Does Southern Gospel Need Youthful Appeal?

Recently I was browsing the Musicscribe mega-blog (which y’all should check out in its full glory here), and I read a contribution from Kyle Boreing about the country/gospel sister act Red Roots. Kyle praised the sisters’ smart, creative marketing choices, holding them up as a tasteful but effective example for the rest of the industry in this area. Specifically, he highlighted their use of radio contests and music videos. And it’s paying off, as they’ve gotten significant airplay and a handful of new artist nominations.

I also like Red Roots and agreed with most of Kyle’s points. However, I gently pushed him a bit on one line in his post. When he listed the sisters’ accomplishments, he added “… and they’re doing it with a youthful appeal that is otherwise SORELY lacking in gospel music.” That wording caught my eye: SORELY lacking.

GaitherVevo: What’s Lady Gaga Doing Next to My Gaithers?

A commentator or two have read my own mind and posted complaints in a previous thread regarding Gaither’s move to create and put officially approved content on a Vevo page. This is something I’ve been planning to discuss myself.

On one hand, I don’t want to diss Gaither Vevo too loudly, since they are making a generous amount of high def. content available for viewers to enjoy. There’s a wealth of material from numerous homecomings and videos, much more than you’ll find other music companies publicly offering. For that, I’m grateful.

Unfortunately, Vevo controls its own wallpaper and “featured” videos which may show up in the sidebar as you’re trying to enjoy your dose of Gaithers. Needless to say, these are often in very bad taste, and may sometimes even contain foul language in the song titles alone. One can try to go to full screen to escape, but some computers will lower the picture quality or slow down considerably in response. In any case, that’s not the sort of the thing one should be forced to think about or deal with when you’re simply browsing Youtube for gospel music.

What makes this doubly awkward is that in conjunction with creating this official channel, EMI has been systematically removing Gaither clips uploaded by other Youtube users on their non-Vevo accounts. This means that if one previously had the option of directing a friend to a non-Vevo link for a given video (with no ugly wallpaper and profane related videos to distract), that option is no longer available.

I realize that there are copyright issues here, and my intent is not to get into the thick of all that. But I think it’s fair to say that if the way you’re circulating your clips makes  it harder for people to watch and enjoy, you may be better off from a marketing perspective leaving unofficially posted clips alone.

Just a thought for the higher-up who’s probably not reading this.

Absolutely Gospel Awards: My Votes

It’s that time of year again—time for southern gospel fans to cast their votes at the Absolutely Gospel Awards. I’m reproducing the list of nominees along with my votes and some comments.

I noticed that there is no category for non-artist songwriters, and I thought it was particularly unfortunate this year since the most notable new songs came from the pens of Lee Black, Barbara Huffman, Dianne Wilkinson, etc. I wonder, would Wayne Haun be counted as an “artist” writer since he does tour and sing with the EHSS band? [Clarification: Chris Unthank has reminded me that there actually is a non-artist writer category, just not one voted on by the fans. Thanks Chris!]

Among the nominated songs, a couple seem a bit old—”Almost Home” and “Homecoming Day” were both big in 2011.  For Tribute Quartet, I felt that “Good News From Jerusalem” or “The Song of Heaven” might be a more current choice. However, those songs haven’t had as much time to find success as “Homecoming Day.”

I must confess that I felt ill-informed in a few of these categories, particularly since there were some artists I didn’t recognize, and not just in the Breakthrough category. In the category for Female Group, I confess that I was unfamiliar with most of the names. I know Sisters and Red Roots. Can someone enlighten me about 2nd Generation, the McClennan Sisters, or Sweetwater Revival? (That’s funny, the first thing I typed from memory was “Cleerwater Revival.” Oldies on my mind.) Also, I noticed that The Williamsons were nominated both for Breakthrough Artist and Fan Favorite. A family group, I presume? I saw on their website that they’ve been singing since 1998. Was there a particular song of theirs that caught folks’ attention this past year? I also don’t recall running across Back Home before, also nominated for Fan Favorite.

Among special event projects, the Lari Goss tribute was a no-brainer. Easiest choice of them all. Go get it if you haven’t already—it’s a fantastic concert DVD.

Here is a full list, with my votes in bold:

NQC Hasty Notes: Saturday Night

It’s over already?? Yes, hard to believe though it is, tonight was the last night of NQC. The singers were tired tonight but gave it their all, and we had some wonderful moments. I think everyone who bought the webcast should have felt like they got their money’s worth. If you’re on Facebook and you bought the cast, be sure to check out the group NQC Webcast Friends 2012. Consider this an NQC Open Thread. I hope you’ve enjoyed my snapshots of each night! Looking forward to next year already!

NQC Hasty Notes: Friday Night

Some good stuff happened tonight! Gaither was in the house and much more. Read on for the penultimate batch of hasty notes…Oh yes, and this installment includes two pictures of David Bruce Murray’s sock. Read on for an explanation of that too…

NQC Hasty Notes: Thursday Night

Crowds are thickening and things are getting more fun! Here’s tonight’s installment.

NQC Hasty Notes: GVB Reunion Showcase

Hi all, I’m coming in at about quarter after 2. Apparently I missed Jim Murray playing cowbell on “Sail On” with the Booth Brothers earlier. But right now Larnelle is hamming it up on “Can’t Stop Talking About Him.” With backup from Wes Hampton, Mike English and Bill.

Now Michael English is singing “Give Up,” and I’m finding out who all’s here. Basically, everybody except three tenors and one lead/baritone (Frankenstein, I mean Gary McSpadden). YIKES, just saw that David Phelps is wearing tight red leather pants. Okedoke.

Now Mark Lowry is singing the baritone part for the National Anthem all by himself because Bill asked him whether he had learned it or not. Funny! Then all the members sang it acapella together. Great moment. Now Russ Taff is singing “Why Me Lord.” They’re doing a very sweet encore. Wes on tenor is really clear. Very sweet. But now Bill is trying to do a 2nd encore and that seems like over-kill to me.

Now Steve Green is introducing “Find us Faithful” with some good words about different kinds of faithfulness—the kind that’s just a self-righteous facade and the kind that’s true and comes from God. Singing it now, and still sounds great. That was an awesome performance, standing-O.

Bill introduced Jon Mohr and said he wrote that song. Jon talking now about Bill’s influence on his songwriting. Very touching. Jon says that he wrote “Passing the Faith Along” by literally bringing each piece to Bill one by one. Now every time he writes he still thinks, “What would Bill think about this?” He asked the audience to give Bill & Gloria a standing-O. Now he’s singing “New Point of View.” Good, we were worried it would be “Rumor Mill.” Still, we only have 15 minutes left, and so far not many power moments. I’m assuming they’ll bring in Guy on something huge? Maybe “I Believe In a Hill Called Mount Calvary?” “Let Freedom Ring?” “Worthy the Lamb?” We’re waiting…

Okay, this is pretty good, “Heartbreak Ridge & New Hope Road.” Russ is taking the lead. I guess this wouldn’t be a bad way to close the set.

Wow, this is a surprise! They’re closing with something called “Glorious Freedom” from _Pure and Simple_.  David Phelps killed it, this is a power ending! Tenors and leads are doing these wild acapella tags. Now I want that project. Cool stuff, great surprise closer.

And that’s all I caught folks! Gotta head off now, I have a very important class that will keep me from watching the Dennis Swanberg showcase. I know you’re heartbroken I won’t be covering it.

I’m told that things were better earlier in the showcase, but even so my impression is that Guy Penrod wasn’t really utilized to his full extent. They gave him two fairly good songs, including “Baptism of Jesse Taylor,” but no “These Are They,” no “Worthy the Lamb,” no “I Believe in a Hill Called Mount Calvary.” This seems like a shame to me. I guess it’s possible that he didn’t feel vocally up to one of those songs anymore, but I still feel like it was a missed opportunity. That’s the main disappointment of this year’s showcase for me. But I’ll have to catch the earlier half later to see what I missed.

NQC Hasty Notes: Quartet Night

Wednesday night was quartet night! Once again, I was unable to watch the webcast straight through the evening (don’t worry folks, I’ll be there for the whole show Friday and Saturday), but I caught most of the show tonight. Enjoy!

NQC Hasty Notes: Tuesday Night

Here’s the latest installment! Enjoy…

NQC 2012 Hasty Notes: Monday Night

I’m writing down my thoughts as they come, just like last year, but I’ll just be able to do a little less this year because I’m a bit busier. But here is what I caught of Monday night… typos and all…