This weekend I will be sharing some Holy Week music and meditations, but before we get serious, I thought it might be entertaining to ask my readers this question: What’s one Christian song, for our purposes preferably SG, that everybody talks about and loves, but for whatever reason just doesn’t click for you? The bigger the better. Try to think of something that’s very highly regarded by a lot of people, including critics. Then explain a little of your reasoning... Read more
Every Palm Sunday at my church, we read the story of the passion in preparation for Holy Week, with the different parts assigned to different members of our congregation. The pastor narrates, one guy gets Jesus, another guy gets Pilate, and some poor chap gets stuck with Judas. One year I got to be Pilate’s wife. The entire congregation speaks for the crowd. It’s always a slightly chilling experience when the fellow reading Pilate asks what the crowd wants him... Read more
I found this poster today. No comment needed. Special thanks to the emergent-see po-motivators for giving us such a powerful mission statement: Read more
This is not a normal album review, because I have not yet heard the album I am reviewing. It contains my thoughts on Doug Anderson’s upcoming solo album after hearing the lead single, hearing 30-second samples of the other songs, and reading complete lyrics. This gave me a good enough sense of what the project is like that I realized there were already a lot of things I could say about it. So I decided to share my impressions so... Read more
Fun question for you guys today: What is your maximum limit for turnarounds? How many times does a group have to repeat the chorus of a song for you to get to the point where you’re inwardly groaning, “No, not ANOTHER encore”? I max out at around three myself. And part of it depends on the song. Three encores of “Boundless Love” or “Still Feelin’ Fine,” I can live with, but for some reason “A Few Good Men” was ruined... Read more
Last month, Chariots of Fire turned thirty. It’s a little hard to believe that the greatest film ever made is that young. With a few exceptions, cinema’s finest moments came considerably earlier. Chariots of Fire was one of the exceptions. And the reason is that its makers understood what it meant to craft a film that was at once full of truth and full of power. Surprisingly, it struck a resounding chord with film audiences, and it captured four Oscars... Read more
I had to put in a plug for this interview because it’s just too darn cute. Michael Booth is interviewed by some of his youngest fans, amidst much hilarity and profound insight! The Garms family promises to be a valuable addition to southerngospelblog.com. Their contributions have already been highlights. This interview is probably their best so far. Be sure to watch the whole thing. [Update: The video has been removed from Youtube, so I have removed the embed. However, it... Read more
Someone passed along this link to me the other day. It’s a blog post on contemporary versus traditional worship. I thought it was relevant enough to similar discussions concerning SG that it was worth discussing here. We’ll start with this bit: The goal of corporate worship is to honor God and bring men and women to His Son. Keeping that in mind prevents our preferences from getting in the way. In my years of campus ministry our goal was to... Read more
Often I find it fun to get a quartet version and a trio version of the same song and compare them. It’s fascinating to hear how each sort of configuration will take a song and adapt it to their own strengths and weaknesses. Two songs I’ll focus on today are “Basics of Life” and “Beyond the Open Door.” The first is a well-known 4Him hit featuring the soulful Kirk Sullivan, and the second is a Gaither Vocal Band number featuring... Read more
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Southern Gospel Music Videos
When was the last time you saw a really high quality music video from a professional southern gospel artist? My guess is you’re casting about for an answer right now, because the truth is that there really aren’t that many southern gospel music videos out there, good or bad. Here are a few that I have found, in no particular order. (Important note: We are not counting Mark Lowry’s many and sundry comedic masterpieces.) I’m a Jesus Fan (by The... Read more