SouthernGospelBlog.com

Earlier today, it was reported that Mercy’s Mark was disbanding. Their bass singer, Christian Davis, left last week, and their booking agent, the Dominion Agency, pulled all Mercy’s Mark concert dates and any other mention of the group from their website (hat tip, Coomer Cove).

This afternoon, group frontman Garry Jones sent an open letter to the Singing News stating that the group was “temporarily unavailable” to fulfill their remaining 2007 commitments. He added:

In the last few days I have been presented with many exciting possibilities for the future of Mercy’s Mark and am prayerfully weighing each one. I ask that you would please continue to pray for the future of this group and I will keep you informed as things develop.

So the group may be disbanding, and may be staying on the road. At any rate, their future is officially…up in the air. One thing is for sure: Jones has assembled some strong lineups in the past, and certainly stands a change of doing the same again.

My commentary from earlier this morning still mostly holds true:

I was very impressed by the original Mercy’s Mark lineup. Pairing Anthony Facello, Josh Feemster, and Chris West was a move of genius that had supergroup potential. While it took a little longer for me to warm up to the second lineup, with Brent Mitchell, Josh Feemster, and Christian Davis, after hearing them live twice I became convinced that they had one of the best live presentations in Southern Gospel.

It can be hard to keep a group on the road today, and while Jones was producing a quality product, evidently there just wasn’t the demand to meet the supply. Here’s hoping that the talented members of this group will land on their feet in other positions, perhaps with other Southern Gospel groups currently seeking members.

EDIT: 11/14, 4:48 P.M. Updated post with Garry Jones’ open letter.

Recently, the Singing News made several first steps toward improving their radio airplay chart. A website, Gospel Music Coalition, has been announced to complain about those changes. I agree with Musicscribe and Averyfineline that the $7 membership fee seems to be a little tacky.

I am generally supportive of and optimistic about the chart changes. I think that cutting some stations was a necessary first step toward making more fundamental changes, such as implementing digital tracking of spins. Suppose Singing News tries that six months from now. If a station proves reluctant, SN can tell the station that they can either upgrade or forget about being a charting station. Since SN dropped quite a few stations a few months before, that station will know that SN means business.

Suppose a station does refuse and is dropped. One of the stations dropped in this round could be approached about coming back. After they’ve had a few months of getting less attention from radio promoters, they could well be ready and eager to make the financial investment to come back.