Comments on: Reverse Crossover

By: william sanders

william sanders — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:08:09 +0000

the reason most r&b and country western singers throw in a gospel recording on their lp is because they want to capture all audience attention plus it makes them feel good down in their souls and you know every body has one regodless of which songs they love to sing most its their way of saying thank you from the heart

By: Reverse Crossover and Southern Gospel Music | Sporter's Studio

Reverse Crossover and Southern Gospel Music | Sporter's Studio — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 03:38:08 +0000

[…] Boreing started this topic and Doug Harrison added to the conversation today. Here are my thoughts on the […]

By: TLW

TLW — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 21:59:43 +0000

What I find amazing is that everyone clamors when a Country Star does do a Gospel Song or Album. Most of them learned to sing in church. There is a big deal made of the fact that some will throw a little Gospel in when they do concerts. Isn’t it nice that they still “love the Lord”. I say Whatever! I hope they do! But, let some really anointed groups sing and release some songs that are light on message content to try to draw more of the unsaved to come hear them so that they can be exposed to the message of Christ and the Christian community bashes them for all they are worth. Yet we give all this praise to the Country Artists for doing a gospel song now and then. Double standards in my book! If all any one is concerned about is a grammy, well then that is your reward anyway now isn’t it? What happened to ministry and seeing souls won to the Lord? The singing of the Word is just as important as the preaching of the word. It is a shame that those who travel and devote their lives to that, are not given the honor that they deserve. Of course I do understand that there are those who only do for fame, glory, and money. As I said before, in that they have their reward. After all the reason to do anything is to bring Glory and Honor to the God we serve.
God Bless.
Merry Christmas!

By: Rod

Rod — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 07:26:41 +0000

I disagree with most of you…Especially Doug Sword (respectfully). I’m not a song writer by any stretch but I still believe that one special song will make it every time…The point is “I can only imagine” is not a poetic masterpiece but it is catchy and it’s simple. And…The first release of this song was a garage recording Mercy Me did until it was re-released after being re-recorded by their record label. Butterfly kisses same thing…Released then re-released by record label…Christmas shoes…You get the picture. These songs all tug at our very being. They were noticed and played before the Label got it. It’s still the song that makes it. Also recording is not the art form it use to be…I can do an incredible recording in my project studio that would definitely rival any SG record I have heard however I sell records because of the SONG…Perfect example is that I went to three different studios, one being in Nashville…Hired the big boys and make an expensive High quality recording and my latest and the release prior still out sells it. SONG selection is King…find another “Christmas Shoes” or “butterfly kisses” and I’ll bet it gets noticed.

By: Doug Sword

Doug Sword — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:58:23 +0000

I think one of the biggest obstacles to the reverse crossover effect is that much of the best of SG doesn’t really have much of a country vibe. I don’t see many country music programmers hearing the GVB do “Give It Away” and thinking “country blockbuster”. Most SG artists would have to cut new material aimed specifically at the crossover market. Additionally, most SG artists would have to improve their production values to find a home on country radio.

By: Part-timer

Part-timer — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:08:05 +0000

One more thought about this — the real reason is money. The days of a good song rising to the top on radio are largely over. It’s all about promotion. To promote a song to country radio takes a minimum of $100K. The ENTIRE (recording, marketing, etc.) budget for a major SG release may be $40K. Also, a programmer at a major country station gets HUNDREDS of calls a week. Chances of him taking a call from a group he’s never heard of are slim. SG programmers are much more likely to take a call from someone promoting a country star than vice versa.

By: Bryan K. Fowler

Bryan K. Fowler — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:26:24 +0000

This could be done relatively easy on Country Radio IF it were programmed properly. The key is how the station is imaged. If its a “family” type Country Station, for instance, WFMS in Indianapolis could very easily get by with much of the high end Southern Gospel. On the other hand, if it were “The Cat”…bringing you 50 minutes of today’s new country brought to you by Bud Light… then it would pose a programming stump and would really make me uncomfortable and would make a mess out of it. May Country Stations air vinettes or short form teaching features like Dobson, Rainey and some of those guys…sound great during drive time and no one ever complains.

A good programmer can do just about anything and get by with it and its pleasant to the ears. Something to keep in mind, a bad programmer cannot even get by with playing Bluegrass Gospel on a SG station…there has to be a consistent flow and there has to be a reason for what you are doing.

It would take an out of the box programmer to do this, but if you had 2 or 3 major market stations do it… the others would follow and this would work wonderfully for the genre. It would not hurt fulltime SG stations as it would only compliment what they are doing and drive more listeners. Keep in mind, 7 out of 10 people still think of Southern Gospel to be hoaky, poor quality and undesirable to listen to. We all know that not to be the case. Good music, good programming, GOOD REPUTATIONS and good common sense is what this genre needs reflected in the mainstream. This would be a great tool for doing so.

By: CVH

CVH — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 13:19:18 +0000

Not a SG group by any stretch, but the title track of Point of Grace’s new project, “How You Live”, is to me a great example of a crossover song. Their new project has so much of a ‘Faith Hill sound’ to it anyway. I’m surprised that the song wasn’t cut by a country artist already and it wouldn’t surprise me if it does at some point. I think j-mo is on the right track; it’s more a quality issue than an acceptability issue.

By: Norm Graham

Norm Graham — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 20:26:38 +0000

Alanna Nash did a good article on songs of faith on the country charts in Country Weekly in June 2006. She noted in the previous 18 months that country radio had aired a record setting 11 spiritually themed hits. She believes a trend towards songs of faith is a natural outgrowth of songs of war and patriotism. A study of the charts over 30 years found a few faith songs but nothing like more recent times. Looking back, there were lots of periods with no spiritually based songs in the Top 40.

So can SGM cross over to country? One comment in the article indicate there are a lot of differences in the approach to writing songs of faith.

Writer Craig Wiseman (”Believe” by Brooks and Dunn) says: “I went through religious school and I’m always dealing with the polar opposites of spiritualism and tattoes and whiskey. I think this song gets its message across without preaching. . . . It’s just like there is something out there to hang onto when everything else has gone to hell.”

Believing in a higher power when faced with tragedy seems to the theme of a lot of these songs.

Besides the approach to writing, the star power of the artist is of course a big factor. Alan Jackson’s hymn album was made for his mother and not intended to be released commercially. When it was put out, it became the only gospel recording to debut at #1 on Billboard’s country charts. It was also #1 on the Christian music charts. Of course, old hymns by stars have sold in the past such as the many hymn albums done by Tennessee Ernie Ford who had a network TV show around the same time.

My personal view is the the quality of the writing is also a factor. A writer like Kris Kristofferson may have written only a few gospel songs but they are classics — Why Me, Lord? and One Day at a Time (co-written with Marijohn Wilkins).

By: Grigs

Grigs — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 04:17:17 +0000

I think you need to get with the times, Mr. Fineline. There have been plenty of male country singers with hair like Guy Penrod’s.

By: Angie M

Angie M — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 21:14:17 +0000

I think the fact that so many SG songs talk about the gates of pearl and the streets of gold makes them irrelevant to many listeners of country. As #4 pointed out, “I Can Only Imagine” did manage to cross over, but it’s a song about heaven that doesn’t mention mansions. I guess that’s a specific example of Doug’s point: Country is designed to appeal to the masses, while SG is written primarily for those who see themselves as separate from the rest of the world.

By: cdguy

cdguy — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 19:49:59 +0000

“I Saw The Light” was written by country legend Hank Williams, Sr. Which throws back to the comment about singing & drinking at the Elks on Saturday night, then singing at church on Sunday morning.

Several years ago, Ray Stevens recorded “Turn Your Radio On”, and had a pretty decent hit with it. But I think a lot of that had to do with novelty, more than message or great tunesmithing. Nothing wrong with the song, mind you, but not a strong evangelistic tool, either. “Get in touch with God”, simply by turning your radio to gospel music? Hmmmmm

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:39:18 +0000

Doug-

What about old SG standards as “I Saw The Light”, “I’ll Fly Away”, “Jesus Take My Hand”, and a number of others like this? I seem to have seen and heard these songs and many like them having been recorded and used by country artists over the years…

By: Jim2

Jim2 — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:48:29 +0000

An exception that comes readily to mind was “I Can Only Imagine” that not only crossed from CCM to Country (done by Jeff Carson) but also into SG (most notably by Ivan Parker) but I think that had more to do with the “song” than any other factor.
Very interesting post - I’m looking forward to hearing what others have to say

By: j-mo

j-mo — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:41:51 +0000

I’m not a Gaither hater, in fact, I’m quite the Vocal Band fan. However, the song ‘Give It Away’ sounds a lot more like a song Alan Jackson or Carrie Underwood already rejected than a song they should be clamoring to record. I’d say the quality of Christian music’s cross-over type songs has more to do with why they aren’t picked up by country artists than anything else. When we create quality enough marketable songs, then people might take interest in crossing them over. Think ‘Mary Did You Know’ or ‘Christmas Shoes’.