Franklin Hits Gospel Groove in High-Spirited, Glitzy Show

“Y’all ready to get your praise on?” Kirk Franklin asked the crowd Friday, near the beginning of the first of his two Universal Amphitheatre shows.

That spirited shout-out, which he used intermittently during his three-hour “Nu Nation” extravaganza featuring the Family, vocalist CeCe Winans, and Trin-I-Tee 5:7, rang out like a mission statement for Franklin, an artist for whom religious faith and booty-bumping are not mutually exclusive. Franklin’s brand of gospel-lite is served up with a wink and a beat: There’s no dark prophesying or somber contemplation in his electric church, only cheerful supplication.

The crowd that attended Franklin’s Friday performance was full of true believers who were ready for Franklin and Co. to deliver the Good Word--and get on the good foot as well. Franklin, spiritual music’s shrewdest crossover impresario, came well prepared: His stage show straddles the line between a Billy Graham crusade and a Super Bowl half-time show. Three rotating circular stages allowed for a quick transition between acts and a frenetic pace, while Franklin himself worked the crowd like a circus ringmaster.

As a stage performer, Franklin is masterful: Like the greatest gospel artists, he knows how to project both humility and superstar charisma. Whether he was delivering earnest benedictions, tossing off self-deprecating jokes or dancing across the stage like a hip-hop fool, Franklin, an ordained minister, was both preacher and party host.

But while Franklin is the titular leader, he’s not really a singer; CeCe Winans, Trin-I-Tee 5:7 and Franklin’s multiracial, 17-singer ensemble the Family handled the majority of the evening’s vocals.

After a short opening set from the Family, Franklin turned the stage over to Trin-I-Tee 5:7. This comely trio is clearly an attempt by Franklin to create a Christian facsimile of En Vogue, TLC and the other female R&B; trios that have scored commercially by combining sex appeal with sultry dance grooves. But it felt shopworn, like a band thinly disguised as a business plan, and was the least inspired performance of the evening.

CeCe Winans followed with a stirring set. The popular singer, whose brothers’ group the Winans was an important forebear for Franklin, tends to work with material that isn’t commensurate with her vocal talent. On this night, however, she took mediocre devotional ballads and insipid mid-tempo inspirational songs and turned them into powerful declarations of faith simply on the strength of her gutsy, impassioned singing.

Franklin and the Family followed Winans with a set that alternated between solemn and celebratory. The Family sang mostly all of its material as an ensemble, like a gospel choir, yet the melodies and arrangements were derivations of contemporary R&B; idioms; “Revolution” echoed Prince’s quasi-devotional music, while “Get Your Praise On” sampled the bass line from P-Funk’s classic “Flashlight.” And the Family’s fine soloists specialized in the kind of melisma acrobatics that are virtually a prerequisite for R&B; singers.

During the second half of the show, Franklin and the Family appeared in black garb and sang earnest odes to Jesus. Franklin then pulled out all the stops for his climax with teen dancers Steps of Praise, a jaunty cover of the Staples Singers’ “I’ll Take You There,” and his big crossover hit, “Stomp.” It all smacked of Disney-fied family entertainment, and wasn’t particularly moving. But Franklin isn’t necessarily trying to proselytize; he only wants to provide a few hours of funked-up, spiritual uplift, and what’s the harm in that?