Daniel J. Mount
Daniel J. Mount
Song Snapshots is a column featuring the stories behind new and classic Southern Gospel songs. Songwriter Lee Black got his start in the mid-1990s with a Brian Free & Assurance cut, “Flood the Altar.” He signed with Daywind Music Publishing for several years, and got a number of cuts with artists like Ivan Parker, the…
Southern Gospel projects are often quite predictable—too predictable, many say. Some of Southern Gospel’s most popular songs are recorded so often that when I compiled a list of Southern Gospel’s 200 most frequently recorded songs, several were on 10% or more of all table projects! With that in mind, I have often thought it would…
The Great Commission calls us to make disciples—not just converts. Last night, I heard a presentation from a missionary heading back to Malawi. He reflected on this point, observing: “The church cannot live on converts alone. Converts will not multiply themselves. Disciples will.” Tens of thousands—perhaps hundreds of thousands—have been converted at Southern Gospel concerts. Some…
Was America founded as a Christian nation? Is America a Christian nation today? A large percentage of the heated debate on these questions stems from a lack of clarity when defining terms. What makes a country a Christian country? There are several possibilities: 1. A nation under the direct personal and physical rule and reign…
The Essential Songwriter Collection series lists ten songs each from legendary songwriters that every Southern Gospel fan should add to their collections. God Saw a Cross (Kingsmen, Missing People, 2009). These lists stick to recorded versions—otherwise, Ernie Phillips’ show-stopping renditions during the half-year he filled in with the Kingsmen, earlier this year, would be named here….
We have featured interviews with Ernie Haase three times before. So when we had the chance to interview him this time, we skipped the background questions and dove right in! Daniel: Your last recording of (mostly) new songs, Dream On, came out over three years before this one. Well, to be precise, 3 years, 3…
Last night, Michael Booth did an online presentation on Keeping the Gospel in Gospel Music. It was a paid workshop, presented in conjunction with the American Society of Gospel Music. He began with the story of how he became involved in Southern Gospel music. The Booth Brothers first sang together in 1989, singing part-time through…
The generational tragedy in Belfast, Northern Ireland is so far removed from Americans’ way of life and culture that it is hard to even imagine life in Belfast. For centuries, Roman Catholics and Protestants have been at odds, with generations of ongoing armed conflict and skirmishes being a routine way of life. So when I…
To me, the essence of what makes music compelling is not the melody, the arrangement, or the quality of the vocal—though all three will affect whether I like a piece. The heart is the story that is told in that four-minute time span, those twelve, sixteen, or twenty lines. This is why my efforts in…
For those of you who enjoyed Fireproof and Expelled, another independent Christian movie is coming out for a limited one-week release in about a week, (hopefully) to a theater near you. The Widow’s Might is a film produced by two Christian teenagers in Texas, both recent homeschool graduates. The film is a western musical dealing…