averyfineline

I don’t know when I encountered the Greenes for the absolute very first time, but my first memory of their music is being packed in with a bunch a guys in a run-down dirt-beige Ford Tempo on the way to a singing somewhere in southern Missouri. “More Precious Than Gold” was playing in the tape […]

Over the years, there have been, as far as I can tell, some pretty ridiculous stories circulating out there about me. I’ve heard the one about my sanity having been addled by brain cancer, and then the one about my sanity having been addled by AIDS. There’s the one about my having moved to Florida […]

So what are the takeaways from my experience this year at NQC? I don’t have any grand narrative or essayistic reflection to give you. Just some thoughts that have surfaced after a day or so of sleep, reflection, and return to the ordinary world of everyday life.
The absence of the Fan Awards left NQC without […]

The spirit mostly seemed to keep its own counsel apart from me on this final night of NQC 10, save for some lovely moments in Stan Whitmire’s accompaniment of Chris Allman on “Blessed Assurance.” Tonight was a marked improvement over last night, but that only meant that things were mostly serviceable and ordinary, though I […]

I may or may not decide to weigh in at my usual length tonight. I’m going to let the spirit move. In the meantime, feel free to talk amongst yourselves about what you’re hearing, whether in the hall or from afar.

I took no notebook and made sure MNP insisted I surrender the extra ink pen I keep in my pocket in case I tried to jot notes on my hand (h/t, Sarah Palin) and just sat and listened. Which is just as well. The event wasn’t about music as much as memories and reunions, a […]

Today’s honor goes to Harold Reed, tenor for the Kingsmen:
hey thanks for mentioning me twice in your usual useless banter. i will never defend my singing nor should i have to but if you were a real man, my wish would be for you to come find me and give me your critique […]

These are particularly or specifically NQC related, but a couple of conversations I’ve had made the following timely.
1. The first is just to note that just yesterday I got to hear some material from the (not southern gospel) bluegrass group, Balsam Range. As bluegrass followers doubtless know and I found out, Tim Surrett, formerly of […]

From across the way, IrishLad, our favorite reader from Ireland, offers a diagnosis in response to my response to last night:
I think what happens when you go to the NQC year after year (i nearly said KFC there, some weird sort of Freudian slip to do with the food stands no doubt) one suffers from […]

There are basically two types of NQC fans: the True Believers, a varietal of the Joyful Noisers, for whom the music matters to the degree that it affirms bedrock beliefs about gospel music’s religious superiority and cultural uniqueness (and for whom technical or artistic proficiency matters less than celebrating the tried and true), and what […]