An Interview with Ernie Haase
For the Adobe Acrobat version of this interview, click here.
As most Southern Gospel fans know, Ernie Haase sang tenor with the Cathedral Quartet from 1990 through 1999. After the Cathedrals retired, he performed solo concerts, as well as appearing with the Old Friends Quartet at their selected dates. He formed Signature Sound in 2002. I recently had the opportunity to interview him, asking both general questions and questions about their upcoming January CD and DVD, Get Away Jordan.
DJM: Surveys of the National Quartet Convention audience show that over half of attendees are Baptist, with members of the Assemblies of God making up the next largest group present. Do you know anything about the denominational makeup of an average Ernie Haase & Signature Sound audience?
Haase: We have been doing an informal survey and we have found that it is a pretty diverse crowd who attends our concerts. I do not have the “exact” percentages but I would say that Non Denominational, Baptist (of all flavors) and Catholics round out the top three with neither pulling ahead of the pack.
The statistic I am loving is that there are many who come each night who have never been in church or who have not attended “regularly” in years.
The environment of our concerts is very fun, friendly & inspirational.
TV exposure has been the key to these numbers. Matter of fact, the first week our self-titled DVD and CD released on TV (Oct 2005) and debut #3 on Billboard’s video chart 40% of the buyers that week had “never” bought a Gaither video.
I am thrilled that there are some new people coming to our shows. I love singing to my brothers and sisters but the good news of the Gospel is so glorious and life changing that we (EH&SS) want to sing to everyone we can. (Continue Reading >>>)
