|
|
||
Dave's Top Eight
1. Jerry Reed...Revisited by Darrell Toney (reviewed 6/07) (5 Stars) Click title to purchase at CBD.com...click artist name to read Dave's Review. A CD will automatically fall out of the Top Eight after twelve months if no CD surpasses it before then.
|
Most Recent Articles
Why blog? (Three years and counting)
| ||
-----------January 28, 2006Choral Review: Amazing Grace RATING: 4 StarsTitle: Amazing Grace Created by: Sue C. Smith and Russell Mauldin Arranged by: Russell Mauldin Publisher: Brentwood Song Titles: "Grace Medley" (includes "Amazing Grace," "Come, Thou Fount Of Every Blessing," "Grace Greater Than Our Sin"), "Here Comes The King," "On His Knees," "Amazing Grace," "He Is Alive" with "Rejoice, The Lord Is King," "No Other Word For Grace But Amazing" with "Amazing Grace," "Crown Him! Medley" (includes "Crown Him With Many Crowns," "Grace Greater Than Our Sin," and "Amazing Grace") As with the other titles in Brentwood's popular "Ready To Sing" series, Amazing Grace is helmed by Russell Mauldin. Sue C. Smith was also involved with putting this project together. I've noticed over the years that most easy choral arrangements have low budget orchestrations to match...as if it isn't worth spending much money producing an accompaniment CD when it's going to be played for smaller congregations. Fortunately, the "Ready To Sing" titles are not like that. Mauldin's series has caught the attention of many church music leaders due to his full sounding orchestrations. Granted, he isn't as elaborate as David Clydesdale, Bradley Knight, or Lari Goss, but Mauldin has been able to successfully avoid the "cheese" factor that I've often heard in the past on other products. Amazing Grace features a blend of hymns and new songs. Mauldin and Smith wrote three selections. These include: "Here Comes The King," "On His Knees," and "He Is Alive." Midway through, a 2004 Geron Davis song titled "Amazing Grace" appears. These newer songs provide contrast to several familiar hymns including "Amazing Grace," which has its verses sprinkled throughout the musical. The first verse of "Amazing Grace" is used to kick off the opening "Grace Medley." The hymn returns when the verse that begins "Twas grace that taught my heart to fear" is used as an intro to a Kirk Talley song that Brian Free and Gold City popularized years ago called "No Other Word For Grace But Amazing." The final verse of "Amazing Grace" ("When we've been there ten thousand years") provides the closing climax to the musical. This implementation gives Amazing Grace a nice thematic arc. Another thematic arc is found in the narration. Each section of narration begins with (or what appears to be) a modern slant...children playing checkers, a pastor in a Muslim area of Russia, a boy always in the wrong place at the wrong time, etc. By the end of each section of spoken dialogue, though, I was impressed by how points about God's grace and the Easter story were emphasized and tied together. The storytelling element of the narration will help draw your congregation into the music, simply but effectively...mainly because the narration itself it interesting. Two songs feature easy solos. "On His Knees" requires a range of just over an octave beginning with the B-flat below middle C (assuming a female solist). "Amazing Grace" (the modern song by Geron Davis) includes a solo that is also just over an octave, but it is set a few notes lower than the "On His Knees" solo. The highest note is the A above middle C, so either an alto soloist or a bass singing an octave lower would be the obvious choice. Alternatively, a good first tenor could sing it at the written pitch. Amazing Grace has a very traditional sound and is clearly aimed at the traditional church choir. The musical parts for the choir are easy and offer few surprises as you'd expect with this type of product. There's a mix of unison, two-part, and four-part arranging, but nothing that is particularly difficult. Even with a choir that doesn't read music, adequate rehearsal should allow you to present this musical. It's also a very good choice for a more accomplished choir that is just short on rehearsal time between now and Easter. by David Bruce Murray Choral Review: Grace That Amazes RATING: 4 1/2 StarsTitle: Grace That Amazes Created by: Claire Cloninger Arranged and Orchestrated by: Lari Goss Publisher: Word Music Song Titles: "His Name Is Jesus" with "My Savior's Love," "A Picture Of Grace," "Ordinary Man," "Grace Medley" (includes "Grace That Amazes," "Amazing Grace," "No Wonder They Call It Amazing," and "Grace Greater Than Our Sin"), "They Should Have Cried Holy," "Cross Medley" (includes "There Is A Fountain," "At The Cross," "O The Blood Of Jesus," "Nothing But The Blood," and "I Am Thine, O Lord"), "One Holy Morning," "Calvary Answers For Me," and "Finale" (includes "A Picture Of Grace," "No Wonder They Call It Amazing," "Grace Greater Than Our Sin," and "Grace That Amazes") Conceived by Claire Cloninger with arrangements and orchestrations by Lari Goss, Grace That Amazes combines songs from recent years like "Picture Of Grace" (Gaither Vocal Band), "They Should Have Cried Holy" (Greater Vision), "Calvary Answers For Me" (Perrys/Signature Sound) and "One Holy Morning" (Daryl Williams Trio/Triumphant Quartet) with well known classics like "Amazing Grace," "Grace Greater Than Our Sin," and "My Savior's Love." Cloninger and Goss also wrote some new songs for this musical including the upbeat opening track titled "His Name Is Jesus." Another Cloninger/Goss original is "Ordinary Man," a toe-tapping Southern Gospel number that features a male quartet. Cloninger and Goss also contributed original words and music for two sections of the "Grace Medley." These are blended with portions of "Amazing Grace" and "Grace Greater Than Our Sin," complimenting the more familiar lyrics in a fresh manner. Overall, the choral parts for Grace That Amazes are moderately difficult...a few rhythms and pitch issues may present some challenges in spots, but overall most choirs should be able to learn their parts with adequate rehearsal time. Tenors will need to be able to hit the G above middle C in some spots and first sopranos are called on to hit the A-flat in the next octave a couple of times...pretty typical stuff for a choir that is used to singing moderately difficult music. The solos, duets and quartet parts will need careful scrutiny before you choose this title, though. To be most effective, "Picture Of Grace" requires an expressive pair of singers (one low and one high) for the solos. "Ordinary Man" will also be a challenging arrangement to perform. It requires a quartet of men who can sing harmonies like flat sevenths as well as chords that sometimes contradict the accompaniment...for example, a B-flat major chord is written for the vocalists over a G major chord in the accompaniment at one spot. The singers will also need to pull off syncopated rhythms as a unit at a fairly quick tempo. The other feature spots in the musical are more easily attained. "They Should Have Cried Holy" has an optional solo that any reasonably capable baritone or alto should have no trouble singing. The "Cross Medley" features a low solo at the beginning on "There Is A Fountain." It's a cappella. The solo on "Calvary Answers For Me" requires an octave and a half of vocal range. The lowest note is the B-flat below middle C (assuming a female soloist). The entire musical is just under 50 minutes in length, so you have the option of eliminating a song or two and still having a satisfying length. The narration for this musical comes across as a bit generic sounding, but the song selection and the work Goss has done on the orchestrations is outstanding. I particularly like "One Holy Morning" and "His Name Is Jesus." Of course, I'm the type who tends to gravitate towards more upbeat selections. All things considered, Grace That Amazes is the top release of the 2006 Easter cantata season for churches that appreciate a dose of Southern Gospel in their music. by David Bruce Murray January 23, 2006Singing News Reader SurveySubscribers to the Singing News will find a survey card bound into their February 2006 issue with eighteen questions on topics ranging from "What do you like most?" to "How often do you shop at a Christian bookstore?" With Salem Communications assuming full control of the Singing News beginning with the March issue, it's refreshing to see the opinions of readers being solicited.
Three questions in particular caught my eye. Question 1: What do you like most about the Singing News magazine? a. Artist Schedules, b. Concert Listings, c. Stories About Artists, and d. Stories about Upcoming Concerts The list of choices is way too limited here. What about CD and Book Reviews? What about articles written by artists or well known guest columnists that have been regular features for years? What about opinion columns (like Roy Pauley's) or regional news columns like the ones by Sheila Heil, Ed Knox, and Dennis Zimmerman? For that matter, what about ads? (I mean the obvious ads, of course.) I hope the overwhelming response from readers to this question will be c. Stories About Artists. Stories about upcoming concerts are what I prefer to call "advertisements posing as journalism." Artist schedules and concert listings actually ARE paid ads, if you didn't know that already. So yeah...while I appreciate being informed about upcoming events and I think the Singing News does that very well, what I like MOST is their original articles about the artists who sing Southern Gospel. Question 2: How interested are you in reading about: a. Traditional, b. Progressive, c. Mountain Gospel, d. Bluegrass, and e. Vintage Quartets I would have said vintage "groups" rather than "quartets," but this is a great question. The responses should help the Singing News editors determine the scope of their coverage in the future. (Also, with this question, they may have unwittingly established a de facto set of terms for categorizing the various styles of Southern Gospel music available today.) I'll be rating Traditional, Progressive and Vintage as "Very," Bluegrass as "Slightly," and "Mountain Gospel" as "Not." Given the charting trends of the Singing News, though, I have a feeling I will be in the minority on that last one! :o) Question 18: Is there anything you would like to see added to the Singing News magazine? I plan to include: 1. Opinionated CD reviews (I guess it's no surprise I'd like to see opinionated CD reviews included. I've never cared for so called "reviews" that could just as easily be press releases direct from the record label's publicity department...and may very well be for all we know. Whoever writes them doesn't even bother to include their name with the article.) 2. More than three CD reviews per month (The February issue doesn't have any. What's up with that?) 3. Monthly CD release schedule. ("New in stores this month," or something to that effect.) 4. Practical articles aimed at the church music leader. (Mike Speck's column met this need in the past, but in recent months he tends to write more from an inspirational slant than practical. Also, his articles are usually focused on getting SG churches to accept other styles. I would like to see an article that tells me about available SG resources for the church. This is difficult for Speck to do, of course, since he is aligned with Lillenas Publishing. He can't very well promote a competing publisher's products.) Whether you agree or disagree, I hope all Singing News readers will take the time to respond to the survey. Overall, it's a pretty good magazine, but I think a few areas could be a lot better. This is your chance to have some input. January 20, 2006Review my book at Amazon My book is now available worldwide via Amazon.com. They don't have the artwork up yet, but the product listing can be seen if you click HERE.
If you've already bought my book, I'd appreciate it if you'd drop by over there and leave a review. Thanks! January 14, 2006Whynot, NCNo, this community wasn't named after Bill Gaither's frequent phrase, although Mark Lowry would probably argue that it's possible. The Whynot, NC post office was established in 1860.
My Music on .mp3Here's a few more clips of me playing my Korg piano. Click HERE for a "Blues Bite." Click HERE to hear a rough medley of "Flight Of The Bumblebee" and "Keep On The Firing Line. Click HERE and HERE for the other two movements from my Wednesday Suite. I posted the first movement HERE a few weeks ago. This is the extent of my foray into writing "mood music." Labels: audio January 6, 2006Radio: Roll Your Own Accurate ChartIf you have iTunes or Windows Media Player, you can create your very own airplay chart with a software plug-in from http://www.lastfm.com
To see some chart samples go to: http://www.last.fm/user/dbmurray/charts/ Note that one if you choose "Weekly" and "Tracks" in the Chart Selector, you can view a listing of tracks that were played for each week of the selected month. It even includes the number of spins for each track. Here's the point of my post...if you're a charting station for Singing News, SoGospelNews.com, U. S. Gospel News or some other Southern Gospel chart, you can use this software to automatically log your airplay. It works with CDs as well as tagged .mp3 files on the hard drive. This free solution will give you the ability to file airplay reports based on concrete FACTS rather than a monthly round of guesswork. There's really no excuse for inaccurate airplay reporting any more. By the way, if you look to the left side of my blog, you'll see a list of the last 10 songs I played on my computer. It's simply displaying the results of the chart's dynamic RSS feed. So as you can see, another application of LastFM for a radio station would be to display the songs you just played on your website in real time. January 3, 2006Tightwad version of my book now availableFor all you tightwads out there who don't mind reading a book on your computer screen, I now have an eBook version of Murray's Encyclopedia Of Southern Gospel Music available. No shipping charges apply to the eBook version, which saves you a nice chunk of change, particularly if you live outside the USA where I'm having to charge $10 shipping.
Click HERE to purchase the eBook version from Kagi.com using your credit card. You can also mail $12.99 by check or money order to David Murray, 1586 DePriest Rd., Bostic, NC 28018. Be sure to include your email address when you mail payment. The eBook requires Acrobat Reader. After you go through the checkout process, Kagi.com will let me know you've paid for it and I'll email you a PDF file within three days (typically the same day). The file is just under 1 megabyte, so be sure your email program is capable of handling incoming mail that size. Sorry, my software isn't set up to let you download the file from the web immediately after checkout. Hopefully I will be able to make that happen in the near future, but for now, I have to send it to you as an email attachment. 
| |||
Who's Blogging?
Contributors
Blog Search
Talk Back
Useful Links
Discuss SG
Quicklinks
Advice, Audio, Audio, Audiobooks, biography, CCM, CD Reviews, Concert Reviews, Discographies, Dove Awards, DVD Reviews, Fan Awards, History, Housekeeping, Humor, In The News, Interviews, Limericks, Group Members, Movies, NQC, Obituary, Observations, Odds And Ends, Old Clips, Other Blogs, Other Forums, Podcasts, Praise And Worship, Sad But True, Shopping Tales, Singing News, Song Clips, TV Shows, XM News, YouTube,
Archives
- September 2004
- October 2004
- November 2004
- December 2004
- January 2005
- February 2005
- March 2005
- April 2005
- May 2005
- June 2005
- July 2005
- August 2005
- September 2005
- October 2005
- November 2005
- December 2005
- January 2006
- February 2006
- March 2006
- April 2006
- May 2006
- June 2006
- July 2006
- August 2006
- September 2006
- October 2006
- November 2006
- December 2006
- January 2007
- February 2007
- March 2007
- April 2007
- May 2007
- June 2007
- July 2007
- August 2007
Copyright
- All textual content posted at Musicscribe.com and subfolders is owned and copyrighted by David Bruce Murray unless otherwise indicated. No reprints may be made without the permission of the author, except as provided by US Copyright law. Permission is granted to reprint articles on other non-commercial websites only as long as the following conditions are met:
1) All articles must be reprinted in full with no editing or additions
2) The words "by David Bruce Murray" must be displayed prominently with each reprinted article.
3) A link to the original article at Musicscribe.com must accompany all reprints. If your site meets these requirements, you may reprint articles without requesting additional permission from the author.The copyright of all content posted by Musicscribe.com contributors other than David Bruce Murray is retained by the original authors.