the tickets were first made available. The Detroit News reporter Kimberly Hayes Taylor recently wrote a glowing article on Winans’ enduring appeal and notes that “She’s a personable shopkeeper who greets visitors with hugs, kisses and her big warm smile.”

Behind that smile, Winans has shed plenty of tears. In the last three years, Winans beloved mother Mattie Bowman passed away. She also left Verity Records and went through the trials and tribulations of launching her Destiny Joy record label that was named for the baby girl she miscarried 28 years ago. Her triumphs led her to name the CD “How I Got Over.” She says, “God has been good to me. I give Him all the praise. He’s stayed with me and held me up when I couldn’t hold up myself. There are so many great things happening that I just have to say that it’s because of God that I made it over.”

Media Contact: Bill Carpenter at (202) 506-5051 or carpenterbill@mac.com

Bookings: www.VickieWinans.com