Psalmist David Crichlow: Fulfilling his calling

“You know as a child, you’re playing around, you don’t have TV. We were very poor so our entertainment was singing,” Crichlow said during his interview with Sunday Newsday.

Crichlow grew up in Morvant and poverty was not his only challenge. Daily, he and his siblings endured physical abuse at the hands of their father. They also endured watching him hit their mother. He recalled that his father used to smoke marijuana, yelled at them a lot and often told them that “he is not human.” He relayed, “When he screamed at us for nothing, most of the time, she used to tell him, ‘You can’t beat the children like that!’ He used to just jump on her and hit her. I remember the days when my clothes used to cling to my back because of the cuts from the whip and all those things. That’s what I went through.” Back then, Crichlow’s mother kept him and his siblings from school and church for months.

As a result, he did not have the opportunity to attend college as he would have liked to do.

“I was 19 when she left him. There were times when we lived with our grandmother; there were times when we were home. There were times we had no food. We used to have to beg for money for groceries. There was a time when we lived in the orphanage because he (Crichlow’s father) abused my brother so that the court was afraid to send us back home. So that was my life.” Today, however, Psalmist David Crichlow, as he’s known in the gospel world, is making waves not only on the local scene, but internationally as a music ambassador for God.

During the interview, he was very vocal about his love and passion for God, who he credits with helping him to overcome his painful past and with his success as a music artiste.

In 2003, he began his professional singing career as part of a South music group called the “Mission Epistle.” After about two years of singing with the Epistles, around 2005, he joined another music group by the name of “In One Accord.”

Nonetheless, after just over a couple of years of singing with that group, he felt it was time to launch out on his own.

Therefore, following the leading of God, as he put it, he wrote and released his first single in 2006, “As Long as I have You Lord” which earned him a COTT (Copyright Organisation Trinidad and Tobago) Music Award nomination that year in the category of the Top Three Songs.

His second release, also in 2006, was entitled, “Hold Your Peace Child.” Crichlow released several other songs that year.

However, after 2006, his next music release came in 2014.

When asked about that eight-year gap between producing his music, he admitted that money was the issue. “I’m glad you asked,” he responded.

“Music is very expensive, so my break is because of lack of finance. My heart’s desire is that somebody will sponsor me, that I’ll get some sponsors...

I have a whole lot of songs. It’s just the money to produce it that I don’t have. That’s why there’s a gap. So sometimes I will sing, I’ll sell CDs and then I’ll gather the money, and then I’ll go and do a new song. Then the journey will go on again. I’ll put that song on CD, then I’ll sell CDs again, gather money and do a new song and that’s how it has been. That’s why there’s been a delay.” In 2014 he released “Jesus I love You” and his latest, released this year is “Standing for Jesus.” Notably, “Standing for Jesus” is now being played in the United Kingdom. Crichlow posted the song to his Facebook profile, and a British DJ, who goes by the sobriquet “DJ Righteous” heard it, and in-boxed him to ask if he could use it.

The song was emailed to him and it debuted on November 13, on 101.5fm.

Crichlow has performed at several gospel events over the years since breaking into the gospel music arena. The most recent was Pure Worship 3 on October 28, at Pinto Road, Arima. He preached at that event and sang as well. He has recently returned from Guyana where he ministered in song and word. He has also performed at several political functions.

He has also just released his own line of printed T-shirts which read, “Standing for Jesus” to help fund his music career.

“I remember years ago, God said, ‘David I’m going to raise you up as an international gospel singer. And back then, when he said that to me, I had no songs, I didn’t have a name out there, but only now, the promises of God are coming to pass. God doesn’t lie.

I actually preached my first message this year...,” Crichlow said in closing, as he reflected on his success, success that seemed impossible years go.

Crichlow can be contacted at 293-7698.