Worth Knowing

• Congratulations to my younger brother (and occasional SouthernGospelBlog.com contributor) Michael on his homeschool high school graduation this afternoon!
• When the Gaither Vocal Band released their most recent mainline, Pure and Simple, there was some discussion over the fact that they had recorded several tracks listed in early listings that didn’t make the final cut. Two of these tracks, “On the Road to Emmaus” and a showstopping acapella rendition of “One Voice,” are now available in a Walmart-exclusive edition of Best of Homecoming 2013 (retailing for $10). The CD is available elsewhere, but without the two exclusive tracks.

Worth Watching

About a month ago, we embedded a video of the Collingsworth Family rehearsing “Burdens Are Lifted at Calvary” for their upcoming hymns album. Here’s a video of them doing it live in concert:

Talk about a moment that reminds you why we love Southern Gospel!

Also, here’s one of our first glimpses of David Mann’s Promise Trio with new baritone singer Matt Baker:

Worth Discussing

It’s open thread Saturday—you decide!

Worth Knowing

• The Library of Congress has selected the Blackwood Brothers’ recording of “Crossing Chilly Jordan” as one of the 25 annual selections added to their National Recording Registry of historic audio recordings. Other inductees in this 2012 class include the first recording from space and Jimmie Davis’s 1940 recording of “You Are My Sunshine.”
• The Gaither organization has launched Gaither.tv. It’s a monthly subscription service ($4.99/month) that offers, among other things, access to the complete library of Homecoming TV specials, certain complete concert videos streamed each month, and other exclusive footage. The idea has merit, but also offers great potential for confusion; after all, the annual Gaither.com site memberships ($34.95/year) are also still available. Will content that was previously exclusive to Gaither.com members now also be made available to Gaither.tv members, cutting down on the value of the new subscription? Will it be Gaither.tv exclusive, cutting down on the value of the old subscription? Or will it be made available to both, cutting down on the exclusivity of both subscriptions?
• Southern Gospel record industry veteran John Mathis has launched a new blog, southerngospelindustry.com.
• Songwriter Ricky Free has signed with Daywind Music Publishing.
• The Gospel Music Association’s Dove Awards ceremony returns to Nashville.
• James Lawson, promoter of the long-running concert series at the Canton Palace Theater in Canton, Ohio, is retiring from his promotion of the series. Quite a bit of Gospel Music history went down at this theater, including the taping of Legacy Five and Greater Vision’s classic Live at the Palace video.
• Brian Free & Assurance baritone Derrick Selph and his wife Jennifer are expecting their second child.

Worth Watching

The McKameys were in the studio this week; this video sneak peek was posted:

Worth Discussing

It’s open thread Saturday—you decide!

Worth Knowing

• Mark Lowry slipped on a tile in his house and broke a femur. He will not be able to put any weight on that leg for 6-8 weeks, necessitating a rescheduling of all of his January concerts. In classic Lowry style, he added: “And, yes, it is the same leg I broke in the motorcycle wreck in 2005. I still have one good leg left.”
• Debra Talley announced the upcoming release of her first book, God Moments in an Ordinary Life.

Worth Reading

• Danny Jones’ post on “new” groups in Southern Gospel is a must-read!
• Via Musicscribe [EDIT, 3/16/13: Broken link removed], here’s a post from successful CCM songwriter Regie Hamm about whether it is even possible to make a living at writing songs anymore. Readers here have a fairly consistent interest in how the financial side of Christian music works; this post pulls back the curtain more than most.

Worth Watching

Lauren’s SG Blog was present to blog and take videos at the final concert by Gerald Williams’ Melody Boys Quartet on December 31. Here’s her blog post; here are two videos:

This is the final song of the night; current and past members gathered on stage for these final moments:

Worth Discussing

It’s open thread Saturday—you decide!

Song Snapshots is a column featuring the stories behind new and classic Southern Gospel songs.

In the late 1990s, Southern Gospel songwriter Ray Scarbrough hosted Holy Land tours. He wrote “Glory to God in the Highest” on a hotel room balcony on the Mount of Olives, overlooking the Eastern Gate of the Old City.

“One morning,” he recalls, “I woke up on the Mount of Olives in the hotel that I was staying in, going out on my balcony before dawn. Later that day, we were actually supposed to be visiting the shepherds’ field in Bethlehem. I was pondering what actually happened at that place.”

His songs have a recognizable fingerprint. “The way that I learned how to write is to have a Biblical message in the first verse and a practical message in the second verse. The chorus always has this nice little bow that ties everything together.”

But he had an idea that would make the song unique: “While I was there in Jerusalem, my intent was to actually find somebody to actually translate a chorus of it into Aramaic. The problem is, given the fact that it’s an ancient language, if you can find somebody who actually speaks Aramaic, they likely as not couldn’t write it or translate it for you. So the easiest thing for me to do was have someone translate a chorus of it into Hebrew.”

The Talleys recorded it on their 2000 It’s Christmas album. Roger Talley discovered the song when he produced an album for a group Scarbrough ran, Lion Heart. “I knew I had Roger coming in to produce,” Scarbrough recalls. “I was trying to draw from his strength as a producer in writing the songs. I was aiming for material that that more progressive Southern type material like the Talleys would do.” It worked; the Talleys ended up cutting two other songs from that Lion Heart album, “Pray” and “There’s Not a Cry.”

Scarbrough recalls that the Talleys recorded the track with the specific purpose of including it on a Gaither Christmas video taping (Christmas: A Time For Joy, released in 2001). Bill Gaither, as he recalls, prompted a change in the song’s title. “The original title was actually ‘What I Had Been.’ I think it was Gaither’s idea to title it ‘Glory to God’ and make it sound more Christmasy.’” (“What I Had Been” is the chorus’s closing line; “Glory to God” is its opening line.)

Mike Speck also released the song as a Christmas choral arrangement.

Videos

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp-lpTi625I?rel=0]

Worth Knowing

• Dove Brothers tenor Keith Casstevens has been replaced by former Dove Brothers tenor Jonathan Price. Musicscribe interviews Casstevens and group manager McCray Dove, who explain that the change is amicable, and that Casstevens will continue to work for the Dove Brothers in booking. [EDIT, 3/16/13: Broken link removed.]
• David Heil, father of The Gospel Greats’ Paul Heil, passed away Tuesday morning. He was 93.

Worth Watching

Gaither Studios has released a preview of the upcoming Pure and Simple, Volumes 1 and 2 DVD set:

Also, don’t miss one of the funniest lip-sync videos you’ll ever see, here. It’s a video of four boys from Florence Baptist Temple in Florence, SC lip-syncing to a J.D. Sumner parody.

Worth Discussing

It’s open thread Saturday—you decide!

Worth Knowing

• Sunlite Radio, long known for airing Paul Heil’s The Gospel Greats on demand, now offers Bill Gaither’s Homecoming Radio on demand.
• Phillip Collingsworth Jr. has launched a blog at phillipcollingsworth.wordpress.com.
• Worth Reading: Musicscribe’s take on things that matter more than a charting song and getting a bus. [EDIT, 3/16/13: Broken link removed.]

Worth Watching

Somehow every decade that passes makes this song even more timely:

Worth Discussing

It’s open thread Saturday—you decide!

Is it possible for truly great songs from truly great songwriters to be overdone?

If such a thing is possible, then our genre has probably never seen songs more overdone then those that have left the pens of Bill and Gloria Gaither. There’s no question that the songs themselves bear a timeless greatness. However, after hundreds of renditions, it is a nearly impossible task to offer a creative new arrangement that doesn’t traverse all-too-familiar ground.

That’s not all. The artist here has recorded projects so innovative that they have raised the bar for themselves as much as for the genre. It doesn’t matter if you are a newcomer or the genre’s most popular artist; it’s nearly impossible to top projects like The Blind Man Saw It All and Declaration.

Let it suffice to say that fans come to a Booth Brothers project with incredibly high expectations. Does A Tribute to the Songs of Bill and Gloria Gaither meet or surpass those expectations?

It all depends on how you look at it. This project does not have the exuberant progressive energy of The Blind Man Saw it All or the orchestrated majesty of Declaration. If you come to the project hoping for either direction—Gaither songs given a cutting-edge progressive treatment or a majestic orchestral treatment—you will walk away disappointed.

It seems they were aiming for an entirely different target. Yes, there are moments of brilliance, but it is brilliance of an completely different variety. The strongest moments on the album are both relatively subdued—”Through” and “Tell Me.” Both tracks are likely to go down in the annals of Southern Gospel lore as the definitive renditions, surpassing the previous benchmarks of the respective Gaither Vocal Band versions.”Through” is a lush masterpiece, a perfect capstone to the recording. The only moment on the album more exquisite than Melissa Brady’s guest solo on “Tell Me” is her duet with tenor Michael Booth on the “Like eagle’s wings” verse.

The two new songs are also worthy of mention; “I Played in the Band and Sang in the Choir” is a fun toe-tapper, while “Let the Healing Begin” is the strongest new Gaither composition since “A Picture of Grace.”

On first listen, the remaining eleven tracks may strike you as unremarkable. In point of fact, they do bear a surface resemblance to previous renditions. But dig a little deeper; it’s the subtle unison line here and the changed chord there that evince an understated (but very real) creativity.

This album isn’t the one you play during your morning workout. (That would be The Blind Man Saw it All.) It’s also not the one you play when you’re in the mood for a triumphant proclamation of the majesties of our God. (That would be Declaration.) If you’re looking for the next Declaration or Blind Man, you’re bound to walk away disappointed. This is the album you play in the quiet times—in the still of the night, in the valley, or at the close of a long day.

This, it seems, is the target for which the Booth Brothers were aiming. Many of the tracks are subdued, relaxing, and calming. The arrangements are so consistent that even the faster songs don’t seem out of place. Take one arrangement by itself, and it might not seem all that remarkable. But take each as a puzzle piece, and the bigger picture emerges. The arrangements share a sonic consistency that makes the project something to be experienced in its entirety.

Depending on what you’re looking for, this album is either an utter disappointment or a stroke of sheer genius. We think there is a place for albums for the quiet times in life, and we think this is the finest recorded in recent years. So we’ll take the latter interpretation and assign it five stars. 

Worth Knowing

• Musicscribe found several more details about NQC 2014: It will be a two-venue event, with off-site showcases, and all the seating will be on a flat floor. [EDIT, 3/16/13: Broken link removed.]
• Southern Sound has hired a new tenor, Will Shaw.
• Paul Harkey has made his public debut with Ernie Haase & Signature Sound. Here’s a video (hat tip, Josh).
• Legacy Five has a post on “Getting to Know Matt Fouch” (among other things).

Worth Watching

David Crowder recently showed up at Gaither Studios to record “Because He Lives” with Bill Gaither. Here’s a video of Crowder doing the song live; beyond how cool his beard is, it’s also pretty cool to see his young audience get excited over the song.

Worth Discussing

It’s open thread Saturday—you decide!

Worth Knowing

• Within the last couple of weeks, both Steve Ladd and The Browders have launched Kickstarter projects to fund new recordings. The Browders hit their $7000 goal; Steve Ladd is about 4/5 of the way there, with 25 days to go.
• Welcome Chris Unthank back to Southern Gospel blogging! His first post in the new column, “In the Words of Chris,” is here.
• On Tuesday, I posted that Dianne Wilkinson: The Life and Times of a Gospel Songwriter hit #10 on the Amazon Kindle’s Christian Music book bestseller list. On Wednesday, it hit #3; it’s still in the top 20.

Worth Watching

Here’s a black male quartet, Boyz 4 Christ, covering the Gaither Vocal Band’s “I Believe in a Hill Called Mount Calvary.” Note especially the audience reaction. (Hat tip, Steven G.)

Worth Discussing

It’s open thread Saturday—you decide!

Let’s kick things off with a question. Quite a few groups, including the Booth Brothers, Couriers, Kingsmen, and Statesmen, have recorded the Mosie Lister song “His Grace is Sufficient.” Which rendition is the definitive version?

Is former Perrys pianist Matthew Holt the next pianist for the Gaither Homecoming Tour? That’s what this video, posted by YouTube user Alice Holt Starnes (hat tip, Josh) indicates:

There is no official word yet, but he is at least filling in. He would be a surprising choice, perhaps, since (to the best of my knowledge) he has done little work with the Homecoming core team in the past. Yet he would be every bit as much a wise choice, and here’s why: Not only is he among the best pianists to debut on the Southern Gospel circuit within the past decade, he is also one of the most diverse. Some pianists excel at classical technique, others (like Gordon Mote) excel at country/Studio session piano technique, while yet others (like the Hayes sisters) are masters of convention-style playing. While perhaps the convention-style playing is what Holt is best known for, thanks to his years on the road with the Perrys, his proficiency in each area makes him the Anthony Burger of his generation. For a Homecoming pianist, that’s not a bad thing at all!