The Truth With My Hand Up

My hand to God this is the truth. If it had not happened in church to someone I know and trust. Yada, yada… In another post I spoke of some gospel lyrics near and dear to my heart; this next song is especially touching to a car guy such as myself (the actual words from my cousin Ray):

Actually it’s...Jesus, he will be my snow tires, in the winter he’s my anti-freeze, when I need him, he is my oil filter, and he's my windshield when there is a breeze!!! C'mon, sing it this time if ‘ya know it!!.. (true song....written by a well-intentioned, but hardly mentally gifted girl from my childhood)

At least it rhymes. Thanks Ray! She took a metaphor and ran with it. Now on to something completely different.

I first met gospel comedian Wendy Bagwell in 1983 at a big gospel music show in Savannah, Georgia. He was over six feet tall with curly dark hair. The only man I have ever met named Wendy. Like Johnny Cash and his Boy Named Sue I believe Bagwell would have had a great story to tell with the origin of his name. This was about the time he first told his Three German Police Dogs story about the disruption that ensues when a yellow cat is introduced to three seeing eye dogs belonging to a group of famous blind singers at the Ebenezer Freewill Baptist Church all day singing and dinner on the ground homecoming. “Those blind folks didn’t know what was going on,” he said, “They just thought they done took that job too cheap.” His theory was that the blind group, unaware of the ruckus, assumed the crowd had broke out in an old fashioned shouting revival.

It turns out that Mr. Bagwell was quite the shrewd businessman as well. He owned Bagwell Sales in metro Atlanta, Georgia. My parents, who were both blind, did business with his furniture store several times over the years. My mom, who is not the least bit shy, confronted Wendy about his comments in the famous bit. “I’m blind, but I know what’s going on,” she commented to him. “I know you do,” Wendy replied with a broad smile and a wink in his voice. “This is the truth what I’m telling you with my hand up,” he would often say before one of his stories which were probably slightly exaggerated. Stretchers, if you will, were his calling card. He was a master showman of the Gospel world. Wendell “Wendy”Lee Bagwell died in 1996 and now has a stretch of US 278 in Georgia, our home state, named after him. Rest in peace.

Stay tuned

reposted from my Peanut Whistle blog Sept. 17, 2009

©2010 Neal Rhoden,Gospel Aircheck. All rights reserved.

Train Wreck?

Far outside the contour of their 2,500 watt AM radio signal I tuned in to the Internet stream of The Train and its Scott and Christy Morning Show. It presumably emanates live from the stations’ facility on Tallapoosa Street in Bremen. Georgia some 60+ miles from this reviewers location. During the broadcast I heard the tell-tale sound of an actual train passing by. It was clearly not a pre-recorded sound effect because the DJ was slightly annoyed by the quaint interruption.

Let me recuse myself from the proceedings at the outset of this review as an impartial listener. I spent a whole year of my life from 1992 until 1993 building the former WBKI-AM as an afternoon then morning show host. I have tuned in my successor, Scott Garner and the renamed WGMI crew off and on over the past 17 years. I returned once on a Saturday to tour the facilities in the mid 90’s. The Garners did a marvelous job remodeling. I do not have any other affiliation with them and admire their effort. I can testify to the train noise: rails are only a few yards away from the point of broadcast. The studio walls are thin.

On to the show. When I began thinking on how I would present this review today restraint entered my mind. What if the show is a train wreck (pun intended)? Do I rip the hosts to shreds? I decided on honesty. With caution I tread into the unknown. First, Scott and Christy are billed as “a professional DJ and a professional mom”—cute. The station is trying. The liners are done by a booming voice-over artist obviously outsourced from a professional imaging firm. Next, the two hosts are suited to their market, even though Scott tries a little too hard. Would the show play well in major market Atlanta? I think not, although I consider the ATL talent poor considering its size. That’s another story.

The two delve into morning show cliché with stories about Paris Hilton and her ilk. There must not be much of local interest in Bremen. When doing local the overdone staple of every small southern station, obituaries, provides a rocky (depressing) bridge between selections. The surprise of the show is that the hosts are a married couple. Christy, to my amazement, is the more natural of the two while Scott tows the line as a trite DJ not a “personality”. She plays an excellent foil to his wanderings, snapping him back on occasion. The man needs to relax the old worn out disk jockey banter and become more of a relevant conversationalist. We’ve all heard that ancient DJ shtick before. Scott is a musician and plays in his family’s gospel band, so he discusses the music—a lot! We share a mutual enthusiasm for Classic Rock-and-Roll history, but that type of talk causes most listeners to tune out. Introducing every record went out of style in the 1970’s. Scott may be an aficionado but is a fish out of water in the mainstream music world. The oldies format is new to WGMI and their morning pair are out of their element separated from Southern Gospel roots. In 30 years of broadcasting experience I never saw or heard of a Christian owned radio station flip to a secular format in order to save it. It is surreal. My forecast: the station will either go dark or sell within six months.

The show was not exactly a train wreck; it was about what I expected from a small market. The music is a proven commodity, that’s a given. More personality needs to shine. Chill out people, the music sells itself. Unfortunately good music is not enough. Like the man said, “It’s only filler between commercials.”  I give it an A for effort and a C+ for execution. But, I’m biased. Check it out for yourself http://www.1440thetrain.com.

For me, I’m going back to Talk Radio. 

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. Gospel Aircheck. All rights reserved.

It’s Surreal

A thought occurred to me this morning that made me smile. Over the years as a Gospel music collector I have come across a few oddities. You know how sometimes a secular singing star will cut a Gospel album? Well, my recollection was not necessarily of those known as singers per se. TV actors and pro athletes have dabbled in sacred music from time to time—often with comical results. Let’s face it, Terry Bradshaw was a legendary Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback and sports broadcaster. Could he sing? Well, he did an album of Country Gospel sometime in the late seventies or early eighties. Search for it and if you can find the record let me know if he should quit his day job. Not a Steelers fan? Then try Kathie Lee Johnson’s Gospel gems she recorded way back when. Who? You may know her now as an original co-host of morning talk shows, Kathie Lee Gifford. Yes, that Kathie Lee.

I am not making a judgment on their talent. Believe me, I’m not a critic. It just seems weird these particular people not known primarily as singers taking up, of all things, Gospel music. For example, Lisa Welchel who played Blair on the NBC sitcom classic The Facts of Life. She did a Gospel record. Who, except me, would remember that?

There are also well known singers who’ve done Gospel albums. It may be surprising: Bob Dylan got “saved” in the 80’s and gave us a couple. Of course, B.J. Thomas, famous for his signature hit Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, was a Gospel star for a while. Countless Country music stars: Glen Campbell, George Jones, Alan Jackson, Charlie Daniels and Grandpa Jones all did religious projects. Perhaps most famous singer of all time; Elvis Presley, won Grammys for his Gospel albums, an accolade ironically not rewarded for his secular work.

At the risk of sounding critical, take the best known of all the non-singers who has made his living in music: Pat Boone. In the fifties he remade such classics as Tutti Frutti and Long Tall Sally into bland pop imitations of the Little Richard originals. By the 1980’s Boone had migrated into Gospel with a charting hit, Let Me Live. Little Richard himself got religion numerous times over the years and has recorded at least one Gospel album. Whew! It boggles the mind. Could it be possible that old stars never die, they just get saved?

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden and Gospel Aircheck. All rights reserved.

Echoes of Mercy

“Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine!

O what a fore-taste of Glory Devine!

Heir of Salvation

Purchase of God,

Born of His Spirit

Washed in His Blood.”

That song by Fanny Crosby was composed in 1873 which is, along with It is Well With My Soul a close second, my favorite hymn. It is based on Hebrews 10:22, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.”

In 1873, blind hymn composer Fanny Crosby, was visiting her friend Phoebe Knapp. Mrs. Knapp was having a large pipe organ installed in her home. Thrilled with a melody she had written, Mrs. Knapp asked her friend’s opinion of the tune played on the piano for Crosby. (The pipe organ’s installation was incomplete.) Said Knapp, “What do you think the tune says?” Crosby replied, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.” The rest is history.

I first truly noticed this gem in 1986 while attending the funeral services of my favorite great-uncle Wilbur Gene known as “Billy” to all of us. Blessed Assurance resounded from the Hammond organ via two large Leslie speaker cabinets in the immense, reverberant hall. Had I not been trying to keep my composure that day I would have immediately fell to my knees in reverent awe of God’s inspiration. Out of the tragedy of a life cut shot was the realization that Uncle Bill had met Jesus personally having just accepted Christ prior to his fatal heart attack. My dad had led Billy to his knees in prayer at our apartment home one evening. Only now in retrospect do I begin to feel the gravity of that moment.

Those Echoes of Mercy still resound within me. It is a tune on a loop in my head and often I find myself humming it. Thanks to you, Mrs. Crosby.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden and Gospel Aircheck

 

 

Heaven's Jam

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© 2010 The Peanut Whistle. All rights reserved.

A Real Class Act

A super group took the stage exactly two years to the day prior to my entry into the world. Jake Hess and the Imperials, a hand picked gathering of superstars of the gospel music industry. A band of ringers that included: Jake Hess on lead, Gary McSpadden on Baritone, Sherrill Nielsen tenor, and the incomparable Armond Morales with his trademark silky bass. The night was January 16th, 1964 in Hadleyville, Alabama, Jake’s home town. Gospel music was never again the same. This group was different, they sounded modern. A little too different at first for some. Jake is quoted  as saying, “I don’t think we’re going to do it.” Armond lent some encouraging words, “Don’t limit God.” In a March, 1989 article from CCM magazine celebrating the groups’ 25th anniversary, the late Jake Hess concludes, “…If it hadn’t been for those three little words I don’t think there would be an Imperials today.”

Although singers came and went the Imperials sound remained consistently great. They backed Elvis Presley on stage and record, accompanied Jimmy Dean and many other stars of the music industry. The group has numerous Grammy and Dove awards; and in 1998 they were inducted into the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame. They’re the New York Yankees of Gospel.

Founding member Armond Morales suffered through a battle with cancer a while back and relinquished the Imperials’ name to son Jason and a new generation of singers. Now the original group is known as the Classic Imperials. Following a miraculous recovery, Armond continues the heritage began in ‘64 along with Dave Will, Rick Evans and Paul Smith.

In 1983 I made my first Lp purchase for my new stereo. The record was Stand by Power by the Imperials featuring then new lead singer Paul Smith. The album produced many hits including: Lord of the Harvest, Because of Who You Are and Stand by the Power. I have been a fan ever since.

Of course I knew of the group through my dad’s record collection. He had a scratchy mono Lp copy of the first record, Introducing Jake Hess and the Imperials. As a teen I was thrilled to spin their new record  that was in itself another triumph in redefining the Christian music art form. Somehow they managed to outdo themselves with every new album just as No Shortage, One More Song for You and Priority had done.

Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with lead singer Rick Evans. We had a delightful conversation via Facebook about the forthcoming new album. I asked Rick how the new project was going, he said, “[It’s] a long process, but we are getting closer each day.” I replied that I could identify seeing that the creative process can be time consuming, my radio days and nights were often spent in countless hours on one 30 second spot. “We are lucky to be have a record company that is willing to take the time to make this right,” Evans continued. I asked if he could give me any glimpse into the songs included on the project. Rick replied, “Very different. We used some of the best writers in Nashville. They came up with a work of art. The record will actually be a journey of a person’s life. It is a cool concept and will be wonderful introduction back into the music marketplace.” Kind of like Styx and some of the other “concept” bands of the ‘70’s I jokingly referred. Not missing a beat the Classic Imperials new lead singer responded, “No actually you are on the right track. It is more like the Beatles and the Lonely Hearts [Club] Band thing. It will be GREAT!”

“It was twenty years ago today,
Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play
They've been going in and out of style
But they're guaranteed to raise a smile.
So may I introduce to you
The act you've known for all these years,
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

Funny how the Classic Imperials and the Beatles started about the same time. The good news is we still have the Beatles of gospel here and now. Thanks to Rick and all the Classic Imperials for not only entertaining us, but more importantly ministering in ways those other guys never attempted.

Stay tuned.