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I’ve been thinking that it might be time to take this website’s CD review feature to the next level, and I’ve been brainstorming for ideas. I don’t mean this post as a conclusion, but rather as the start of a joint brainstorming session.

I could institute what everyone else does: Rating projects on a 1-5 or a 1-10 scale. The only catch is I wouldn’t use the lower end of either scale, because if I don’t like a project and can’t find nice things to say about it, I simply don’t review it at all. I only review projects that would get at least 3 of 5 stars or 4/5 of 10. But everyone else is already doing this, so it doesn’t tell you much new.

I am considering also rating song selection. Rather than using a straight 1-5 scale, what I could do is list how many individual songs on the project I rate as 5-stars in iTunes, how many get 4, how many get 3, etc. In the end, what I think of an album comes down to how good its songs are.

I could do a host of other things, such as production quality or appearance, but I don’t know how much is too much. I’m open to input there.

Finally, I did come up with one outside-of-the-box idea, something nobody else is doing right now: Rating each CD on a traditional - to - progressive scale. Say a very progressive CD (Crabb Family, Crossway) would get a 1 or 2, while the Dixie Echoes’ Sounds of Sunday would get a 9 or 10. If your tastes incline toward progressive, you’d like CDs with lower numbers better, and vice versa.

What do you think? Would this add to the value of this website’s CD reviews?

Ed O’Neal announced today that Andrew King is leaving the Dixie Melody Boys to continue his education at Texas A&M University. I understand, but he is someone I really hate to see leave the Southern Gospel scene. He is a great vocalist and has a great stage presence. Perhaps someday he will return.

Discussion over the last two days on Thursday’s Albums of Current Hits post has prompted quite a few interesting thoughts in the comments section. One of the areas touched on in the wide-ranging discussion deserves some further thought. What makes a song a classic, and what does that mean for the song?

The Kingsmen’s “Glory Road” was once new. That was in 1973. Within three years, just about every group out there (a slight exaggeration, but you get the idea) had recorded the song and was performing it live in concerts.

The Cathedrals’ “Boundless Love” was once new, too. But today many groups have tried their own version of the song.

For a modern day classic, try “Glory to God in the Highest.” It’s been done by the Inspirations, Brian Free & Assurance, the Old Friends Quartet, Ernie Haase & Signature Sound, and most recently the Inspirations again.

Some songs are signature songs for a group. What makes a song a Southern Gospel classic?

To pass the initial threshold, of course, it has to be a great song with a timeless message. It has to not only be a great song, but a song that connects with the fans. That’s the minimum threshold. But I think there’s a little more.

I believe that a song becomes a Southern Gospel classic when it “belongs” to no particular group but rather to the genre itself.

Several current songs have met that standard, one of which I named earlier. Others hopefully will. Let’s save the discussion of which songs are modern-day classics for another post. For today, let’s just see how well we agree on the definition itself.

Since leaving Brian Free and Assurance a few months ago, it seems as though the launch of Keith Plott’s solo career has gone largely under the radar screen of most Southern Gospel news providers and fans. This will hopefully end with the release of Plott’s new self-titled solo project. This custom project is produced by Plott and Matt Massey, with Plott’s wife Bobbi listed as an executive producer. Danny Funderburk, Brad Hudson, and the Ruppes are among the vocalists who contributed background vocals to the project.

The album includes several songs that are new to me–”I Hear My Father Calling Me” “Everyday,” and “It’s Enough.” The Ruppes join Plott for “It’s Enough.”

The project also includes quite a few cover songs. Plott puts more of a country than most bass singers can pull off into “Long Black Train,” while using a more Southern Gospel vocal style on “How Beautiful Heaven Must Be” and “I Can’t Even Walk.” Plott has listed George Younce as one of his heroes, and Younce’s influence shows on Plott’s rendition of the Cathedrals song “Hold Me.”

One of the standout tracks on the CD–one that got me to hit the repeat button immediately–is Plott’s cover of the Happy Goodmans song “For Loving Me.” I venture to say that his rendition improves on the original, which is no small compliment for a relatively low-budget custom project being compared to a full-production album by a top Southern Gospel group.

Plott hits some of the highest notes in the CD in this song–namely, middle C at several points, and then D-flat after the song transposes at the end. And yet, even at the upper ends of his range, his voice still has an unmistakable bass quality. This is the sort of versatility that a bass is rarely permitted on a quartet recording–and thus it provides one of the main reasons to purchase the solo projects of a bass singer who is more than just a freak-of-nature low-note specialist.

This versatility is also in evidence on the next song on the CD, “I’d Rather Have Jesus.” Plott utilizes the upper end of his range to good effect on this song, which is another favorite from the CD.

When a singer leaves a group to start a solo career, fans of the group are often curious about which featured songs from that group–if any–the singer will take with him. The only distinctively Brian Free & Assurance song Plott records on this CD is “Jesus Will Pick You Up” from It’s So God. He records it in the same key–B-flat–that he used with Brian Free and Assurance, but for some reason it seemed higher than the original during my first casual listen through the CD.
The CD starts slow musically but builds to a strong finish. I don’t give the graphic design quite as high of a ranking since no songwriter / copyright information is given. However, since that is unfortunately pretty standard on most non-major-label Southern Gospel projects, I can’t fault the project much.

Those who enjoyed Plott’s singing with Safe Harbor and Brian Free & Assurance should definitely enjoy this project. General Southern Gospel connoisseurs will also find much to like about the project. For more information on Keith Plott, or to purchase the CD, visit http://www.keithplott.com/.