And I will stand behind my statement thayou yours was outlandish and offensive. There aresome greatly skilled artists in SG and we are not looking through rose-colored glasses. I do not know what you are listening to, but it sure isn't the same SG that I am listening to. The greater portion of todays SG music has a very strong Gospel message that is NOT contrary to scripture.
If you have listened to alot of bluegrass in your time, then you should have some appreciation for the instrumental abilities that it takes to play those many stringed instruments that they play.

Deon Unthank
SoGospelNews.com
My Blog

Some people are like Slinkys… Not really good for anything, but they
still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs - Author Unknown

I'm going blind trying to read all these comments. Personally, I love it all and don't know of a single 'professional' group that sounds bad. All the groups have something wonderful to contribute to SGM. Everyone just take what you like best and that way all can be satisfied.

Thanks, Melvin. I just says 'em as I think 'em. No other music can move me as much or can uplift me as much or can show me the error of my ways as much. I feel this music is God's own special way to chastise me when needed and to take me to the mountaintop when it's needed. Thanks to all on this chatboard(?) for giving all of us a chance to give our opinion...good, bad. or somewhere in between.

:hehe:
Well- So mnay comments on Bluegrass and SGM. Well- i front an all female bluegrass group. And we require alot of microphones and have all those pesky instruments, which of course we just learned to play overnight, and we don't have a bass singer, and some of our songs have titles like "Born Again" , "Bright Horizions", or "I'll Be Ready". and to make it worse we ENJOY playing venues wher other types of gospel music (southern, black, & country) are played. It's a ? of "quality" so much as it's a matter of taste. Does god expect us all to like the same foods, the same clothes....etc. As long as it glorifies Him, enjoy!

I started to drop some incendiary comments of my own like I have done on the boards but after reading all of these comments I think I'll take a different approach.

First, one thing that strikes me here and on the boards is that it seems like there are a bunch of people that on purposely either misunderstand what the basic original premise or simply aren't paying attention. The original premise was that Deon felt that SG is a big community of different types and styles of groups. Also he felt that quality of SG is as good as it ever has been. Period.

The problem is all of us (me included) have our own axe to grind and tend to skew these conversations into our own pet complaints (again, me included.) The truth of the matter is that while we are probably all right in our own way, this tends to make us go in circles. In a general sense Deon (who is one of my favourite posters here-no brownnosing intended) is right. Southern Gospel has plenty of variety and can put out quality product. I learned a long time ago as a manager it was much more effective to try to make changes by defining what we are and leading people in that direction as opposed to defining what we weren't and trying to keep people away from it. Morale with this approach was much better and people usually took less of a "us" and "them" approach. Every one benefitted and everyone thrived.

That doesn't mean you don't still have issues to address, but it is a lot easier to define what you want to change in this environment. There is a lot of criticism of radio and charting. If that is not working, then let's come up with a new system that would help these stations play a quality product and show accurate charting. We do have a self defeating cycle when it comes to creativity.

Any time anyone tries something different in this industry they pretty much get hung out to dry. Maybe it's time for a true SG label to be formed that will actually give some financial support in the studio and marketing support once the product comes out. I think a lot these complaints are confusing quality issues with creativity issues. SG needs a little creative shot in the arm. If we can't come up with a label to do this then maybe we need to look for other avenues.

I think the whole SG industry would benefit from embracing any non-rock styles to keep it healthy and diverse (I don't mean diverse in the PC sense, I mean in the non inbred sense).

The blue grass comment was said in an offensive way, but it does point out something that is dangerous in music. I like bluegrass, but stylistically or maybe I should say mechanically some of the vocals can be one step short of musical hog calling. In their attempts to imitate some of the icons of this segment some people have managed to come out sounding like a sack full of cats. When you try to be JUST like someone else this can happen a lot. A lot of these people would be much better off playing this style but being themselves. Guys, we have the same problem in SG. We have a lot of imitators out their who sound hollow because they are not being themselves. I believe this is actually our loss.

We need to encourage people to do their best. We need to encourage them to find their own identity in SG. And we need to support these efforts with our encouragment, our money, and most importantly with our prayers.

I don't agree with everything the Unthanks do or how they handle things here, but this is a good example of what I am talking about. They saw an opportunity in the need of SG for variety, alternative viewpoints to the establishment and a professionally run organization. What we need to do is see this need as an opportunity....