Canaan Update
Since I don’t have the time to get the Matt Felts interview up, I thought I’d just post one interesting tidbit I picked up at the CBA (Christian Booksellers Association) convention.
I talked with a representative of Word Entertainment about the future of their Canaan Records label. He said that other than the Hoppers’ The Ride project, Southern Gospel fans can be looking for compilations of songs from popular groups in Canaan’s old days.
While I know that record labels often don’t talk about this in advance, I decided to go out on a limb and ask whether they were in talks with any other artist. They said that they were not–that they would just focus on promoting The Ride and their old compilations.
I also asked whether there was any chance they could release some of their back catalog as digital downloads. The Word/Canaan representative said that it was quite unlikely, though not necessarily impossible–but definitely not a priority for them.
I was speaking of it highly...
Comment by GospelMusicFan (July 13, 2007, 8:32 am)
Reading the press release of June 8, 2007 from Word saw the following paragraph at the bottom:
“Rhonda Thompson of Rhonda Thompson Promotions will play an integral part in the establishment of Canaan’s role in Southern Gospel’s presence on the radio waves. For over thirteen years, Rhonda’s career includes promoting over forty number one hits as well as being named “SGMA Radio Promoter Of The Year” for an unprecedented five years. ”
http://www.gospelmusic.org/newsmedia/OMNewswire_detail.aspx?iid=25942&tid=33
So I check out Rhonda Thompson’s website and see what I found:
No news yet on Canaan but alot of interestiing pictures
http://www.rhondathompsonpromotions.com/
http://www.rhondathompsonpromotions.com/clients.htm
Comment by Inquirer (July 13, 2007, 5:13 pm)
It’s heartening to know that Word intends to re-release the older Canaan material…there is a lot of good music in those vaults that hasn’t been available for a long time.
Rather than merely compilations of material from various artists, I would like to see them reissue some of the original albums from those days, remastered and featuring CD quality.
Pingback by www.southerngospelblog.com » Blog Archive » Scattered Thoughts (July 18, 2007, 4:34 pm)
[...] First, I notice that Averyfineline has some thoughts up about an interview I posted with a Word/Canaan sales rep a few days back. Why he refers to it as “unposted” when I posted it beats me, but his thoughts are an interesting read. And I wholeheartedly agree that a full-time sales rep would be a great addition to the label. [...]
Comment by Jim2 (July 19, 2007, 6:52 am)
Am I missing something? I admit I am not a frequent reader of your blog and may not be familiar enough with it to navigate successfully, but I came looking for the interview with a Word Sales rep that you mentioned (on averyfineline) having posted about the direction of the resurrected Canaan label. All I can find is this thread with a few comments about an interview. Am I being too picky? I expected something along the lines of a Q & A format, with your questions and the Word Reps quoted answers.
Just wondering,
Jim
Comment by Daniel J. Mount (July 19, 2007, 7:08 am)
Jim, I referred to it as a “tidbit” and as a conversation. It wasn’t my idea to call this an interview, since it isn’t really; my interviews are much more formal.
Comment by Jim2 (July 19, 2007, 9:29 am)
Daniel,
Thanks for the clarification and I don’t mean to be nitpicky, but what i read there was “an interview I posted” . - so I was looking for a bit more. I guess if I’d read your blog before I read his, I would have understood. I’m just now getting ready to pop the Hopper’s “Ride” CD in for a first listen, so I am genuinely curious to find out what is going on over at Word/Canaan.
Keep up the good work!
Pingback by www.southerngospelblog.com » Blog Archive » Good News from Canaan (July 28, 2007, 8:27 pm)
[...] Last time I posted news about Word’s re-launch of Canaan, it didn’t sound as though Word was putting much effort into getting Canaan back off the ground. A sales rep at CBA’s International Christian Retail Show said that Canaan was in talks with no new artists and that it was quite unlikely that Canaan would pursue digital distribution of their back catalog. [...]