I thought my readers might enjoy the little conversation I had with fresh bass singer Ian Owens this past Saturday. He was very generous with his time, and I can now speak from experience that he is a great guy as well as a great singer. Enjoy! *** Me: How did “The Old Rugged Cross” become a sugar stick for you—how did that happen? Ian: Basically, it’s one of Ernie’s favorite hymns, and he said that he enjoyed my heart... Read more
This past Saturday, I caught up with Doug Anderson in Grand Rapids. I also caught up with Ian Owens (look for that interview later!) Doug shared a little bit about his upcoming solo record, which I thought might interest my readers. (By the way, this sweet sepia shot is just one of many great shots I took from the concert. Look for a slideshow of those later—there are 60-some of them. [Update: See slideshow and concert review here.] Some of... Read more
“Go back to your church!” “Boys, this is my church! And if you don’t think Christ is down here on the waterfront, you’ve got another guess coming.” *** I hinted at this on the “About” page, but I’m giving full warning now: I’m a classic movie buff, and us classic movie buffs, we’re a little strange. We bring up old movies and start quoting things and drag them into places where they don’t seem to belong just because they are... Read more
Tomorrow I will be in Grand Rapids seeing Signature Sound in concert for the second time. The first time I saw them was last summer with Tim, so this will be my first look at the new bass singer, Ian Owens. After seeing some clips of Ian around the web, I am very impressed with his voice, and I feel that he is just as good as Tim in his own way (which I really wasn’t expecting, to be honest!) ... Read more
Brian Crout is setting up a tournament of quartet singers over on southerngospelcritique that looks to be great fun for us quartet geeks. I plan to hop over and cast my votes in the coming days. Brian will create head-to-head matchups of tenors, leads, baritones and basses, and whichever one gets the most votes will proceed to the next round. The four who make it all the way to the end are the championship quartet. As I write this, I... Read more
As I revisit some songs and voices that caught my attention when I was first learning about gospel music, I’m going to try to do something a little different from simply talking about why I liked them. I will describe as best I can my initial thought process in reaction to these clips, but then I’ll draw some conclusions from my impressions that might be of promotional use to artists who want to draw in “newbies” like I was at... Read more
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