SouthernGospelBlog.com

Soul’d Out Quartet, one of this year’s top 5 Horizon Group nominees, is finishing up work on their next project. Their baritone, Tanner Stahl, sent me their new radio single, “He’s Coming Again,” and gave me permission to post it here for you to listen to and even download.

To play the song, just click the song title. To download it, right-click the title. Depending on your browser, select either “Save Link As” or “Save Target As” to save the mp3s to your hard drive.

• He’s Coming Again

This download offer will last through 7 AM EST tomorrow.

EDIT: The download has ended. Thanks for participating!

David Bruce Murray posits that, unlike CCM, an incredibly diverse genre, there is never more than one degree of separation between Southern Gospel artists. In other words, name any two artists (Inspirations and Martins) and you can find a group (Greater Vision) that could conceivably be paired with either in a joint concert.

Does this hold true?

Mike & Kelly Bowling and Blackwood Brothers?

Austin’s Bridge and the Melody Boys Quartet?

What do you think?

On a personal note, this week I released a DVD on the Faith of America’s Presidents. It’s available here. Here are two video clips:

If your browser blocks YouTube, you can watch these directly on my website.

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There is a little more to these off-topic personal posts than might meet the eye. I have never been a big fan of the anonymous-blogger-behind-a-keyboard model. Posting my photo (on the “about” page) and these video clips helps me be a little more recognizable, and thus accountable. It serves as a check that keeps me from running a needlessly critical story or unsubstantiated rumor, since any of you (fans or artists) could recognize me at a concert and call me on it. And I think that’s a good thing.

On Saturday, Singing News posted the top 5 ballot for the Singing News Fan Awards. If you are a Singing News reader, you can click here to view the ballot and cast your vote.

I am in contact with enough of the nominees that I am reluctant to post my specific votes. But I will note that except voting for the Perrys in five categories, I spread out my votes fairly widely: Signature Sound (3), Mark Trammell Trio (2), Kingdom Heirs (2), Greater Vision (2, including Favorite Artist), and one each to the Hoppers, Collingsworth Family, Mark Bishop, Soul’d Out, Dixie Echoes, and Kyla Rowland.

Things to watch this year:

• Favorite Pianist: Since it’s been Roger Bennett’s award for years, it’s wide-open this year. Jeff Stice is the only previous winner on the ballot, but any of the five could feasibly win. Both of my favorite pianists (Kim Collingsworth and Stewart Varnado) are in the top 5, and I’d be delighted if either won.
• Favorite Artist: The Booth Brothers were the only trio nominated last year, and won. This year, there are two trios and three quartets. Could having two trios in the top 5 change the dynamics a little?
• Member Changes: Will either Jason Waldroup or Jonathan Wilburn take home farewell awards? My take: Jason Waldroup stands a better chance than Jonathan Wilburn, since Bruce Taliaferro has had more time to make his own mark with Gold City and to start building his name ID as Gold City’s lead singer.
• Will Greater Vision’s tenor change help or hurt them in the Favorite Artist and Favorite Trio categories?

Let’s wait to post our final guesses as to who will win until we’re closer to the Fan Awards, for the decidedly prosaic reason that the post will be easier to find to compare our guesses with the results.

Just for fun, I decided to count how many news roundup posts I’ve done. I’ve done 15 to date, so that makes this one #16. Here are some of the stories that I didn’t get to over the week:

• Legacy Five baritone Scott Howard had an emergency appendectomy a day or two ago, while Legacy Five was on their Hawaiian cruise. The surgery went without complications and he is on the mend.
• The Prophets Quartet announced the release of their (re)debut project, I’ll Follow. It includes a song I wrote, “One Thing the Father Forgets,” featuring bass singer Mike Allen. This is the first time a Southern Gospel group has recorded one of my songs. (While I write most of my songs solo, this one I co-wrote with Prophets lead singer Paul Jackson.)
• Greater Vision tenor Jacob Kitson’s brother-in-law, Dave Mann, has joined Eighth Day, a mixed trio. Kitson and Mann previously performed together in The Kitsons, a regional (Michigan) Southern Gospel group.
• Vine Records will be releasing the final project by Naomi and the Segos, Happy Ending, on June 24.
• The Collingsworth Family will be featured on Daniel Britt & Friends next week. The program will air on XM Satellite Radio’s enLighten 34 at 7 PM ET Monday, 10 PM ET Thursday, and 12 Noon ET Saturday. After the broadcast, it will be available for download from www.danielbritt.com.

Rating: **** (of 5)

Producer: Wayne Haun

Song List: O Worship the King; Mysterious Ways; Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus; I See a Crimson Stream; Near the Cross; Surely God is Able; What a Friend We Have in Jesus; Be Still My Soul; Let the Lower Lights Be Burning; When God Dips His Love in MY Heart; The Savior is Waiting; When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.

Available from: Janet Paschal, Vine Records, Springside, Amazon, ChristianBook.com.

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In 2005, Janet Paschal walked through the valley of the shadow of death, fighting cancer. During that time, the hymns she memorized as a child came back to her and took on new meaning. She had never recorded a hymns project before, and decided to do one that was both “authentic and really different.”

The album’s twelve tracks are diverse and innovatively arranged. The first four songs serve as a preview for the styles on the rest of the album; a majestic, classical arrangement of “O Worship the King” (accompanied by the Prague Philharmonic) is followed by the black Gospel song “Mysterious Ways,” a simple piano-based arrangement of “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus,” and the Appalachian-flavored “I See a Crimson Stream.” The latter song is one of the project’s highlights; the backing vocals were originally performed by Paschal herself. A new vocal arrangement of the song replacing these vocals with a trio consisting of Paschal, Charlotte Ritchie, and Sheri Easter is the project’s current single.

These four styles are interwoven throughout the rest of the project. The fully orchestrated classical feel is most evident on a majestic rendition of “Be Still, My Soul.” Black Gospel influences are evident on “Surely God is Able,” “When God Dips His Love in My Heart,” and “Let the Lower Lights Be Burning.” “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” is arranged in an Appalachian style.

The project’s closing song, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” was recorded live with an organ and choir at Belle Mead United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee.

This project’s selections range from the familiar to the forgotten, from the fast to the slow. But it manages to do this in a way that doesn’t seem forced; the diversity becomes a sweeping and inclusive celebration of faith.

A little while back, I came across an interesting website called iTunesRegistry.com. How it works is pretty simple: You create a free account, upload your automatically generated iTunes XML file, and the website provides all kinds of statistical analyses on your data. It generates a profile which you can share publicly if you so choose; here is mine.

It’s not perfect; occasionally it mistakes a song for one of similar length. For example, despite what this says, I don’t have any Hank Williams songs in my collection and couldn’t pick his voice out of a lineup.

But the analyses it does provide are fascinating. For example, while iTunes can tell you your most played 25 tracks, it can combine playcounts from tracks on a project to tell you your most played project. My top 10 most played albums (over the last 2 or 3 years):

• Look No Further - Perrys (I already knew this was my most played project, but didn’t know the rest)
• Once Upon a Cross - Mark Trammell Trio
• Timeless Treasured Hymns 2 - Liberty
• Sings Albert E. Brumley Classics - Cathedral Quartet
• God is Faithful  - Collingsworth Family
• Sounds of Sunday - Dixie Echoes
• Snow  - Von Trapp Children (I like Christmas music!)
• Old Time Gospel Songs Vol. 1 - Liberty Quartet
• Going On with the Song - Kingdom Heirs
• (tie) Hymns of the Ages - Greater Vision
• (tie) Light from Heaven - Lacey Family

It doesn’t just tell you the top 10–it lists all of your albums in order. Here’s my complete list.

It also goes beyond albums to tell you which artists are the most played. My top 10 over the last 2-3 years:

• Cathedral Quartet (2984 total song plays)
• Florida Boys (1487)
• Kingsmen (1307)
• Liberty Quartet (1124)
• Perrys (999)
• Greater Vision (992)
• Blue Ridge Quartet (986)
• Blackwood Brothers (966)
• Kingdom Heirs (875)
• Various Artists (808)

My complete list is here. This sort of thing provides all kinds of surprises; for example, I would have never guessed that I had played Liberty Quartet more than the Perrys, Legacy Five, Signature Sound, and several other groups I’ve been listening to as long as I’ve been listening to Southern Gospel. I’ve only been listening to Liberty for about 6-9 months now. I would also have never guessed that the Blue Ridge Quartet would rank higher on my list than the Mark Trammell Trio, Legacy Five, and the Happy Goodmans.

For those of you who play your music (or a good portion of it) via iTunes, I’d be fascinated to see your statistics. Perhaps you can post links to your profiles in the comments. The link to your publicly viewable profile looks like this: http://www.itunesregistry.com/home/danielmount, except you would insert your username.

Coomer Cove notes an interesting discovery occuring during his search for LordSong concert dates. He came across a website for a group called Sisters, which appears to be LordSong without Michael Lord. They currently have more concert dates listed than LordSong. (LordSong only has two multi-day private events listed currently.)

They have released an album, and the sound clips seem to indicate that it’s a mixture of progressive tracks and more traditional Ruppes numbers.

Up to this point, if you wanted to send written correspondence or mail review copies of a CD to SouthernGospelBlog.com, you had to email for a street address. This is about to change, however; I set up a P.O. Box to cover blog correspondence: P.O. Box 5271, Mansfield, OH 44901.

The Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting is being held this week in Indianapolis, Indiana. That last detail could shed some light on what would otherwise be a slightly surprising item in the schedule: In this morning’s opening session, from 9:05-9:15 AM, the Gaither Vocal Band will be doing a music feature.

What makes this slightly surprising is that at least the Gaither part of the Gaither Vocal Band isn’t Southern Baptist. (I believe his church affiliation is with the Church of God (Anderson). But perhaps it is due to the local connection, as Gaither is unquestionably one of the best-known artists in any genre of Christian music based in Central Indiana.

A link to watch live streaming video of conference proceedings is available on the conference’s main page. So if you want to catch their appearance, tune in at 9:05 AM EST this morning.

Update (6/11/08, 9:28 AM): Here is the video. Interestingly, in the onscreen identification, they’re listed as “Gaither Vocal Band - Contemporary Christian Artists.”