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Because I’m sure many of you watched the Oscars last night and woke up this morning thinking, “why aren’t there more movies about southern gospel music?”, here’s a clip via southerngospelcritique that might help answer your post-Oscar query, from the 1966 non-event movie, Sing a Song For Heaven’s Sake:

For some background on the movie, check […]

I’ve got a new piece up over at one of my favorite online magazines, Religion Dispatches, about the cultural capital of the black gospel choir. I take as my text for the day that “Imported from Detroit” Chrysler/Eminem ad from the Super Bowl. Money quote:
Enveloped in this reverential aura, Eminem swivels toward the camera, points […]

Sales of digital music are way down in the past five years.

For something a little different, let’s try a themed open thread. This one: awards, contests, and appearances. Here we go.

The NQC lineup for the mainstage and showcases is out. The  most talked about issue: Ed O’Neal’s Dixie Melody Boys being left on the mainstage in this their 50th Anniversary year. David Bruce Murray has given […]

Ok, so I’m looking for any film, tv show, advertisement, or other product of pop culture that memorably makes use of a black gospel choir (yes, I’ve already thought of the “Imported from Detroit” ad).
Ready, set, crowdsource.

Regular readers no doubt know of my longstanding impatience with plastic, overproduced karaoke passed off as “live” music, and these days that means I’m more likely to find something compelling on a rehearsal video than in concert. Which explains my attraction to the two clips below that have been making the rounds lately.
First up, via […]

The events unfolding Egypt are a long way from southern gospel music, obviously, but watching the massive crowds assemble in Cairo and then reading some of the attempts online to guesstimate the size of these gatherings brought two things to mind: 1)I am spectacularly crappy at crowd guesstimation whenever I have to give it a […]

Via one of Avery’s favorite readers, CVH:
here’s some breaking news…Tim Duncan is teaming up with Tim Parton (late of L5), Bjorn Issacson (from Sweden - you saw him on the Homecoming video from Stockholm), Mark Ivey from Atlanta and Logan Smith to form a new quartet called Bjorn Again. The only catch is their shows […]