Letters to the Editor

Southern Gospel’s Dirty Word

I went to hear the Kingsmen Quartet last Sunday night. They were halfway through the program before I realized that they didn't have their band. For those of you young guys, who don't know, bands weren't even around until the 70s. I remember when the bands come on the scene. They were of the devil. Bands were of the world and had no place in Gospel Music. It wasn't long after bands were accepted in the business that we started going downhill, losing our crowds. I am not blaming the bands and live music for this, there are other major reasons why we started falling apart at that time, and live music wasn't one of them. However, my point is that bands and live music were not what made this music so popular. This genre has NEVER been based on the band. It's always been based on vocals and harmony. Why do you think that we called them "All Night Sings" for years? We would say, "we're having a singing tonight".

IF you only caught the SGM of the 80s and 90s. you missed some of the greatest SGM ever put out. The 60s and 70s were fantastic with such groups as the Oak Ridge Boys, JD and the Stamps, the Downings, the Imperials, the Prophets, the Statesmen, the Blackwood Brothers, the Couriers, the Cathedrals with Bobby Clark, The Happy Goodmans, the Rambos. That was an era of great, exciting music. These groups had crowds on their feet every night. They didn't have to rely on "love offerings" to make a living. They charged a good ticket price and filled arenas, auditoriums, schools, churches, and any place else they could sing.

These artists didn't have all the live music of bands until the middle to end of the 70s, but way before they had live bands (except a piano and an occasional guitar) these groups were filling concert halls. It's not the live music that is missing today. There is another vital part of this industry that is missing.

Today's SGM is missing a vital link for making our genre grow again. It's called entertainment. Some people shutter when this word is mentioned. IF we will learn how to entertain people again, we will see our crowds grow. Gospel Music is unique because it is our worship AND our entertainment. When I turn on the radio to drive down the road, while some people would turn on the radio for Country music, I turn it on to listen to Gospel Music. Not for worship, but for entertainment. I remember back in the 60s and 70s when we went as a church function on Saturday night to a singing at the Kingsland Theatre in St. Louis, MO. We weren't going for a church service, we were buying tickets to have a good time. Others were going to the movies, we went to singings. The Tenor would sing that high screeching ending, the Bass would dip way down for that low note and we would whistle and cheer, clap our hands and stomp our feet, because we were being entertained. The next morning, on Sunday, most of those groups would be in a church somewhere in the area singing with reverence and worship in a church service. Friday and Saturday nights though, they were entertaining packed out crowds.

If we want to see auditoriums filled to capacity, let's get back to entertaining people when it is appropriate. Ernie Haase and Signature Sound are singing to auditoriums and churches where the seats are all full, because they are entertaining the people. Entertainment is not a bad word. We are going to be entertained one way or another.
We can be entertained with wholesome Gospel Music, where we just might get an added attraction of the Spirit falling and everyone getting blessed, and I'm not opposed to that, or we can look to the world for our entertainment. I don't know about you, but I prefer to see our Christian people entertained by Gospel singers, not those singing about cheatin' hearts or gettin' drunk or gettin' high.

Let's bring the word "entertainment" back into the fold and stop considering it a "dirty" word.