SGM Blog

Upcoming road trip

2006-06-16T00:14:00.000-04:00

A cancelled obligation means I will in fact be able to take my boys to see Ernie and Signature Sound in Greensboro next week. This late notice means we got kinda lousy seats, but oh well. Who do you have to know to get backstage passes?

Who said they don’t have a sense of humor?

2006-06-16T00:06:00.000-04:00

And I’m sure none of you will take advantage of my address label to gain access to the secret catacombs of the Singing News’ website.

Just plain fun

2006-06-15T23:49:00.000-04:00

My three sons are huge NBA fans, so as part of their Christmas present mom and I scored some decent lower-lever seats to the Phoenix-Charlotte game in December. After suffering through a miserable pre-show song from a Destiny’s Child chick, I was surprised to hear them announce that Signature Sound would be singing the national anthem. They put on a really good show, so much so that afterwards, everyone was on their feet, applauding wildly. Here’s a Jumbo-tron shot of the boys:

I did get a little giggle from the marquee running around the stadium:

Bonus fun for the evening: In the second half I took two of my boys out for a concession run. While standing in line at a coffee and ice cream kiosk, I looked back and saw Tim Duncan standing behind me. How cool is that? Shook his hand, made some small talk, called the boys over and told them this was Mr. Tim Duncan. They were polite enough, until I told them this was the “Stand By Me” guy. Then their faces lit up in recognition and they starting chatting away with him. As we neared the counter, Tim asked the attendant if they took Visa. When she said no, he made a little “Oh well” face and started to walk off. “Absolutely not” I said. “This is my treat.” You could tell he felt a little uncomfortable, me being a complete stranger and all, but nevertheless I was able to buy him a cup of coffee and we parted ways. What a cool way to spend an evening.

Where's Waldo?

2005-11-10T01:26:00.000-05:00

To the smattering of emails asking for more postings, I do thank you for the attention. But to be perfectly honest, my interest in SG issues is waning a bit at present, and a myriad of other distractions welcome the opening. These things go in phases, though, so I'm sure I'll get the itch again eventually. A few random thoughts until then:

I hate that Tim left the Kingsmen.
The Salem/Singing News deal could be a really good thing.
What's next, a Gloria Gaither solo project? Please...
Wonder if Phelps has had a "Oh no, what did I do..." moment yet?
Why does Chris look like a thug in all the SS publicity photos?
(From my 6 year old son) Dad, why are there so many diet pill commercials on the SG radio station?
Name another genre where the marque groups sing to tracks.
To the Salem+SN Chart=Conflict Of Interest crowd: Yeah, right. Like the current SN chart has any integrity or validity to begin with.
I miss Kenny Hinson.
Love offerings are stupid.
Oh man, how about a Claude Hopper solo project next?

Missing Kenny - The other one...

2005-10-22T21:50:00.000-04:00

Deals like Singing News being sucked into the Salem world aren’t made overnight. Wonder if this deal is related to the fact KK hasn’t made a post in two months now?

Not so fast

2005-09-27T16:35:00.000-04:00

Avery muses that the Unthank kids may have seen how silly it looks to have a promotion company that writes more about itself than of its clients. Apparently, the one example where they didn’t try to divert attention to themselves was an anomaly. The latest “news release” (They read more like a Mad Libs story than a news release…) shows they’re back to the same tricks.

Just for fun, I divided the Mystery Men talk from the Southern Spin talk in the article, and ran it through Microsoft Word’s statistics counter. Result:

Mystery Men: 201 words
Southern Spin: 196 words

So, roughly 50.6% of the press release is about the Mystery Men, 49.4% is about Southern Spin. I guess next comes the custom designed banner ads (With the Southern Spin watermark clearly splayed across it, of course.)

C'mon...knock it off...I dare ya...

2005-09-24T00:46:00.000-04:00

    It'd been a long time since I methodically visited my entire list of SG blog sites, so tonight I decided to do just that.  I was....surprised... My stop at Global Southern Gospel Radio Blogger is highlighted here:

In closing here is a new policy we have adopted at the station. No radio release will be charted from any compilation GSG Radio receives more than two-weeks after we have heard the music on the local super-duper FM station. We will play the songs for our listeners, however we will not chart any of them. The GSG Radio Top 20 page is hit thousands of times a month, and GSG Radio is a charting station for SGN Magazine, Sogospel News, SGUSA, The Southern Gospel Website and other prominent Industry leaders.

    Let me get this straight:  If the record labels don't get him his CDs by some arbitrary deadline he sets, he'll play their songs but tell the charts he didn't?  I wonder how SGN Magazine, Sogospel News, SGUSA and The Southern Gospel Website feel knowing their charts are being fed fraudulent data?  Does it strike anyone odd that a Christian radio station is threatening Christian record labels that if they don't do what he wants, he's going to lie about them?  And if making him mad will have him play your music but say he didn’t, could being really nice get him to say he played your music, even if he doesn’t?

     It gets better, er, worse... his take on Katrina victims...

Here is a strong statement but I’ll stand by it ‘till I die. Shoot the law breakers. Drop them where they stand. If a person comes out of a Wal-Mart toting a TV, then it’s a looter and blow them away. If a person comes out of a house toting a TV, check their ID, and if they don’t live there, drop them where they stand. I know this idea appalls some people; they believe the justice system should be used, but this is an area of anarchy. There is no justice system in place, places are being robbed and people are being robbed, raped and killed by these heathen.

Excuse me, but weren’t these people told to evacuate before the storm hit? Oh, you say, they were poor and couldn’t evacuate. I’m sorry but the region provided buses for them to go to shelters. They chose not to go, and now they are living like a third world warring country.

     If he thought this bravado would help him carve out some sort of cowboy reputation, he certainly missed the mark.  He comes across as a boorish schoolyard bully.  The industry should be embarrassed that someone associated with Southern Gospel Music is spewing this garbage.  And finally...

It has been brought to my attention that Kirk Talley has a couple of new radio releases.... I doubt that I am ready to start airing his releases at this time. He ministered for years as a Man of God while the whole time he was deceiving God’s people. He says that he has repented, and many are supporting his testimony. I have forgiven Kirk, but I come from the school that says one must prove themselves after a fall

     Although there are dozens of Biblical tenets that strictly contradict his reasoning, it's clear that subtleties like Commandments hold very little influence in his logic.  When you come out in public and pretty much say that ethics, compassion and charity are of no particular concern to you, well, it's not likely quoting scripture will help.

THE blog of Southern Gospel

2005-09-23T09:41:00.000-04:00

Ok, I must admit this is cool. If you enter “Southern Gospel” in Google’s blog search engine, you get this. Look who’s #1…. Woohoo!

You never woulda guessed it by the lack of comments left here, eh?

Proof that Bill Gaither is bigger than Southern Gospel

2005-09-22T16:37:00.000-04:00

    Ok, maybe “proof” is a little strong, but it makes the headline compelling.  While not scientific proof, it’s pretty interesting nonetheless.  I wondered what SG topics were most searched for on Google.  That’s information they don’t provide for free, but for a few bucks (Ok, maybe more than a few, but I never know if my wife reads this or not…) you can get access to things most mortals never see.  I picked out some terms and names I thought relevant, and sent my little spider on its way August 22.  Today is one month later, and I’ve gotten enough numbers back to play with.  Enough teasing, here’s the link to the results.

    It’s not 100% accurate due to a few variables, but it’s close.

    Tell you what.  If you see any terms, phrases or people I left off that you think should have been on the list, leave a comment or email them to me and I’ll let it run another month.  I’ll reset things on October 1 and run a new spider through October 31.  That gives you about a week to get me your submissions.

Most surprising observation:  Michael Combs coming in at #7.  And it wasn’t a big spike or anything, He had solid, stable numbers throughout the month.

Most disconcerting observation: That Avery was edged out by Jerry Goff.
(Most likely because of this guy, but still…)

They're not home yet...

2005-09-21T08:26:00.000-04:00

Last week Avery mentioned the concise but compelling message T.D. Jakes gave at the Washington National Cathedral for the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance Service on September 16. If you missed it, the full text is here and the video feeds are here (Broadband) and here (Dial-up). Listen to it. Then do something.

To be or not to be...

2005-09-01T20:57:00.000-04:00

The Unthank kids have asked if they should shut down sgblognews.

Yes.

Oh yeah...

2005-09-01T20:45:00.000-04:00

Just for you, Chuck, I’ve thrown up a few blogger links over in the pane on the right side (Scroll down, they’re there). I don’t plan on going anywhere.

Crabb Jam

2005-08-26T12:07:00.000-04:00

     I made a last-minute decision last night to take my boys to the Crabb Jam concert in Smithfiel.  It’d been maybe 3 years since they had seen the Crabbs, so the boys (6, 10 and 13) were excited.  (That, and the fact they would get to stay up late on a school night.)

     For the uninitiated, Crabb Jam is a sub-set (or super-set, I don’t know which) of the Crabbs normal concert circuit.  They travel with Crossway and the McCraes, and the focus is on a somewhat younger consumer than the “traditional” Crabb concert (itself focused on a somewhat younger consumer than other SG groups.)

    We arrived about 20 minutes late.  Went to the box office and tickets were $15 each, even the kids.  A prudent man would have checked that before traveling, eh?  So $60 bucks to get in.  Digging through my pockets revealed $58.  As embarrassment set in, the lady at the window just said “That’ll be fine”, took it without comment and in we went.  Obviously we had the worst seats since we were so late, but that’s what happens, I guess.

     The McCraes had mostly finished when we arrived; they were on “There Is A Remedy”.  They milked it pretty well, and the crowd responded well.  Two more songs and they were done.  Despite the shortened exposure, my 13 year old decided afterwards they were his favorite.  I don’t know if it was their singing, or the fact that he’s 13 and they’re cute.  I do know, though, why I loved the Hemphills back in the 80’s when I was a teenager….draw your own conclusions.

     Crossway came up next.  Only three guys?  I thought they were a quartet.  Oh well.  Then they started singing….ok, there are three guys up there, but I only hear one.  The other mics were working a minute ago for the McRaes…. What’s up?  Actually, it all made sense once they got to the introductions and explained everything.  Yes, they’re a quartet, but the tenor had just had triplets and was with mom and kids.  So they made a last minute adjustment, having the baritone move to the tenor spot, and the bass take over baritone.  If you haven’t been in a quartet before, you can’t appreciate how difficult that would be.  Kudos for the effort and you get a pass for not being as up-front and in the mix as would normally be expected.  I can only imagine the train wreck if I had to move up to the baritone part on demand…<shudder> These guys were my 10 year olds favorite.  I think mainly because the baritone-turned-tenor had long hair and looked cool.

     The Crabb set was well done, just as you would expect.  They’ve obviously made an effort to steer from the “Jason and his siblings” show that some media have tried to make them out to be, giving ample face and mic time to Aaron and Adam.  And, truth be told, they came off more than capable of carrying their own weight.  The sisters didn’t get much spotlight during the first set, but that may very well be because you can only do so much in 45 minutes.

     By now it was past 9:00, and with over 2 hours left to drive home, we decided to leave and skip the 2nd set that each group had.  We picked up CDs in the lobby (Thank goodness they take Visa) and headed home.  Had fun, boys liked it, and would do it again if I have the chance.

     Oh, and the obligatory stats:  I guess about 850 people were there, auditorium 90% full.  Average age not really meaningful, as there was a pretty evenly mixed spectrum from 20’s to 60’s it looked like.

     Biggest annoyance was the repeated clap-prodding.  For a long while, it seemed like every song, whoever was singing would yell out “Ya’ll help us out, now!”  The audience always obliged, usually with gusto, so I guess most people liked it.  They also seemed to have a lot of issues with the wireless mics going out, but they always recovered respectfully and professionally.  Whenever a featured Crabb started dropping out, the nearest sibling with a working mic would discreetly swap.  Pretty classy.

    Biggest delight was maybe the effort all the artists went to give the impression (not to say it wasn’t genuine, mind you) that they really liked being there and enjoyed the concert as if it was the only one they did all month.  (In fact, it wasn’t even the only one they had done that day…)  Smiles, singing along, and general playfulness abounded.  That was a nice touch.

In the CD player

2005-08-24T10:46:00.000-04:00

I don’t get around to buying quite a few CDs that I’d like to get, so periodically I’ll have a swap meet with some friends.  Such was the case last week when I scored a copy of Mercy’s Mark first project and Signature Sound’s Great Love project.  Since the theme of the week seems to be mini-reviews, combined with my reputation of being a rather pithy blogger, maybe the “CD Reviewing” bar has been lowered sufficiently for an attempt:

Great Love:  Didn’t care for it.  I generally like SS, but not this time.  Reaching for the “Next” button almost becomes an aerobic exercise when this is playing.  Back in the case it goes.  Borrow this one, don’t buy it.

Mercy’s Mark:  As most everyone else has said, this rocks.  Great songs, great singing, great experience.  Aside from the fact Garry Jones can’t take a decent picture, I can’t find anything to complain about.  Buy it and enjoy.

Hmmm.  Upon further review, my reviews look kinda lousy.  Maybe I should just leave it to the professionals.

Tiny addition

2005-08-24T08:30:00.000-04:00

As requested (albeit quite some time ago), I now have a search box over on the right that lets you search anything I’ve written here. Google powered, of course.

Kenny Arcade

2005-08-23T09:04:00.000-04:00

I just wandered over to Kenny Bishop’s site. Talk about facing things head-on, not only does he acknowledge the buzz that’s been going on about him as of late, he posts excerpts and links to everything he can find (Key word there is everything, good and bad) that mentions him. He says in part, about the attention:

People like expressing themselves. I think it is a good thing. I don't have to agree with them to appreciate what they have to say, but I appreciate that they have an opinion and they can say it out loud. As a matter of fact, I figure if anybody has time to sit and think about me, then take the time and make the effort to put their thoughts into words for public consumption, well, I'm flattered.

I hear from so many of my friends, "Did you see what so-and-so said about you on the blog or on that message board?" Then they want to know how I feel about it. They are usually surprised when I say something like, "Yeah, isn't it cool?"

Whoa. He gets it. He gets it big time. He knows no amount of spin (Southern or otherwise) works anymore like it used to. He won’t be talking about thinking “out of the box” or “creating new paradigms” or any other clichés you pick up from a Tony Robbins seminar. It looks like he plans on simply talking. Not to say there’s no agenda, there’s an agenda in everything any of us do. But trying to achieve that agenda via transparency rather than ignoring the gorillas in the room is, well, refreshing. Sounds like a guy I’d like to hang around.

Hocus Pocus

2005-08-06T10:44:00.000-04:00

I don’t visit The Singing News all that often (not because of their self-defeating subscription policy, but rather that there’s nothing terribly compelling there), and caught up on Ken’s evangelizing as of late. (And make no mistake about it, he has more and more tailored his writing to manipulating readers rather than informing them.)

A recent target seems to be the anti-Harry Potter crowd. (Disclosure: I have no beef with Rowlings or her books. I don’t believe we have to run every book or movie through a theological litmus test. I like to think God doesn’t mind if we occasionally indulge ourselves in activities just for the fun of it. Hence the existence of French Silk ice cream.)

He targets Caryl Matrisciana, who produced a video slamming Potter.

Matrisciana also made one glaring error in fact when she stated that C.S. Lewis, "came out of the occult, as I did." I have read much about C.S. Lewis's life, and have never found any mention of his involvement in the occult.

Ken doesn’t specify what he’s read about Lewis, but apparently it doesn’t include Lewis’ autobiography, “Surprised By Joy". An excerpt:

And that started in me something with which, on and off, I have had plenty of trouble since - the desire for the preternatural, simply as such, the passion for the Occult. Not everyone has this disease; those who have will know what I mean [I do, very well] . . . It is a spiritual lust; and like the lust of the body it has the fatal power of making everything else in the world seem uninteresting while it lasts.

And he evidently has not read from the C.S. Lewis Institute web site:

At a later boarding school (Chartres), Lewis' encounters with a teacher who introduced him to the occult, as well as Lewis' doubts drawn from the problem of evil, concern over the similarities between Christianity and paganism, and sexual temptation were factors that led to a loss of faith. He lost his faith, virtue, and simplicity. Later he rid himself of unchastity, atheism, and the occult, but not another acquired habit: smoking.

And he apparently didn’t look at any of the 50,000+ references to a google of C.S. Lewis + occult.

Then Ken can’t resist taking a parting shot at Matrisciana:

For a documentary filmmaker, who prides herself on her research skills and commitment to uncover the truth, getting such a basic fact wrong does not bode well for the rest of her work.

Oh my.

Happy birthday to you...

2005-08-04T21:22:00.000-04:00

Couldn’t let this birthday go by without mention. It was actually mid October when I discovered his blog, although it seems much longer. A lot’s happened since he hit the scene. I know quite a lot of people make Avery (Or in Unthank-speech, “He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named”) their first stop when they fire up their browser. (You really ought to get an aggregator and subscribe to his rss feed. It makes life so much nicer.)

I think everyone will agree the SG scene is far more interesting with him than without; and most would agree its far better as well. (With a few notable exceptions…)

Heh, I started writing just now a little about his outing back in December or so, but it started getting longer and more interesting than I had imagined when I started, and I got to thinking it’d be a good post on its own if I spend some time thinking on it. So, back on the shelf it goes for now.

While he and I don't march in lock step on every single topic, we do on the vast majority, and even those where we don't, we still recognize we're on the same team. And that works out quite nicely.

Here's to another year. Congrats.

New links

2005-07-27T21:56:00.000-04:00

(Note to L.S., my favorite SG DJ. I didn't mean to lie when I said I'd write more often, I've just been a bum.)

There are a few new sites I've ran into lately that you may have missed.

Allison Lynn : A singer from Canada who recently began chronicling her stint at Stamps-Baxter School of Music. A cool day-by-day, blow-by-blow account of her time there. I was also drawn to the name of her blog, Adventures of a Starving Artist. Give her a visit.

Wayne: After smiling at Allison’s blog’s name, Wayne made me wince with his. Simon Cowell of SG Music doesn’t give me a lot of hope after the first post, but make up your own mind.

Martin Roth: A professional writer (As if one wasn’t enough…) I found interesting for a number of reasons. Most obvious is he’s an Australian. Seems to be a mixture of summarizing other blogs and adding his own content. I hope he drifts more towards the latter. Telling me what Avery said isn’t nearly as interesting as telling me what you think about what Avery said. Martin chose a safe name, Southern Gospel Beat. I hope this site has legs. (Martin, provide an rss feed.) I like this site. (And not just because he called me “Expert and entertaining”) And for crying out loud, you’re the third person to comment on my blue plaid shirt. Are you all blind? It’s GREEN. Jeez.

Go here. Now.

2005-06-19T00:16:00.000-04:00

As reported by Avery last week, there's a rocking new site every SG fan should save as a favorite. SGMUpdate.com is easily the most useful place on the web to see if a SG group is coming near you. It leaves other concert pages in the dust, and once the automatic email feature gets finished, it will be even more valuable to you. Since it's existence apparently hinges on the use it gets, I hope the word gets spread.

Artists, this isn't just a cool idea. Sit down a minute, and think about what it could mean to you. The biggest problem you have right now is letting your fans that love coming to see you and buying your CDs know when you're in their area. And now, for the first time EVER, there's a solution to that problem. You'd be well advised to embrace it.

The most obvious thing to do is simply link to sgmupdate.com from your own sites, and annouce at your concerts "Visit here to see when we come close to you." or having the site send some business cards or something to sit on your product table, hand'em out like candy. Better yet, (I don't know if this is feasible or not actually), contact the site and ask if they offer customized contacts. For example, you announce in your concerts "If you'd like to know when we come near by again, fill out your name/address at our product table." Send this site your list and they mail out a postcard each month "Greetings from The Dove Brothers. We just wanted to let you know we'll be 35 miles from you on August 5th at First Baptist. We'd love to see you again!" I wouldn't be surprised at all if you didn't see some crowds up 30% or more, especially after your list got established. What would 30% bigger crowds do for your bottom line?

Man, there are a dozen more ways this site could be used. Cool.

Janet Paschal

2005-06-06T22:26:00.000-04:00

I don’t know Janet, although she lives just down the road. While not necessarily devastating, the news from her this week is definitely not what was hoped for. She details the latest results on her site, and a sobering read it is. She asks for prayers to aid her in a difficult decision. Go. Read. Pray.

And so it begins...er, ends....

2005-06-04T21:15:00.000-04:00

Sadly, my hope that The Singing News would add something worthwhile to make their subscription service attractive is apparently not to be. The areas SN is going to require you to pay to see are:

News Stories & Features
Personal Appearances
Charts
Links
Radio

The Unthanks should be jumping for joy over this. It’s not often that a competitor dumps customers in your lap. Maybe they’re trying to get rid of so many visitors so they don’t crash the next time a big story hits. Who knows.

Sale ends Friday!

2005-05-27T22:47:00.000-04:00

So, in a week or so The Singing News is again supposedly going to rope off part of their site from the public, with full access limited to subscribers. This move begs a question. Actually, a few of them.

1. Is it for real this time? They’ve been giving us deadlines for what, years now? Always very general, not specifying when or what they plan on doing. What with an explicit date given this time, and it being so near, I’d say it looks like they might really be planning on giving it a go this time.

2. What exactly does the site offer that would make a non-subscriber subscribe to get access to? This question was raised over at the SGLovers message board as well. The obvious answer is, well, nothing. There’s always the chance that they’re going to roll out something new to go along with the “subscribers only” policy. I sure hope so.

Got a couple more questions/observations about their site too, although they really don’t have anything to do with the upcoming change.

1. Why does any newsworthy event shut them down so quickly? When something big happens, like George Younce’s death for example, they immediately go dark until they slap up a simple text screen. Makes you think they’re running the site from a back room at their office. You can get a commercial web server for 20 bucks a month that would handle more users than they would ever see. Since it’s not money keeping them from having an adequate system, what is it? Ego? I dunno.

2. A Mac? They run their web server on a Mac? Most recent numbers I found indicate that Macs had 0.73% market share in the web server market. Less than 1%. Hey guys, there’s a reason for that, ya know? Maybe that’s why you choke whenever lots of people want to visit you. (As you consider becoming a “premium site”, you should carefully consider that last sentence: When most people want to visit you, you crash. Ponder the ramifications of that for a minute.)

New site coming?

2005-05-26T17:09:00.000-04:00

Looks like we might finally get that SGM history site after all. DBM of Musicscribe fame has registered sghistory.com, hopefully to provide a more structured and searchable repository of SG facts than currently exists. He hasn’t solicited my advice, but I think it’d be way cool if he worked out a deal with Jerry Kirksey to host all of those photos he’s been posting and talking about as of late.

Do as I say, not as I do...

2005-05-15T17:52:00.000-04:00

It's always a bit humbling when our fallibility shows through. My post from last night broke my own rule on How to Write, specifically #4, Don’t write for a reaction. In hindsight, that’s exactly what it was, and the little “darling” comment was simply a playground tactic to get a rise out of Amy. I would delete it, but instead I’ll just offer a general apology to all, a specific one to Amy, and leave it up as a reminder of how dumb I can look if I don’t pay attention.