Gospel Grammys

Not ballyhooed, but ever present in the Grammy Nominations are gospel recordings. While the Gospel Music Association's annual Dove Awards are the genre's big night out, there is a great prestige in having a Grammy Award. Put it this way: There are a lot of people to whom you'd have to explain the Doves are Christian pop's Grammys. You don't have to explain the Grammys to much of anyone.

Anyway, here's who was nominated in the pop gospel categories last week, with a few comments:

Best Gospel Performance
(For solo, duo, group as collaborative performances. All genres of Gospel music are eligible.)
Victory, Yolanda Adams, from The Gospel - Soundtrack
Not Forgotten, Israel & New Breed, Alive In South Africa
The Blessing Of Abraham, Donald Lawrence & The Tri-City Singers, Finale Act One
Made To Worship, Chris Tomlin, See The Morning
Victory, Tye Tribbett & G.A., Victory Live!

Thoughts: This category has what Christian pop often strives for, but rarely achieves: diversity. Yolanda vs. Chris vs. Israel. Interesting competition.

Best Gospel Song
(A Songwriter(s) Award.)
The Blessing Of Abraham, Donald Lawrence, songwriter (recorded by Donald Lawrence & The Tri-City Singers)
Imagine Me, Kirk Franklin (Kirk Franklin)
Mountain Of God, Brown Bannister & Mac Powell (Third Day)
Not Forgotten, Israel Houghton & Aaron Lindsey (Israel & New Breed)
Victory, Tye Tribbett (Tye Tribbett & G.A.)

Thoughts: Grammy vets Third Day are mixing it up with several strong pure gospel writers  here.

Best Rock Or Rap Gospel Album
DecembeRadio, DecembeRadio
Where The Past Meets Today, Sarah Kelly
Turn Around, Jonny Lang
End Of Silence, Red
Bone-A-Fide, T-Bone

Comments: This is the first of two purely Christian pop categories, and there are a few surprises including Red, Sarah Kelly and DecemberRadio. That's not a criticism as much as it is an indication maybe voters are giving the lists thoughtful consideration. You do have to wonder if Jonny Lang will win on name recognition alone. A big quibble from this corner would be leaving our Underoath's amazingly accomplished Define the Great Line.

Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album
Sound Of Melodies, Leeland
Coming Up To Breathe, MercyMe
Wherever You Are, Third Day
See The Morning, Chris Tomlin
Introducing Ayiesha Woods, Ayiesha Woods

Comments: Notice that Jars of Clay's Good Monsters, almost a consensus pick for album of the year in many Christian rock circles, is shut out. MercyMe and Third Day are usual (though very worthy) suspects, and Tomlin had a bit of a coming out party at this year's Doves. Leeland and Ayiesha Woods earn nominations for much ballyhooed first efforts.

Of course, Christian popsters rarely make it to centerstage Grammy night, but we'll have thoughts here after the awards, Feb. 11.

Comments

[R Simpson]

I stumbled upon your blog from the Lexington Herald website. I find alot of what you say about broadway and productions in general fairly interesting. Question though : why the focus here and there on contemporary christian music. It seems you review secular art regulary, yet when it comes to music you have a strong focus on the Christian genre. Besides any personal faith you may have, why do you choose to write predominantley about these artists as opposed to secular ones?

Rich's response:
Thanks for the question. I'm surprised I don't get it more. People who stumble in from outside Central Kentucky and Kentucky.com probably don't realize I'm the performing arts and film writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader. Since this is my blog for the Herald-Leader, those are the primary topics I cover. But I also write about contemporary Christian music for the paper, so I pepper in a few items about that too. We have two other Herald-Leader writers who cover mainstream pop music, Walter Tunis and Jamie Gumbrecht. Jamie has a teriffic little blog, It's All About, which you can access through Kentucky.com. I highly recommend it.

So, that's the answer for the somewhat odd mix. That is also why there are category tabs to the left, so if you primarily want to read theatre posts, you can click on that and get them all together. Same goes for film, Christian pop, etc.

Thanks for asking.

All the best,
Rich