It’s
every writer’s dream. Author and illustrator David Liverett self-published a
collection of sketches and brief biographical stories of famous gospel artists.
Unknown to him, a friend sent the book to Thomas Nelson Publishers, who have now
published the book as
This Is My Story.
David told his
local paper that he “created the book originally to tell stories of gospel
singers and other musicians connected with Bill Gaither's Homecoming video
series.”
Liverett's
drawings are vivid and charming - they recall the Wall Street Journal's
illustrations, only Liverett's pictures hum with more life. This is a valuable
reference guide for music buffs, a wonderful tribute to Southern gospel music,
and a perfect gift book for fans.
I was wondering about how
Gather decides who gets a "tribute" video of the singers that have passed away.
He has the George Younce, Jake Hess, Howard & Vestal Goodman ones, but
there were no videos for Hovie, Glen Payne, Rex Nelon, JD Sumner or others,
although there were some video clips on some of the Gaither videos as makeshift
tributes for some of these folks, but not a full-length video. I just wonder who
else will get their own video when they pass on, or will he just leave it with
these ones?
The Gaither videos
are commercial products. I suspect that it boils down to what the powers that be
determine will sell. Plus having enough recordings in the can to make an
attractive 90-minute video.
And who else might
get a tribute video? Any thoughts?
The
Gospel Hiway online SG radio staion – based in Houston – is still
broadcasting. I’m listening right now as I type this. A notice at the station’s
website has been advising:
For the next
week or more we will be trying to broadcast out of our east Texas facility due to destruction, power outages, and no internet
connectivity to broadcast our signal from Houston. We will not be able to do a lot of things we normally do
each day like take prayer request, receive emails, etc. We pray we will be back
to our fullest as soon as we are able. PLEASE keep all of us in your prayers
over the next few weeks. Thank you for your prayer support in advance.
SGM Blog has been
doing some analysis of what Southern Gospel fans are searching for on the
internet. He has obtained 30 days of Google search queries for 48 separate
search keywords and phrases, and the results are pretty clear – people want to
find out about Gaither.
Of more than
56,000 searches, around a quarter were for “Bill Gaither,” “Gaither Vocal Band”
or “Gaither Homecoming.” Otherwise, the most popular artists were the Crabb
Family, Gold City, Michael Combs, the Isaacs, Signature Sound and Legacy Five.
I guess this
accords with
my own visitor stats, which consistently show my
Gaither Vocal Band page as one of the main entry points for visitors to the
site. Presumably most of these visitors come via search engines.
Speaking of things
Gaither, an email has chastised me for my
less-than-enthusiastic reaction to the Gaither.com website makeover. She
writes:
I am a
handicapped widow and needed contact with the outside world through some method
other than cable TV which offers little entertainment. Please consider this: I
have met some of the most fantastic Christians ever in my life!! These folks are
the most powerful prayer warriors you could ever hope to meet….I find that for a
SMALL yearly fee, it is well worth it and I haven't even begun to tell you about
the live chats with artists, Livecast from Toronto this weekend!! and free shipping. I wonder if you wouldn't
enjoy this site if you knew a little more about it.
By the way, I have
tried to email Gaither.com to thank them for naming Southern Gospel Beat as
their website of the month of September, but the emails keep getting bounced
back to me. I wonder what their email address is.
The Grand Rapids Press
interviews Mark Lowry from Houston, where he is involved in hurricane relief
work:
"I don't see any humor in
it at all, and I cannot imagine what those people have gone through," Lowry
said. "But I don't believe there are any brick walls on the journey, only speed
bumps. What may feel like the end of something is the beginning of something
new, even though it hurts like heck."
Lowry's new video/DVD,
"Mark Lowry Goes to Hollywood," is filled with material he's tested on the road
for more than a year. That includes his story of surviving a nearby tornado
while staying on a houseboat in Cookesville, Tenn. Several boats in the area
were capsized, but there no lives were lost.
"I told the guys on the
dock the next morning that I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I knew I was
gonna live through it… I like trying to find the moral of the story."
In other hurricane news,
Debbie Bennett writes at
Roger Bennett’s Midnight Meditations that the couple have arrived home
safely after staying at Galveston, “right on the beach!” She reports that
Roger’s latest medical check was “uneventful.”
For those (like me) who tend
to run away when they hear the words “Christian comedian,” Chonda Pierce has
something to say:
Listen, I’ve been in the
business a long time. I’ve heard all the arguments… don’t call yourself
“Christian” comedian – it will limit your effectiveness for the “big picture.” I
fell for that stuff once or twice in my career. Yeah, I read the book: Roaring
Lamb. I agree with every word. But, too late! I’ve been calling myself Christian
Comedian for so long now – to stop, well, that would terrify my mother!! I
recently read where a fellow Christian comedian has decided to call himself
“Conservative” Comedian. Folks report that “at last, something edgy, brilliant
and in-your-face in the Christian world!” I laughed out loud! Have these people
ever heard of Jesus Christ? You talk about edgy and in-your-face! HA!
Still embarrassed at
Southern Gospel Beat being named “Site of the Month” by
Gaither.Com, just a couple of days after my less-than-flattering remarks
about the GaitherNet site makeover, I’ve resolved to say something nice. So
let’s have a look at the redesigned Community pages of Gaither.Com. (No links,
as it’s for members only.)
The Blogs section is a great
innovation. Already a dozen or so Gaither.Com members have launched their own
blogs, including Gaither employee Emily Sutherland. I guess the drawback is that
the only readers will be Gaither.Com members.
The Gallery section also has
excellent potential. Members can post here – for the enjoyment of fellow members
– their prose, poetry, photography, multimedia and song lyrics. So far the main
contribution has been some stunning photos of the sunset.
The Community pages also
include message boards and a place where you can ask questions of Bill and
Gloria.
A few days ago I made
a quick tour
of the newly designed
Gaither.Com (formerly GaitherNet) website. My
comments were rather more negative than positive, and I think that
“underwhelmed” would probably have summed up my reaction. Now I find that
Gaither.Com has named Southern Gospel Beat as its “Site of the Month” for
September.
Avery Fineline has received
an anonymous email with the “real awards” for Southern Gospel, as “voted
on by a panel of 18 people who are ardent followers of Southern Gospel music;
some are professionals, some are amateurs and some are fans. We feel these
awards are a true barometer of our industry without the influence of record
label voting, magazine censoring or personal bias.”
Many are
perceptive, some are funny and several are nasty. For example, there’s “Best
Soloist Disguised as a Group” (Crabb Family), “Female Hottie” (Sonya Isaacs) and
“Worst Hair in Southern Gospel” (Ivan Parker, Depp Britt and the McKameys).
Here’s the Real
Awards’ “Top Ten Reasons Southern Gospel Should Be Proud”:
1. Crossroads Distribution
(Those people are EVERYWHERE.)
2. Mosie Lister (Still classy - still great!)
3. Bill Gaither (oh, come on -- admit it!)
4. Spring Hill's album covers (We may not like your music, but you LOOK
fantastic!)
5. Ben Speer's Stamps-Baxter School of Music (Keep it coming, Ben)
6. Wayne Haun (No other producer comes close. Period.)
7. Templeton Tours (GREAT Christian entertainment alternative)
8. The best piano players in the world!
9. Daywind Music Publishing (Gerald Crabb, Kyla Rowland, Wayne Haun, Marty
Funderburk and Rodney Griffin - need we say more?)
10. HARMONY!!! Quartet...Family...the BEST HARMONY IN THE WORLD!
My initial impression of the
re-designed
Gaither.com (formerly GaitherNet) website was not propitious. I wanted a
new, better photo of the Gaither Vocal Band for
my own website. It turns out that the artist biographies – there used to be
lots of them, of many of the Homecoming artists - are gone (or at least I
couldn’t find them), replaced, apparently, with voluminous discographies.
So I did a quick tour of the
site. And my second impression? That it’s like the old site, only offering less.
Admittedly, I don’t use the site a lot since starting my collection of Gaither
DVDs. Previously I often used to sit at my computer playing online Gaither audio
or video. The latter is still there, and now there’s a list of what’s available,
though without descriptions. (So who’s to know what “Rebroadcast
Clip From Tuesday Afternoon” is? Or “Great Divide?”)
No audio is available (apart from the Gaither radio), though I assume it’s
coming.
Instead of
giving members the chance to create their own web pages, there is now the offer
to start a blog, and some are up already. I never used the message boards, so am
not too familiar with what they looked like, but my impression is that there’s a
lot less than before. Are the chat rooms still there? I couldn’t find them. And
I noticed that the index of transcripts of chats with artists contains only the
most recent. Previously, there was a complete list of several years of artist
chats. They made fun reading. I don’t see the point of changing that. One of the
beauties of the internet is that you can offer file after file of archive
material.
The Gaither store is being
redesigned too. It’ll be back in business on September 19th.
Greater Vision, with no
fewer than six
Singing News Fan Awards – Trio, Male Singer (Gerald Wolfe), Young Artist
(Jason Waldroup), Album (“Faces”), Songwriter (Rodney Griffin) and Song (Faces).
The Perrys receive three – Mixed Quartet, Female Singer (Libbi Stuffle) and Alto
(Libbi Stuffle).
There are four
entities that I have noticed do not have booths this year - Gaither, the Steeles,
3 for 1 and Spring Hill Music Group. That's weird. However, artists like the
McRaes, LordSong, the Ruppes, and Mike Bowling all have booths this year.
Interesting indeed.
I've updated my
list of Top 20 Male Quartets after seeing most of them perform over the past few
days. These are my personal favorites, in the order that I would go see them if
more than one was in town on the same night. If you are new to male quartet
music, this list of artists would be a great place to start.
And
Avery Fineline, just arrived, writes up a storm. Essential reading.
