What Does Quality Southern Gospel Entertainment Look Like?

Last updated on: July 2, 2012 at 12:09 am by Esther O’Reilly

What Does Quality Southern Gospel Entertainment Look Like? 2012-07-02T00:09:38-04:00 Esther O’Reilly

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Well, it turns out that Absolutely Gospel didn’t really mean anything that specific by “addressing rumors” in Part 2 of their Ernie Haase interview. Part of it was just his sharing the backstory behind “Any Other Man,” which came out of some righteous anger towards people spreading gossip about the group on forums and such. No specifics were given, and I actually don’t feel like specifics are needed. Some of us have seen such gossip ourselves, and it doesn’t deserve the oxygen of publicity.

But part of it was also a discussion of the group’s entertainment philosophy, and I wanted to spark a discussion based on that. Ernie re-hashed some of his usual talking-points on the topic, but I don’t think I’ve seen him do it quite this candidly before. As he’s done before, he addressed the danger of spiritual manipulation in a concert setting, and this time he specifically connected it with his philosophy of entertainment. He said that he’d rather be “blatant” about “just” entertaining someone than entertain someone under the guise of having a fake “spiritual moment” on the stage. This is something I’ve always respected him for.
He also revisited something he’s been saying for years in response to the accusation that Signature Sound is nothing but empty flash, which is that it’s never been his intention to give that impression, and it comes from a very sincere desire to simply bring one’s top game to the table when presenting this music. When he looks at the production quality of secular music, he wants to aim for that bar because he believes Southern Gospel deserves the best in production and presentation.
But it got me to thinking—they didn’t really get into a lot of specifics in the interview on exactly what that “top shelf” production looks like when you break it down into its component parts. Obviously one huge component is the live band. That’s something that definitely sets Signature Sound apart from the pack. They also have a light show and the occasional fog/dry ice/whatever you call it.
The thing is though, I’m not sure how much the quality of entertainment really rests on those things, with the possible exception of a live band. It seems like if you’re bringing quality singing and quality songs, with quality emceeing, you’re already presenting southern gospel well. I think the Booth Brothers are a great example of a group who consistently delivers top-notch entertainment with pretty much no “extra” stuff—they even get away without having a live band. Lights and fog are nice, but I wouldn’t say they always add something.
So I would say that Signature Sound are definitely great entertainers, but at the same time I think there’s more than one way to skin that cat. And since Southern Gospel IS different from pop or rock, one can only “borrow” so much. And frankly from a purely musical perspective, there’s a lot of poor quality junk out there in the secular arena too. It’s not like it’s automatically good just because it’s on American Idol (and I’m not even getting into issues like lyrical content).
What do you think?

Music

Previous Post

June 29, 2012

All Shall Be Well

Next Post

July 4, 2012 Questions and Answers #2: Looking For America (featuring Simon & Garfunkel and Rich Mullins)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 3 star 3.5 star 4 star 4.5 star Anatomy of a Song Behind the Songs Blog Stuff Book Reviews CCM CCM vs. SG CD Reviews Christians in Entertainment Christmas Essential 12 Christmas Favorites Christmas Top Fives Concert Reviews Concerts Culture Devotional Thoughts Faith and Culture From the Vault Fun Gospel Singers Gospel Songs Great Music Guest Posts Harmony Master Classes History Holidays Humor Hymns Interviews Marriage in the Movies Monday Morning Humor Movie Reviews Movies Music NQC Odds and Ends Old Movies, New Eyes Old Southern Gospel News Old Stuff Open Threads Other Genres Perfect Tenor Performances Polls Questions and Answers Recently Added SG vs. The Rest of the World Sing It Again Songs Songwriting Southern Gospel Surprise Sunday The Definitive Hymns Theology Toe-to-Toe Top 10 Lists Top 5 Top 5 Lists Two Sisters Review Uncategorized Video Posts Youtube Finds

Select a Month August 2026 February 2025 August 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 October 2023 March 2023 February 2023 December 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 June 2020 March 2020 February 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 April 2018 September 2017 August 2017 May 2017 February 2017 December 2016 November 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who built the ark?

Select your answer to see how you score.

David Solomon Moses Noah