He’s preaching through a choir

CHICAGO -- Ricky Dillard delivers commands to the group behind him like a melodic drill sergeant.

Dillard and his troops, the New Generation Chorale, are shaking, bouncing and snapping in a retail music shop at Ford City Mall on Chicago’s South Side, and the minute his baritone vocals pour over the microphone, mall-goers take notice of the weekday afternoon gospel concert.

He’s bringing choir music back.

“It seems like everything is so microwaved now,” says Robin Covington, a lead singer in the Chicago-based choir. “Church choirs need good songs too. It’s like we’re taking a back seat. That’s what Ricky is trying to keep alive -- that James Cleveland-type of choir music. And that’s what his call is.”

Dillard has charged himself with making choir music more relevant and attractive to younger fans without losing its integrity. For his part, Dillard is regarded as one of the better choir directors in gospel music, arriving years after Cleveland was credited with creating modern-day gospel and before Kirk Franklin crossed over to secular urban radio.

The 42-year-old Dillard has been sliding and singing in front of the New Generation Chorale, a 70-person choir, for the better part of 20 years. He spent his young-adult years advising Chicago-area church choirs. Since 1990, he has released six gospel albums and been nominated for two Grammys.

“I’m trying to save the sound of the traditions of the church choir,” Dillard says over the phone from his home in Atlanta, where he spends half his time. “If I don’t do it, who’s going to do it?”

He’s hoping to reach even more people with his seventh album, released last week. This project, “7th Episode Live in Toronto,” is the initial release on his imprint, Animated Entertainment, distributed through EMI Gospel.

He won’t complain about the expansion of gospel music since the 1980s -- it’s long past the days when fellow Chicagoan Cleveland developed and campaigned for it. But, says Dillard, it’s gotten away from its subtle roots.

“I’ve noticed that the gospel industry is changing and the sound of gospel is changing. Now gospel sounds secular sometimes. So in my area, which is in between contemporary and traditional, what I try to do is keep the signature sound alive,” he says.

On the new album, Dillard re-creates that rafter-shaking, soul-moving sound that took gospel music from being a Sunday morning treat to one of the fastest-growing musical genres. In his music, there’s no pretense or synths or back flips.

There’s been a long-standing argument that gospel music has gone too far to reach younger consumers. Dillard delivers a hybrid of gospel music rooted in the traditional sound that appeals to young and old.

“He does this old-time religion with an updated flair, and it’s great,” says gospel music star Yolanda Adams, who lives in Houston. “It really reaches out across generations. My mom loves him too. I think gospel music . . . has always been about the healing of the person. Ricky’s music heals.”

Dillard grew up attending St. Bethel Baptist church in Chicago Heights with his mother and grandmother. It was there that he fell in love with church music and had notions of directing a choir one day. His dream was realized fairly quickly: He started leading the youth choir when he was 5 years old.

Earlier this year, while he was recording this new project in Toronto, his home in Atlanta burned; Dillard lost most of his possessions in the fire. This album, he says, is a symbol of resiliency, delivering a message of hope and healing.

“My energy comes from the joys of the things that have been done in my life,” Dillard said. “He [God] gave me strength to make it out of the storm.”