The Dixie Melody Boys just announced that baritone singer Steven Cooper has been experiencing vocal issues so severe that doctors are advising several years of vocal rest. But he’s not leaving the group; he will move to bass guitar. They plan to hire a baritone singer who can also play piano and bring back a live band.

Cooper commented: “”I want to thank everyone for their concern and understanding over the last year. It has been difficult time having to go through this as a singer. I hope that someday my voice will return and I will be able to sing again. I ask that you will keep me in your prayers as I trust God for a healing. I also want to thank Ed, Matt and Mike for their support in this change and for allowing me to remain a member of the group.”

Is it a coincidence that Paul Harkey is wearing a short tie on Glorious Day‘s album cover?

Ernie Haase thinks visually; small details don’t escape him. It’s probably no coincidence that Harkey’s debut album cover with the group has a distinct visual connection to the era that took the group to the top of the genre some eight years ago.

While recently departed bass singer Ian Owens’ voice was a cultured and perhaps even high-church departure for the group, Harkey brings back the excitement and flair of the Tim Duncan era. In fact, a fan of the group eight years ago who hearing the group on the radio today, might not even notice that there had been a bass singer change. Given how beloved Duncan was, and that his eight years with the group included the group’s most popular era to date, this is hardly a bad thing.

Harkey has two stellar solos, “Scars in the Hands of Jesus” and “Two Coats. Both have been historically identified as songs for higher timbres of voices; “Scars in the Hands of Jesus” was a Florida Boys’ tenor feature staple for years, while “Two Coats” is a classic Ralph Stanley bluegrass tune. Harkey’s fresh interpretation of each song makes the songs fully worth this revisiting.

No factor is more determinative of an album’s quality than the strength of its songs. This is the strongest collection of new songs Signature Sound has put together since their 2006 release Get Away Jordan (reviewed here). Besides the two Harkey features already mentioned, other standout tracks include the uptempo quartet song “Water-Walking God” and the mid-tempo-with-a-touch-of-soul Ernie Haase feature “When I Was a Sinner.” There’s also a live acoustic version of “Sometimes I Wonder,” a Doug Anderson feature that was easily the standout track on Signature Sound’s previous mainline, Here We Are Again (reviewed here). 

Ernie Haase is definitely not one to think inside the box. In the decade he has been running Ernie Haase and Signature Sound, he has never gone more than a year or two without trying something dramatically unique. Sometimes his innovations bring the genre forward. Other times (e.g. “Happy Birthday, Anniversary Too” and perhaps “Everytime”), he’s so far outside the box that the Southern Gospel box will never catch up!

Ten years from now, looking back at this project, will we see a couple of things that, in retrospect, look cheesy? Perhaps. But we’re also fairly certain to see a number of things and think that the group was a decade ahead of their time. That’s the risk innovators take.

One aspect particularly stands out: Ten to fifteen years ago, digital studio technology reached a point where vocal and instrumental performances could be enhanced to a level of perfection beyond the best humanly possible performance. Digitally induced perfection quickly caught on in this genre and others. Several of the songs on Glorious Day suggest that Ernie Haase and producer Wayne Haun seem to think that this trend has peaked and run its course. Songs like “Shh, Be Still” and “When I Was a Sinner” aren’t phrased as tightly as similar songs on previous albums. (Put another way, there are slight differences between when group members singing harmony parts start or end a musical phrase.) Could it be that Southern Gospel fans have reached a point where they are ready to prefer performances that are a little less polished and more human? Haase and Haun seem to think so, and I suspect they might be right.

Glorious Day might not be the single strongest recording Ernie Haase & Signature Sound has ever recorded. (“Noah Found Grace in the Eyes of the Lord” stays close enough to previous versions that it would have been more at home on a table project.) But it is the strongest project of new songs they have recorded in six or seven years. If you loved Signature Sound in the Seaton/Anderson/Duncan era, but haven’t been following as closely since, the time has definitely come to give them another chance.

Several days ago, Ernie Haase and Signature Sound passed the 50,000 follower mark on Facebook. That reminded me of an April 2009 post I wrote about Southern Gospel’s following on the platform. Four years ago, the largest Facebook presence on the platform was a Gaither Vocal Band Fans group, clocking in at 2,792 fans. How things have changed!

Here are some of the largest Southern Gospel presences on Facebook today:

1. Jason Crabb: 100,939 likes
2. Friends of Gaither Music: 78,641 likes
3. David Phelps: 68,425 likes
4. Gaither Vocal Band (wiki page): 54,610 likes
5. Guy Penrod: 50, 228 likes
6. Ernie Haase & Signature Sound: 50,183 likes
7. The Hoppers: 23,011 likes
8. Greater Vision: 20,400 likes
9. Michael English: 17,305 likes
10. Gold City: 16,069 likes
11. The Perrys: 15,959 likes
12. Collingsworth Family: 15,287 likes
13. NQC: 15,094 likes
14. Brian Free & Assurance: 13,079 likes
15. Booth Brothers: 11,400 likes
16. Karen Peck & New River: 11,098 likes
17. The Isaacs: 10,946 likes
18. Legacy Five: 10,873 likes
19. The Bowling Family: 10,268 likes
20. Singing News: 10,209 likes
21. Solid Gospel: 10,031 likes
22. Jeff & Sheri Easter: 10,005 likes

Did we miss any Southern Gospel artists with 10,000+ followers?

Last week, as the world was awaiting the results of the Roman Catholic papal conclave, President Obama weighed in on the sort of Pope he hoped would be selected. The New York Times quoted him as saying:

Mr. Obama said he hopes that whoever becomes pope will maintain what he called the “central message” of the gospel.

“That is that we treat everybody as children of God and that we love them the way Jesus Christ taught us to love them,” Mr. Obama said. “I think that a pope that, you know, is that clarion voice on behalf of those issues will, you know, will have a tremendous and positive impact on the world.”

My immediate reaction was not political. My immediate reaction was this. It is one thing for someone to attend a church for twenty-five years, but, for whatever reason, not believe the central message of the Gospel. It is another thing altogether for someone to attend a church for twenty-five years and have no idea what the central message of the Gospel is.

After stewing over this for several days, it occurred to me that I, too, have a responsibility in this area. Hopefully Southern Gospel song lyrics alone would make it impossible for someone to read this site for twenty-five years and still be completely oblivious to the central message of the Gospel. But in matters of eternal importance, it is infinitely better to be safe than sorry.

So here is the real central message of the Gospel:

• “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, KJV).
• “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23, KJV).
• “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” (I Peter 3:18, KJV).
• “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19a, KJV).