With a Capital “C”

A friend of mine just sent me a youtube video of a group called Go Fish Guys. No, these guys aren't Southern Gospel, but I think you can bear through one song that is just a little more progressive than Ernie Haase and Signature Sound, besides, there's a Bass singer in the song. The song is really neat and it talks about how our culture is not wanting to say Merry Christmas, but rather Happy Holidays. The song is humorous, but has a great message to it. Take a listen to it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAckfn8yiAQ .

I like the song so much that I'm including it in my compilation CD that I make up every year of Christmas songs to listen in the car.There is one part of the song that really hit me hard. There is one phrase, not even a complete sentence, just a phrase that struck a nerve. The phrase is "this is my country too". I am sick and tired of having to walk on glass for fear of offending some little minority group. We have gone so far in trying to not offend the minority groups that we have offended the masses who make up this great nation. Hey, it's our country too, and over 80% profess to be Christians, so get over it. We're were here first, and we're here to stay.

I am NOT going to be ashamed to say Merry Christmas to everyone I see, and in every store I am in. My kids think I am fanatical, but every store wants me to spend lots of money with them for CHRISTMAS presents, but some don't want to put the mention of Christmas in the store or in any of their advertisement for fear that they might "offend" someone. Well, they do offend someone, ME, and they should offend every Christian in the land, so I do NOT shop in stores that refuse to put any mention of Christmas in teir stores or advertisements. You can say that I am being childish or immature, or as mykids say "stupid", but I call it standing of priciples. Enough is enough! Those stores have it right, they are offending someone, and it's ME.

You can agree with me or not, but I'm not spending my money in stores who will not mention Christmas or those who tell their employees to NOT say Merry Christmas at their checkouts. So come on and be just a little rebellious with me.

It Boggles My Mind

I've been doing a little reading in 2nd Chronicles lately, that's in the Bible. It seems a real theme is coming through everything that I'm reading. For those of you not familiar with this part of the Bible (it's in the Old Testament), it's telling about the history of Israel and Judah, and the actions of their Kings. Most Bible scholars will tell you that the Old Testament is a foreshadow of what was to come in future times, so I think that we can safely compare the actions of then to the actions of now. Let's compare the leaders of back then and what they did to the leaders of today.

I sort of stand in awe as I'm reading what happened to both the Nation of Israel and the Nation of Judah at how the people are led off into losing the favor of God so easily. I noticed that when the King followed the commands given to the people by David, they lived in peace and had prosperity in the land. I mean these were no had things to do, things like honoring God, keeping the Sabbath days, and most importantly, NOT worshiping other gods. I mean what could possibly convince these people who were so blessed by God to turn and worship other gods? It just blows my mind. Whatever the reasons were, when they turned their backs on God and started worshiping other gods, the God that they knew to be the true God would lift His hand of protection and blessing from them. What really boggles my mind is that this didn't just happen once, but over and over.

Upon looking at the situation a little closer, I did notice that it was when the leaders of the nations started seeking the advice of of foreigners, or in some instances younger people, what they got was bad advice.Sometimes they got in trouble because the Kings would marry women outside of their faith. This is never a good idea, but that's for another blog. Soon we see that the wives who didn't believe in the God of Israel and Judah influenced the Kings to lead the people into worship of foreign gods. Then once in a while a young King would ignore the advice of the wise advisers of his father and go with the poor youthful advice of his friends, and this caused problems too.

If I can bring this all up to date, I can't help but notice that this great nation of ours was formed with the Christian principles that seemed to bring God's blessings with them. With the exception of God's judgment on slavery, causing us to war between ourselves in the Civil War, we have been extremely blessed from the 1400s through the middle 1900s. Then we ran into the "if it feels good do it" generation of the 1960s and from there we have run amuck with the god of self satisfaction. Since the 1960s we have had wars that just won't seem to go our way, families that just can't seem to stay together, and finances that we can't seem to get in order. We can't seem to understand that it's because we have left the faith of our fathers, and for a large part have left the God of our fathers. We have adopted the god of tolerance, which says that we can no longer be a Christian nation, but we must put all religions the same.

We serve a jealous God, and He is not going to be tolerant of us sharing His glory. What will turn this nation around? Revival!!!!!

A missing voice

I was watching a pretty good documentary on HBO the other day. Considering it was on HBO, it was almost fair, though it did leave Christians looking a little shifty. There was one thing that really jumped out at me though. Jerry Falwell had a much bigger voice in our Nation than I realized.

After having gone nearly through this election cycle it has dawned on me that we have no voice crying out for the Christians. Pat Robertson seems to have faded away into oblivion and now that Jerry Falwell has passed away the deadening silence of the Christian is frightening. Where is the next leader to represent Christianity? Who is the next Jerry Falwell. Now that Jerry is gone, I can see that we do not have to agree 100% with a Godly man's theology to appreciate his importance as a loud voice to represent the morality of Christianity that this country was founded on.

If you find this new Christian leader, and can convince him that his Nation needs him, please let me know, because I want to encourage him. I want to encourage him to take up the mantle that has fallen to the ground since Jerry Falwell was taken from us. Maybe we need to pray for God to lift him up.

It’s The Economy, Stupid

I've got some good news and some bad news. The economy is going down the tubes. Is that the good news, or is that the bad news. Well if the nation stays in the mode of thinking that we got here by ourselves and we can work this thing out by ourselves, then this is going to be a bad thing. If, however the nation figures out that we need to get back to God to get out of this mess, then it will be good news.

Often in times of distress, our nation will turn it's eyes back to God. In the Great Depression, people saw their frailness and their need for God's help. The people of that era turned to God, began to help each other, and looked to God to help them out of their troubles. They returned to the church and their recreation and music turned to that of Christian interest. When 9/11 happened, people suddenly turned their thoughts needing supernatural help. When the problem was greater than they could manage, they needed a Savior. For the next year, Christian music sales rapidly increased. Concert attendance grew as did church attendance.

The good news is that oil prices are dropping, so those buses can hit the road again. The bad news may be that the offerings are lower and you may not get as much money to put that cheaper fuel in your tank. The good news is that as times get harder, many may start looking for the inspirational message that we share. The bad news is that the devil may miss out on grabbing those souls.

Now the economy may be giving good news and bad news, but it's up to us to capitalize on the times that we have and get this Gospel message to as many as we can.

Advice on practicing

There is a thread on the Message Boards about practicing with ear monitors and sound systems. I want to talk about this in a little more detail than I could on the Message Boards. There are several areas that practicing effects, so it's not just a time of singing your songs together. It effects how you hear each other, how you hear yourself with the group, and how you hear yourself and the group with the music, be it live or track.

First, let me say that the attitude in which we approach practice effects our attitude on stage. Now don't get me wrong, I believe in having fun at practice, but it can't be all cutting up and having fun. At the same time, practice shouldn't be all work and a drudgery to go to. Practice sets the stage for how your group will perform in every area of your existence. Practice is to be a relaxed place where everyone is free to learn. When you quit learning, it's time to quit. Practice is where you learn not only new songs, but new styles, new techniques. Practice is where you hone the talents that you have and learn to enhance them. Practice, not on the stage is where you experiment.

As I said in my post on the Message Boards, I don't like to practice with a Sound System. I don't really care what you use for monitors (well I do, but that's another topic altogether) when you are on stage singing, but at practice you need to hear the natural voice of everyone around you. Let's remember what Sound Systems are for. The were not designed or purposed for singing in a small room. Sound systems were designed so that many people in large rooms and auditoriums could hear singers from a far away distance. When a sound system is used for it's designed purpose, it is a wonderful thing, but a small read where people are practicing is NOT what it was designed for. So, why not use a sound system for practicing? First when practicing without amplification, you must listen closer to hear each individual. This makes you pay much closer to the detail of what you are doing. It also makes for a much more intimate setting. When you have to be close enough to each other to smell each others breath, you have to let your defenses down and relationships being to happen. When you are standing close to each other practicing, you begin to notice the little movement in each others voices and you begin to follow them causing a brilliant blend that is not accomplished standing ten feet away form each other using a sound system. There is a carry-over of this intamacy from the practice room to the stage, and the audience will see it and hear it. Get rid of that sound system at practice, you'll never regret it.

I've got more to say, but I'll save it for another time.

Finally Quality Wins

I get so frustrated when watching music reality shows and the person with the most talent doesn't win. I just want to pull what little hair I have left out when I'm watching American Idol or Nashville Star and week after week pitchy poor singers stay, while real good talent gets voted off.
Finally, this season's Nashville Star winner was the best talent in the group. Melissa Lawson was a standout vocally from the very beginning. She was a little heavy, but looked really nice, and she was not in her 20s. Overcoming these two flaws, her talent won out.

While watching Nashville Star, a couple of things really stood out to me when comparing Country Music to Gospel Music. Since we like to refer to each other as Cousins, there are some similarities and some big differences. First, there is no comparison in the quality level of the vocals. While Melissa was a stand out vocally, the rest of the crop, for the most part were not near the quality of any of our up and coming artists. When I compare the groups, Southern Gospel artists blew them away. I promise you that you will hear better competition at the Talent Competition at NQC this year than what was on Nashville Star.

Another thing that I noticed was that it seems to be opposite ends of the musical spectrum that exists between our two genres. While the musical stylings are similar, in Country music, soloists seem to have an advantage over groups. Country fans seem to prefer one voice with a guitar standing in from of a microphone. In contrast, Southern Gospel fans seem to prefer groups with great harmony. While Southern Gospel fans seem to shy away from female singers, Country fans adore them. I'm not real sure why that is other than the old "women keep silent in the church" argument that has just carried over into our musical world.

These are just a few things that I noticed while watching Nashville Star this season.

Follow The Times

I love to get into the discussions as to why Southern Gospel Music is struggling so much. Of course we all have our explanations of why our concert attendance is so low. Some say it's poor quality, but I was watching Nashville Star the other night, and after hearing that talent, I am not worried about the talent in SG at all. Some say it's because there is too much entertainment involved and others say there isn't enough entertainment involved. Some say it's because we have let the Country sound infiltrate our "pure" SG sound. Some say it's because we want to stick to close to the "quartet" sounds. Everybody has a reason for why SG isn't growing as fast as we would like.

I have an idea I'd like to throw out for your consideration. Just what if, what if, it's .......... the message. There I said it. Before you stone me here let's think about it for just a minute. Where was the Nation when SG was raging in our fair land. What were we doing? As I look back at the history of our great genre, I see that the Nation was living in hard times. We had just come through the Great Depression, a couple of World Wars, money was tight, the great Industrial Revolution hadn't really gotten a hold on us. We still had to grow a lot of our own food, rely on family for our needs, our fun, and our inspiration. We still had to depend on God as a Nation. There was no thought of taking God out of the classroom, no thought of four letter, offensive words being used in the movies we were watching, and we still had very good attendance at church every Sunday,

Ah, I just hit part of my evaluation, Church attendance was still growing. As a Nation we were still very dependent on our Faith and our God. Today we are much different. We are very independent. We don't seem to need family, we don't seem to need church, and most important we, as a Nation, don't seem to need God. Now to my point. It's our message. It's not that our message isn't still true, or not still important, or that it's not even still needed. The problem is that much of America doesn't realize that they still need the message we have to offer. If you think back to September 11, 2001, for a brief moment in our history, our Nation turned to God in desperation. In fact for a six month period of time, church attendance and even CD sales of all Christian music rose sharply. We, for a brief moment, saw again our need for God, religion, church, family, and a lot of other things we had seemingly forgotten about. Now, as often happens, as a Nation, we have drifted back into that feeling of independence and our need for God, church, etc, has been hidden in the back of our mind again.

So, what has happened to church attendance, Southern Gospel concert attendance and CD sales? They have again plummeted and we have again reverted to our reasoning that SG is failing because of quality or any of those other reasons I discussed earlier. The fact is that it's our message. We have the message that our Nation and the world needs, but they just aren't interested in listening to it.

Not SGM, But I’m Excited

While this blog is on a Southern Gospel Music site, sometimes my subject varies, and this is one of them. I have to admit that I'm not much of a hockey fan, but I've been to a couple of games and I have to admit that I did enjoy the action. Not sure I really knew what was going on all the time, but the action was fast and furious. Now I reckon I have a little more reason to watch the game of hockey. Robbie Czarnik, my grand-nephew, son of my niece and nephew, Rob and Denise Czarnik has just been drafted by the LA Kings. After just graduating from high school this last month, Robbie was drafted as the third pick in the third round of the annual National Hockey League draft.

We'll get back to Southern Gospel shortly, but for now, let me proudly say "CONGRATULATIONS" to Robbie on a giant step in his life ands career. Good going, Robbie.

The Mess We Are In

The Book of Proverbs tells us (Paraphrased), "As a Man thinketh in his heart, so is he". The same can be said for a nation, "As the people of a Country think in their hearts, so is the Country". At a Gospel Concert the other night, as the MC was desperately trying to say our Nation was still great, he said "even with the mess that we are in". I am sick of hearing that phrase. First, it is way over used, and secondly, it's just not true.

It seems that every election year, one party is going to go around the country telling us how bad off our great Nation is. Why are they doing this? Because they want to be elected. It doesn't matter that they are planting negative thoughts in the minds of our citizens, and it doesn't matter that the statements aren't true, if it can get them elected, they will spread the demise of our country.

I am old, but not that old. I still remember when in the 70s interest rates were up to 21%. Right now, they are at 5.8%. Does that sound like the "mess we are in"? I can remember also in the 70s when unemployment was at 12 and 13%, for the month of April, 2008 is was at 5%. Remember in the Depression days, unemployment was at 24%. Does that sound like "the mess we're in"?

We are perhaps the most blessed Nation in the world, and yet all we can see is "the mess we're in". I am sick of it. Just stop and look around you. Even the most impoverished section of our large cities does not live in poverty like they do in foreign countries. I've been on the mission trips and seen the people living in mud houses. I've seen the people who live with dirt floors. I've seen cities of cardboard houses. I've seen the people who have to go to the stream each morning to get their water. I'm looking around to see the "mess we're in". I look around and see the poverty in this great Nation and I see cable TV hooked up in the houses in the ghetto. I see people taking their food stamps to the store to buy food for the entire family. I heard their toilets flush form running water. Drive through any neighborhood in this country and you see cars parked in front of just about every home. I'm STILL looking to see the "mess we're in".

For crying out loud, let's stop bellyaching about "the mess we're in", and start looking around us and thanking God for just how BLESSED we are. Let's try being appreciative for what we have. I see tragedies happening from storms and other natural disasters in other countries where tens of thousands are being killed, and yet I see our Nation blessed with very few fatalities when similar storms and disasters hit here. Go to any Emergency Room in any city and find all of our citizens being treated for things as simple as the common cold.

We are a BLESSED Nation. It's time to stop crying and complaining like a bunch of spoiled brats, and it's time to let the rest of the world know, because they are watching ans listening to us, that the United States of America is the greatest country on this earth, and we love and appreciate all the God has done to protect us and to keep us blessed. So, when all of the politicians and other naysayers start proclaiming just how bad our Country is and what a "mess we are in", stand up and shout it in your loudest voice that we are the most blessed Nation in the world and they need to stop tearing our Country down, go back to Washington and start working TOGETHER, for the good of the people. The next time you hear someone say "with the mess we're in" you tell them just how blessed we are and what a great Nation we live in.

"As the people of a Country think in their hearts, so is the Country". How are you going to think in your heart about our fair Land?

Am I Just Old Fashioned , Or What ?

I think that I am a pretty "hip" guy for being 60 years old. Go ahead and laugh at that statement, I'm sure that my kids are.
When I was being taught by my parents, it was only good manners to take off your hat when you entered a room. It was only
being polite to offer your seat on the bus to a lady or old man. You said "Yes sir" to a man or "Yes Ma'am" to a lady. I can't help but think that
these actions made us grow up to be people that our parents would be proud of. I can't help but think that those manners made us a better country.

Don't worry, this is not going to be a political blog, though I could do a good one if I wanted. No, this is about how manners and just plain old courtesy
seems to have left it's place in Southern Gospel Music. I have seen it happen more often than not these days, however, last night it happened to us,
so it is very fresh on my mind. You can tell me that I am just an old fogy and that my age is making me too sensitive, but sometimes these things get under my
skin, and last night was one of them.

I am not against doing benefits, and this concert last night was a benefit. To be honest, after having a couple of slow months, it just felt good standing on stage
and singing. They were a great crowd to sing to and really showed their appreciation for our effort. They were a gracious crowd, and I would sing for them in a
heart beat, benefit or not, offering or not. So then what's my beef? Here it is pure and simple. My group sat through the sets of 5 other artists. Some were really good,
and some could use a little more practice. My beef is that fact that all but one singer from all of those groups left after they finished their stand. I want to
thank the gentleman who stayed for the duration of the concert to even hear the last group, us, The Sunday Edition. When all the artists packed up and left,
we had a much smaller crowd to sing to than they did. Oh, I forgot to mention that all of these artists were within driving distance of their homes. Again, this was a great crowd to sing to. They were with us the whole time we sang. I couldn't have asked for a more appreciative audience. Again, back to my beef, My group did the courtesy of staying to listen to all of the other artists perform, and I just consider it good manners to stay and be courteous to the artists who follow you. One group even started tearing down equipment and loading it out of the building while another group was singing. Again, am I just being an old fogy or what?

I understand that sometimes people have to leave concerts, but does everyone from that group need to leave? At least someone could have stayed to represent
thier group. OK, I'm putting on my flame suit now, so I'll be watching for those incoming arrows. So, let's bring back to having some manners in Southern Gospel Music.