MusicScribe BLOG

I made it home, but not before taking in part of NQC live and in person Thursday.

I caught the bluegrass showcase in the South Wing at noon. On the program were Balsam Range, Rochesters, Primitives, and various others. There was a surprise appearance by the legendary Earl Scruggs, who was saved for last. He was joined on stage by Balsam Range and Lizzy Long. They played two numbers, including “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.”

Also on hand for the bluegrass showcase were Karen Peck & New River, Janet Paschal, and Carol Woodard. When Woodard was backed by Tim Surrett and Karen Peck, her vocal style meshed perfectly. If only…

Paschal performed a Wayne Haun arrangement from her terrific CD, Sounds Like Sunday (one of four releases so far this year that I consider to be five star quality). She was backed by Balsam Range and Lizzy Long. Unfortunately, I don’t think they had seen the chord progression to the arrangement before stepping on stage to play it. They faked their way through it OK enough to get by…at least, that’s how it seemed from my seat. Of course, I had the advantage of having heard the studio version.

After the bluegrass showcase, it was time for the blogger summit. In attendance were Paul Jackson, Daniel J. Mount, Aaron Swain, Adam Edwards, Chuck Peters, Doug Harrison, Daniel Britt, Kyle Boering, Lottie Squires, Allison Lynn, Sue C. Smith, Joel Lindsey and yours truly. The links lead to their respective blogs or websites. (I think this task of posting links to the sites of all who were in attendance was actually assigned to Daniel Mount in the meeting, but it won’t hurt anything if there’s some redundancy. Besides, I just checked his site and he hasn’t posted anything yet. Looks like he went straight to bed after the evening concert rather than putting up a report…slacker!)

Also in the room for at least a portion of the time were Kathy Jackson (Paul Jackson’s wife), Kyle Boering’s brother, Bob Crawford of Solid Gospel, Wayne Haun of Vine Records, Marlin Taylor of XM’s enLighten channel, Clarke Beasley of NQC, and Aaron Crisler of GospelMusicUpdate. Crisler got the group shot…two versions…one with Doug wearing the bag and one without it. Sue Smith and Joel Lindsey missed out on the photo, but I believe everyone else got in on it.

What did we talk about? About what you’d expect, I’d guess. The discussion primarily centered on what is or isn’t appropriate for bloggers to write about. While this touched on the topic I had hoped we’d discuss (the role played by blogs in the SG industry), I believe that word “should,” once stated, remained in everyone’s mind. I’m not sure that anything was said that hasn’t already been said in the past.

It was fun getting together…we didn’t discuss whether we’d want to do it again next year.

After the meeting, I hit the road.

———

By the way, I have two or three short essays in mind regarding the roles I see blogs playing…my own as well as others. Two ideas were inspired by questions that were raised in the meeting. (We were pushed on time with so many blogs represented, so I didn’t talk too much…hoping the less outspoken types would have more space to jump in and talk.)

Paul Jackson talked a bit about how he struggles to balance what might be perceived as name dropping or marketing the Prophets Quartet with sharing stories he thinks people would really want to read. There was one good example that I would have liked to share, but it was a bit of a free for all discussion and the topic shifted right after that to the more controversial area of whether Doug’s blog routinely goes over the very fine line.

Near the end of the meeting, Joel Lindsey asked if we consider that the artist being critiqued might read the review. This is another topic I plan to address here in the near future. Hopefully, this will spark an exchange of ideas on the subject, if not between the bloggers who attended the meeting, then maybe with the readers of this blog.

The third topic that I didn’t have time to share in the blogger meeting will focus on a few specific examples from NQC where I know this blog has affected the Southern Gospel industry.