WITH GOD ON THEIR SIDE?

This article, reprinted with permission from Jewly Hight, originally ran in the Nashville Scene. When I post an article here at SHLOG I don't do so because I agree with everything in it, but instead because the article made me think and I want to think some more out loud with you. So, read, think, comment, discuss. Here goes...

With God On Their Side?
(Gospel Music Association turns a blind eye to records that get spiritual without selling their souls to CCM subculture )
By Jewly Hight

If there was ever any question about whether an artist could make a gospel record that has nothing to do with the gospel music industry, the evidence is in. Last year, not one, but two people, Buddy Miller and Ben Harper, pulled it off, earning Grammy nominations in gospel categories for their latest albums. Meanwhile, the Gospel Music Association (GMA) did what any shortsighted governing body of spiritual music would do - ignored them. While it's doubtful that either artist would've felt comfortable inside the contemporary Christian music bubble, it's worth asking why their albums weren't gospel enough for the GMA.




Illustration by Gilbert Ford


Miller's Universal United House of Prayer and Harper's There Will Be a Light, a collaboration with The Blind Boys of Alabama, both have enough gospel content to rival any of the albums that will prove winners at the GMA Awards April 13. The Grammys placed both records alongside GMA nominees like Randy Travis, The Crabb Family, Dottie Peoples and The Williams Brothers. Miller's album received a mention in the "Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Album" category, while Harper's received one for "Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album." Neither, however, made the GMA list.

According to GMA guidelines, a record's lyrics must be "based upon the historically orthodox Christian faith contained in or derived from the Holy Bible, or apparently prompted and informed by a Christian worldview" for it to be considered for an award. Both of the overlooked albums aced this lyrics test.

Miller, who frequently collaborates with his wife, Julie, a former contemporary Christian music (CCM) artist, made his most distinct faith statements to date on last year's House of Prayer. On this album, Miller's trademark hybrid of blues, soul, gospel and country brim with transcendental devotion. His ravaged vocals and alternately bluesy and keening guitar playing amplify the spiritual urgency of his lyrics, conveying meaning that words alone can't possibly express.

Backed by the gospel-steeped hosannas of Regina and Ann McCrary, daughters of legendary Fairfield Four tenor the Rev. Sam McCrary, and borrowing songs from the late great CCM misfit Mark Heard and The Louvin Brothers, Miller recorded some seriously spiritual music. In "Is That You," a song that he wrote with his wife Julie, he asks, "Lord, did you go down and take on the devil? / Lord, did you go down to hell for the key? / Buried in the ground, and then did you rise up? / Did you go down to hell and back for me?" Any writer would be hard pressed to come up with a more thoroughly gospel song than that.

Harper isn't as associated with music of faith as Miller, but he has persistently included songs with spiritual themes on his albums. There Will Be a Light, his partnership with the venerable Blind Boys, yielded a surfeit of sacred material. Harper and his Innocent Criminals depart from their standard jam rock on this album. His distinctive singing and the deep, careworn voices of the Blind Boys form a gospel choir, conveying just the sort of spiritual fervor that you'd expect to hear through walls of a foot-stomping revival in full swing. "Take My Hand" deals with trusting God, "Wicked Man" warns that a life of selfish gain will end badly, and both "Church House Steps" and "Church On Time" blend Sunday morning imagery with visions of heaven.

But what's gospel to the Grammys may or may not be gospel to the GMAs, and there's more to this than lyrical content. First, gospel music's gatekeepers suffer from a separatist mind-set. You'd think that an organization whose mission statement is "to expose, promote and celebrate the Gospel through music" would embrace anyone anywhere who creates good music that does this effectively. In reality, the CCM creed might more accurately read, "Blessed are those who target the right niche audience - that is, Christians who buy into the CCM subculture via Christian radio stations, retailers and concerts - for they shall be heralded as legitimately gospel."

This is where mixing spirituality, art and commerce gets sticky. Anything produced outside the CCM sphere of influence, no matter how well-intentioned, is generally suspect. Artists who make faith-oriented music for the larger marketplace thus often go unnoticed, and many of them are probably relieved.

Then there's the GMA's apparent discomfort with complexity, ambiguity or anything that defies easy labeling. Other than traditional gospel and bluegrass forms, little space is made in CCM for nuanced, roots-oriented styles like folk, blues and Americana. There isn't really a Christian NPR or AAA radio format to promote the growth of fringe artists. The GMA tends to promote artists who can be neatly pigeonholed and whose music presents an ideology that can be grasped on first listen. Even CCM luminaries like Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant and Sixpence None the Richer have incurred criticism for recording songs that aren't transparently Christian enough.

With paradigms like these, it's no wonder the GMA doesn't comprehend, much less embrace artists like Buddy Miller and Ben Harper, who weave spirituality into the fabric of their music. Thankfully, Miller and Harper get to make the music they want to make. Just as salutary, even people who don't patronize record bins marked "Christian" can enjoy it.

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