One day, Sue C. Smith was driving around Nashville thinking about ideas for Christmas songs. “It was spring,” she recalls, “so of course we were all writing Christmas, because that’s what you do as a songwriter!” She adds, “I was thinking about Mary and Joseph and how, even though Mary had been visited by an …
The Essential Songwriter Collection series lists ten songs each from legendary songwriters that every Southern Gospel fan should add to their collections. “Aloha Time”: Blackwood Brothers, Beautiful Isle of Somewhere, 1960. Bill Shaw James Blackwood makes one of the most challenging Southern Gospel tenor parts ever written seem effortless. “Because of Him”: Weatherfords, Golden Gospel Favorites. There …
The Essential Songwriter Collection: J.D. Sumner Read More »
Past the Press Release is an interview series featuring a new member of a professional Southern Gospel group. It’s a chance to look past the standard “excited to be here” press release comment and learn a little more about them. Meet new Dixie Melody Boys lead singer Mike Rogers, whose hire will be officially announced …
Past the Press Release: An Interview with Mike Rogers Read More »
Past the Press Release is an interview series featuring a new member of a professional Southern Gospel group. It’s a chance to look past the standard “excited to be here” press release comment and learn a little more about them. Meet new Kingsmen tenor Chris Jenkins! Daniel: Have you grown up around Southern Gospel your …
Past the Press Release: An Interview with Chris Jenkins Read More »
I recently had the opportunity to interview Haskell Cooley, who played piano for the Cathedrals from 1974-1979. Listen in to this fascinating conversation! Daniel: When did you first become interested in Gospel Music? Haskell: All right. I was raised up in church, hearing the old hymns of the church, and hearing how beautiful the melodies …
In Southern Gospel, what do we call a rousing, dramatic orchestrated song? We often call it a ballad. But we don’t use the term “ballad” for just that; we’ll use it for any slow song. So we have any number of qualifiers for the term: “soft ballads” (“There’s Something About That Name”) “big ballads” (a …
This was originally published in four installments. By popular request, all four posts have now been combined into this single, 5350-word mega-review. Today, according to CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International), the 10 most popular songs in American churches are, in order, “How Great is Our God,” “Mighty to Save,” “Our God,” “Blessed Be Your Name,” …
Album Review: Beyond the Sunset (Cathedral Quartet) Read More »
‘Tis the season . . . where people complain about how the familiar Christmas carols are too overdone. Granted, there’s some truth to the complaint. But this is a glass-half-full sort of website, so let’s look at ten Christmas songs that aren’t overdone. At The Right Time (Booth Brothers, Carry On, 2007, on YouTube here): The Booth Brothers …
Tim Duncan recently launched a solo career. He also recently started performing with a new group, Canton Junction; a recently posted video of the group circulated so quickly that it picked up over 9,000 views in two or three weeks’ time. Daniel: It has been four years since the last time I interviewed you for …
At a concert last night, Roger Talley mentioned that, following Lauren’s recent wedding to Brian Alvey, Brian will be joining the group (hat tip, DBM). [EDIT, 3/16/13: Broken link removed.] I caught up with him this afternoon: Daniel: I heard you mentioned earlier this week that Brian Alvey will be joining the group. Is this true? …