averyfineline

Behind the scenes at the EHSSQ dance factory:

Update: I guess I’m not surprised that this video sparked such a flame-war - as pretty much every mention of EHSSQ seems to. But I should say, I posted the clip for two main reasons that have nothing to do with trying to tweak the group (I think […]

I turned in my grades a few days ago, which means the summer is here for me. I know, I know … the hard life of a teacher. I won’t even try to explain how much I actually will be working, just on a much more self-directed schedule than during the academic year.
Instead, let’s talk […]

Until tonight, while I was listening to those “Midnight Cry” clips, I always thought the line in the second verse was:
I see prophecies fulfilled.
But no. In fact, it is, evidently:
I see prophecies fulfilling.
Huh?
First off, put your flame throwers away. I’m not advocating some purist’s hard line here. The song is perfectly comprehensible the way it […]

Kyle Boreing has 20 years worth of Gold City performing “Midnight Cry,” from 1987, 1997, and 2008 (which is Ivan Parker, Jonathan Wilburn, and the new guy with the unpronounceable name on lead, respectively). Check it out. My favorite:

Kyle offers this and the two other videos as “three generations” of a great song. And I […]

Since they’re both among the hippest things going in sg right now, I was curious to see if EHSSQ and Austins Bridge would show up at the Doves. As it turns out: no, on both counts. And that’s too bad, but for different reasons in each case.

EHSSQ was up for multiple Doves, […]

Today I attended the last of this year’s Metropolitan Opera HD Simulcasts. If you haven’t heard of this, it’s a new project the Met launched this year to try to revive opera’s declining fortunes and the Met’s sagging attendance by broadcasting select shows live in High-Def at a couple hundred movie theaters around the country […]

From the “too good not to post” file, quartet-man provides our requisite dose of Friday humor:
This is awful, but years ago when I was but a young lad, the music director and I sang a rousing version of Worthy The Lamb (if I do say so myself.) We took off the wind screens from the […]

In responding to my Harmony Honors post and the ensuing discussion, one of my favorite readers, CVH, includes this wonderful story and correlative conclusion.
I remember being at the CMA (Christian Booksellers Association) convention in 1976 when Benson hosted a concert one night and they trotted out all the top artists on their roster then. Bob […]

If Tuesday night’s Southern Gospel Music Guild’s revamped Harmony Honors were, as we were repeatedly told, a showcase and celebration of sg’s best, then it’d be difficult not to wake up this morning thinking southern gospel music is a creatively impoverished genre populated at most levels by overgrow amateurs.

I don’t believe this is […]

I’m traveling this morning and so am spending some quality time with my iPod. And you know what? Southern gospel singers need to articulate their consonants better. And if they can’t, won’t, or don’t know how, their producer needs to make them.
Just because it’s playing as I type this, I’ll use as an example the […]

So it’s the Gospel Music Association’s annual GMA week in Nashville - the chance for all things Christian music to be spit-shined, showcased, celebrated, branded, and shamelessly promoted (not that there’s anything wrong with that). The big event is, of course, Wednesday night’s Dove Awards (the Christian Grammies). But leading up to that is a […]

Somewhat apropos our discussion of denominationalism in gospel music, the president of the Chicago Theological Seminary surveys a sea of “self-directed” faiths in the U.S., and smiles. (hat tip, NG). “Post-denominational” works nicely with post-gospel, don’t you think?

Or, as Wentley Phipps puts it elsewhere in this Gaither/Homecoming appearance, where he tells a story about the black-and-white origins of “Amazing Grace,” “just the black notes.” If you haven’t already seen it, it’s worth watching, especially for his evocative lecture/sermon/set up. I have no idea how solid his music history or musicology is, but […]

Insightful remarks from Grave Digger on southern gospel’s ambivalent relationship with crossover acts:
I can’t help but feel that professional jealousy had much to do with the treatment the Oaks received from the aforementioned groups that refused to appear on stage with them. The multiple Dove Award winning Oaks could light up a stage like no […]

I haven’t been watching American Idol this year and probably won’t until the final few episodes (and even then I’ll definitely be muting the contrived, cartoonish insipidity of the Randy and Paula Show during the comments sections). But I did stumble across a performance online by Jason Castro singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” with a […]

Reader JT writes to note that the Oak Ridge Boys have a song on the Singing News chart this month … the first time in 30 years, if JT’s math is right. I haven’t yet seen the SN this month, so I can’t say for sure. But JT notes that the song is attached to […]

A while back commenter Tom took me to task for misunderstanding the relationship of artists’ denominational affiliation to their work and its appeal. Specifically, he argued that I was “somehow conflating the holiness tradition and the pentecostal tradition in ways that make absolutely no sense to your argument.”

The comment goes on for some time […]

From commenter John, who’s been mixing up in comments over the price and quality of gospel albums:
I think the genre was better when it was just too expensive for hundreds of groups to release projects.

Somewhat belatedly, I’m finally getting around to posting a link to the transcript of a speech that the (music) marketing guru Seth Godin gave to BMG executives a bit ago. Money quote (hat tip, MG):

[I]f the model that we loved about the record business in 1968 was A&R, taking care of artists, finding […]

It feels like I ask this every year around this time, but is there going to be the annual Southern Gospel Music Guild’s Tuesday night concert at the Hyatt during GMA week? I’ve seen no advertisement or announcements for it, and it’s getting close enough (a week and a half) that one would expect to […]