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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.
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Most Recent Articles
Why blog? (Three years and counting)
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-----------August 28, 2006Musicscribe At NQC 2006I plan to provide daily coverage of NQC 2006 right here on the Musicscribe blog. I'll be at NQC physically for the first three days with wireless access to the internet at my hotel. Look for updates either late at night or late the next morning. I also plan to monitor some of the main stage performances over the internet once I return home on Thursday. I don't know if I'll take the time to write down the title of every single song I hear as I did last year, but I'm sure there will be plenty of interesting tidbits to report with a few new faces on the main stage and a new location for the exhibit hall. It's hard to believe it's only two weeks away. You can view last year's coverage HERE. Labels: Observations August 25, 2006SGHistory.com Now A WikiMusicscribe's sister site, SGHistory.com has just been converted from a blog to a Wiki. This may mean nothing to the casual browser, but it means a great deal to contributors. We can now set up crosslinks and wish lists with ease. If you are an expert on one Southern Gospel group, one Southern Gospel organization, one Southern Gospel album, or just one Southern Gospel song, we'd love to have your input.
Drop me a line, and I'll get you set up to contribute. August 24, 2006Northman Sheds Half His Body Weight, Upgrades His Wardrobe, And Gets The GirlSounds like it could be a plot for a chick flick, right? Or maybe a headline for the Southern Gospel Inquirer...you know what they say...truth is often stranger than fiction. For a number of years, Brad Luzadder of the Northmen Quartet looked like this:  As if Brad's size and the size of other overweight members of the Northmen didn't attract enough attention, the group's wardrobe of choice has always been bright colored suits like this:  (I gave them a hard time about that picture when it appeared on Page 1 of Section B in the Louisville Courier-Journal last year at the outset of NQC.) But the sands of time have brought a change (at least for Brad). Over the past couple of years, Brad took off a considerable amount of weight. He also put on a nice tuxedo. And then look what happened...this past June, he married a lovely bride:  Congratulations to Brad Luzadder. (Is that an understatement or what?) In closing, I noticed that the Northmen website still uses that first photo of him on their main page. Update that thing! This ain't rocket science. :o) Labels: Observations August 21, 2006Brief Encounters-Lasting ImpressionsI've told this story before, but it bears repeating. I was treated rudely by an artist at NQC several years ago. He was chatting with another artist when I walked up to his booth and started looking at his CDs. I was his only customer at the time, so it surprised me when I stood for several minutes holding a CD in my hand waiting to pay for it. He must have thought I was trying to eavesdrop on his conversation, because eventually he glanced at me and then pulled the other artist closer, turning both of their backs to me so they could continue their conversation. What a rude person, right? Naturally, he lost a sale. A year later, the same artist was singing at a local event. I spoke with him at his table and my impression that night was that he was one of the kindest artists I'd ever met. It was the first day of a three day event and he had to leave early. Before he left, he asked me if I minded keeping an eye on his table and helping any customers if they wanted to buy anything. What a nice guy, right? (I still didn't buy any of his CDs...but it was impressive that he'd trust a total stranger to watch his stuff.) My point is this... Fans form lasting impressions of artists based on very brief encounters. The vast majority of fans only speak with artists for a few minutes while other fans are clamoring around wanting to do the same thing. It can be a stressful moment for both the artist and the fan. The smallest negative incident seems major. If you are a fan, the lesson in my tale is to not put too much weight on your brief encounter with an artist. They are just human beings, after all. This hero worship that goes on at intermission or after a concert is too often destructive, not only for the artist's ego, but also for the fan's. If you are an artist, the lesson in my tale is to treat each fan as graciously as possible. I'm not talking about allowing them to dominate your time while other fans are waiting to speak to you...just take a moment to thank them for speaking to you. Also, have enough sense to smile at them and take their money when they're wanting to buy your product! (Marketing 101...the customer wanting to give you money is the most important one in the room.) The question of whether or not an artist is really sincere about their gospel music career comes up frequently on various Southern Gospel message boards. EVERY artist eventually hurts a fan's feelings, whether it's due to over-sensitivity on the part of the fan or a momentary lapse in civility by the artist. No one is perfect. Your encounter may be considerably different from another fan's brief encounter with the same artist. Labels: Observations August 12, 2006Help This Station!As my readers know, I'm frequently critical of Southern Gospel radio's overall lack of quality. Once in a while, I run across something positive, so I want to share that info as well. On the Singing News wire, I just read about a station that is wanting to improve their Southern Gospel programming. This is great! The station has a four hour Southern Gospel show on Sunday I want to strongly encourage QUALITY artists, labels, and comp companies to help this station out! It's just refreshing to see at least one station attempt to do better than they've been doing in the past. Deluge them with quality Southern Gospel music. I'm planning to pass along some of the complimentary music I've received as a music reviewer to help get them started. Here's the contact information: WKKR 915 Veterans Parkway Opelika, AL 36801 (334) 745-4656 Labels: Observations August 11, 2006Daywind Ad Now Plays L5Click the Daywind ad on this website to experience samples from the upcoming live release by Legacy Five.
Carolina Quartet PhotosA few photos from my second Carolina Quartet outing are posted HERE.
August 8, 2006Patiently waiting...or not...I ordered a CD on July 2. According to last month's credit card statement, I was also billed for it on July 2. I don't recall seeing a notice about allowing more than the standard 30 days for shipping at the time I placed my order, but a couple of days ago when I checked the group's website, I saw an "allow 4-6 weeks for delivery" note beside the product listing. How could it possibly take 4-6 weeks to put a CD in an envelope, write an address on it, and take it to the Post Office? That's just poor customer service. I just checked again, and now the website says nothing about a 4-6 week delay. Maybe the change on the website listing means the shipment is finally on the way...but who knows? I've received no notice about the CD being shipped, even though it's been more than five weeks since the order was placed. For all I know, the order has been lost, but I guess I'll wait until the sixth week has passed before contacting the group to see what's up. I was pretty eager to get this CD when I heard the clips on the group's website and placed my order...five weeks and two days ago...but my excitement is diminishing by the day. If this had been presented as a "pre-order" sale, that would be one thing, but this item was listed for sale as if the project were completed and ready to go. Here's a LINK to a handy resource for groups that sell merchandise online. I'm not saying this group violated Mail Order And Telephone law, because it's possible I failed to see the 4-6 week notice (that's no longer there) when I placed my order. I suspect this project was incomplete at the time it was initially listed for sale and they failed to disclose that fact. I AM saying this isn't the best way to get people to buy your products. Shipments should be made promptly and the customer needs to be kept in the loop regarding unexpected delays. As I said in my previous blog post when talking about marketing, that's just elementary. Unfortunately, amateurism in gospel music extends to more than just performance quality. Labels: Observations August 7, 2006Wanna Update That Website?Wow...www.springhillmusic.com hasn't been updated for ten months. Way to get the word out! I've gotta get me a copy of that new Oak Ridge Boys CD that's "Just in time for Christmas." I'm no marketing genius by any stretch, but some things are elementary. Labels: Observations CD Review: Called Out Quartet (Happy Rhythms) RATING: 3 Stars Label: Morningstar Records Producers: Eddie Crook and Scott Russell Website: www.calledoutquartet.com Song Titles: "Campmeeting Medley," "Gettin' Ready To Go," "Gloryland Way," "Happy Rhythm," "Heaven's Jubilee," "In Just A Little While," "Look For Me In Gloryland," "Meet Me There," "Wait Upon The Lord," and "Watch What My God Can Do" It's always interesting to review a recording by a group I haven't heard previously. Before I listened to Happy Rhythms by the Called Out Quartet, I glanced over the list of songwriters and noted that whoever selected the tracks for this CD must be a huge fan of the 1990s era Palmetto State Quartet. Five of the ten tunes are written/arranged by Woody Beatty, Harold Gilley, and/or Brion Carter. A simple piano introduces "Campmeeting Medley" as each vocalist sings a slow line from "Uncloudy Day." Then a basic accompaniment of guitar, bass, piano and drums kicks in for the chorus which leads into "I'll Live In Glory." A convention style chorus comes in at the end. I wish I could hear this group sing "Gettin' Ready To Go" with bluegrass instrumentation rather than the generic Southern Gospel rhythmic approach they chose. I think it would suit this group's slightly nasal vocal tone better. "Gloryland Way" uses the same arrangement as PSQ's original, allowing tenor Marty Harris to hit some high notes. "Happy Rhythm" was a good song to name the CD after. It's a good arrangement that goes fairly well until the key change forces bass singer Von Gaines to go lower than his comfortable range. Stepping up a half step rather than dropping a fifth would have been preferable. "Heaven's Jubilee" is good vocally. The accompaniment suffers from fake brass stabs, though. (I don't know why producers think some of these keyboard patches are acceptable. It's OK to fake it if you have a convincing patch, but when it sounds like it came from a $100 Casio from Wal-mart, just say "No!") The rest of Happy Rhythms is in a similar vein...some shaded vocal pitches here and there, but nothing noticeably offensive to the ear...vocals generally mixed too loud...a basic, "low budget" level studio accompaniment...nothing particularly unique, but nothing particularly bad either...adequate cover songs, but too many from the same artist...some pacing issues. The CD generally got better as it went along with "Campmeeting Medley" being the weakest cut and "Wait Upon The Lord" being the best. The weakest track shouldn't be first. Also, better arranging to suit the strengths of the individual singers would have been an improvement in spots. On a positive note, Called Out Quartet has a good overall vocal blend, and their tenor goes into the rafters in a couple of spots. These guys aren't quite ready to appear on a Gaither Homecoming video yet, but most regional level quartets would be happy to have a project with this level of quality on their table. by David Bruce Murray Labels: CD Review CD Review: Second Mile (Vertical) RATING: 4 Stars Label: Worship Planet Music Producers: Channing Eleton, Donny Henderson, and Buddy Mullins Website: www.secondmileonline.com Song Titles: "Don't Let Me Miss The Glory," "Children Of God," "The Name," "I Will Do The Same," "Lead You To The Cross," "The Power And The Glory," "Somebody Dance," "My Forgiveness," "King Of My World," "Draw Near," "Always," "Whatever It Takes," "Song Of Adoration," "Shelter Me," and "Grace Like Rain" Buddy Mullins (Mullins and Co./Gaither Vocal Band), Channing Eleton (Poet Voices/Gold City), and Donny Henderson (Poet Voices) cut their teeth singing and playing with some of the top groups in Southern Gospel. These three men along with Kerri Mullins (Buddy's wife) formed Second Mile in 2005 and recently released their debut recording, Vertical. Vertical is a worship project in the same vein as titles found in the Spring Hill Worship series. I believe I'm correct in saying that all the songs on Vertical come from Spring Hill staff writers. Joe Beck co-wrote 14 of the 15 songs, with help from writers like Chaz Bosarge, Carl Cartee, Billy Sprague, and Rick Cua. Some of the tracks were also recorded at the Bennett House. If you've followed Spring Hill Worship's releases for the past couple of years, you may recall that their initial release was titled Songs From The Bennett House. So there's definitely a Spring Hill Worship vibe that resonates throughout this recording, even though Second Mile isn't officially part of the Spring Hill roster of artists as I'm writing this review. Vertical gets off to a great start with "Don't Let Me Miss The Glory"...a touch of accordion in the accompaniment on the verses provides a nice contrast to the more driving, anthemic choruses. "Children Of God" is built on a bed of guitar textures. This song is also produced as an anthem...a clear statement of faith with a compelling rhythm. "The Name" slows the pace considerably, giving Kerri Mullins an opportunity for an expressive solo. One of my personal favorites on Vertical is "I Will Do The Same." The lead vocal is more prominent in the mix, which may be one reason it stood out to me. It's also a well written song. "Lead You To The Cross" has a layered, rhythmic accompaniment that detracts from the lyrics. In fact, there are so many layers of instruments behind the vocals that it's essentially a wash of sound with no clear purpose. "The Power And The Glory" gets back on track with a soulful piano driving the accompaniment through the first verse and chorus followed by a full accompaniment for the rest of the track...I love what the bass guitar player is doing in that section. This is another winner. "Somebody Dance" returns to a stock rhythmic, layered accompaniment. Fortunately, it's not an excessive treatment this time. Acoustic guitar sets up the mid-tempo "My Forgiveness," a song that showcases Second Mile's vocal harmony on the choruses. That's just the first half. Vertical has a generous fifteen tracks clocking in at just over an hour. Standout tunes I haven't already mentioned include the driving "Song Of Adoration" and "Shelter Me," which provides a nice contrast to the rest of the CD with it's simpler accompaniment. I don't normally say this when a CD has a lot of music on it, but I actually think Vertical would pack a more powerful punch if it had fewer tracks. Several cuts are five-star level efforts..."Shelter Me" and "I Will Do The Same" being two...but the impact of these stellar cuts is diminished by several tracks that lack a distinct identity. The mix could have been better on a couple of cuts; the vocals seemed to get lost at times. All in all, though, Vertical is a nice addition for music lovers to enjoy with intricate production quality and considerably more creative than average worship lyrics. by David Bruce Murray Labels: CD Review Stats Your visits to Musicscribe re-surged in July to almost match the record high set earlier this year in March. Thanks for continuing to read Musicscribe! A few words about stats... I use Page Views for reporting stats because I feel it's a more accurate indicator of traffic than "hits." A bit of terminology... A "hit" is generated every time one element of a page loads. In contrast, a "page view" is only generated when the entire page loads. (Some sites prefer "unique visitor" stats.) To show you how this works... Let's assume one site has an average of 50 elements per page...not an outlandish number if a site sells banner ads and/or uses a lot of small graphics in their layout for visual effect. Let's assume a competing site is more conservative with graphics, averaging 10 elements per page. Every time a full page loads, the site with 50 elements gets 50 hits and the site with 10 gets 10 hits. To put this in perspective, my 43000 page views for July would have translated into 2.15 million hits on a site averaging 50 graphics per page, but only 430000 on the site averaging 10. This is very misleading, in my opinion, because one site appears to be five times as popular as the other, when both had the same number of page views. That's why I'll mention page views from time to time, but I don't report hits. (By the way, I do prefer Page View stats to Unique Visitor stats. Unique Visitor stats just show that X number of people visited the site. Page View stats show how many total pages were loaded, which translates into the number of opportunities a person had to read articles or click on an ad.) Labels: Observations August 5, 2006On The RoadHaving just arrived home from an overnight trip with the Carolina Quartet to Burnsville, NC, and having made my first overnight trip with the group to Cynthiana, KY two weeks ago, I have formulated a couple of observations about traveling and singing. 1. I absolutely love it. 2. There's no way I'd ever want to do it full-time for a living. In Burnsville, there were thousands of people in town for the Mount Mitchell Arts And Crafts Fair. At any given time, there were several hundred in the town square listening to music by a variety of artists from all walks of life. What a blast to have the opportunity to not only thrill the hearts of these folks with some quality quartet music, but also to stir their souls with the message of the Gospel and provoke thoughts in their minds about eternal things. Besides, it was fun for me and the other guys. That being said, it's tiring. I need to rest for a day or two. A one night trip isn't bad, but I can quickly tell I would grow to hate traveling if I had to do it every week for four nights on the average. Fortunately, I believe God has blessed me with the best of both worlds. Three of us are worship leaders in our respective churches. Quitting our jobs to do this for a living isn't part of our plans. Doing a few select dates per month in the Carolinas with occasional overnight, out-of-state trips when it's convenient is what we're all about. That suits me just fine. Labels: Observations August 4, 2006Programming RadioI was once taught throughout my radio career that you should only play the best of the best. And one aspect of that is not having way too many songs in the library. You are not playing the absolute best songs if you take too long to come back around to something familiar to the listener. It may contradict the "variety" type argument, but to that, I was told that people don't know what they want. They say they want variety, but they really want what they know (the solid gold songs they can sing with). I once programmed a station this way: ---I only played artists that were recognizable to our audience (Gaither artists, major quartets, the ones creating a buzz). ---I rarely added songs that were not by a major name and if I added a lesser known group, it was after much prodding from that feeling in my gut. ---Quite often, even if the group or artist was well known, if the song wasn't a great song, it didn't get added. Again it comes in to play that if you have thousands of songs in your library... big chance they all aren't great or the best of the best. And if you adopt that principal, then you begin to think in terms of "limited real estate" and you ask yourself "is this song really worth filling up library space?" Radio is not a talent scout. It's not our focus to search out and find young, new talent. If outstanding new talent shows up and is amazing, run with it and beat the masses. But, I would dare say that risking more than 1 or 2 horizon groups a year is too many for a successful station. By the way, the Singing News didn't like it that I limited my new releases to such big name artists. They said I was not representing Southern Gospel as a whole. They eventually disqualified me from reporting ... (and this was Atlanta!) I learned fast that if you aren't allowed to honestly report what you play, then the dissolved charting relationship is best. I found more time in my day, too! -Daniel Britt Labels: Observations 
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