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Pop Rock Nation

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  • Religious rock stars…

    Religious rock stars…

    I was very sad to hear about the tragic violence that happened at the Boston Marathon yesterday. It seems that April is the cruelest and craziest month for some people. This week, in particular, seems to be when certain people lose their minds and go on violent rampages. My thoughts and prayers are with those who have been directly affected by this act of terrorism. Peace be with you.

    Roger McDuff
    Roger McDuff

    I was recently reminded of a brief obsession I had with Trinity Broadcasting Network… and its religious rock stars

    Some of my readers may know that I often write reviews for Epinions.com. I’ve been writing on Epinions for over ten years, so I have a lot of reviews posted, any one of which is liable to be read and rated by another Epinions reader. Last week, someone rated a review I wrote about Trinity Broadcasting Network, a religious cable channel I kind of got hooked on back in the summer of 2003. I didn’t watch TBN because I’m especially religious. If I were religious, I doubt I’d get much out of televangelism anyway. I watched because TBN often has its unintentionally hilarious moments. TBN founder Paul Crouch, after all, once gave a very interesting speech about “doctrinal doo doo“.

    Anyway, since someone had rated my review of TBN, I decided to read it again. Suddenly, I was reminded of how funny and entertaining televangelism can be, particularly among the musicians. I posted the review on one of my blogs and a reader whose mother was a fan for the same reasons I was, left me a comment about one of the entertainers I had mentioned in the review. When I wrote my review in 2003, I noticed a man with a very impressive full head of white hair that made me think of Q-tips. I didn’t mention the performer by name, but my reader knew exactly who he was and had some very funny anecdotes to share about him and his wife. Apparently, this guy is a star on TBN. His name is Roger McDuff.

    I found a clip of him on YouTube, performing in 1983 with pink haired Jan Crouch, co-founder of Trinity Broadcasting Network. I watched it, fascinated that this guy had made a career out of singing on TBN. While I don’t think his singing voice is terrible, his vocals are not particularly outstanding, nor is he much of a dancer. And yet back in 2003, he was still on TBN, cavorting with Jan Crouch. Obviously, McDuff has a lot of fans out there in TV land, even if his performance in the above clip reminds me a little of karaoke.

    As I watched a couple of clips of Roger McDuff dancing and trying to sell Jesus to the masses, I was suddenly reminded of a true religious rock star. Mike Farris is a musician I discovered when a public relations firm in Nashville sent me a couple of his CDs to review. Again, I’m not particularly religious, but I do appreciate good music and talented performers. Mike Farris is definitely a musician who has the goods. I remember listening to his 2008 CD Shout! Live, which was recorded with his Roseland Rhythm Review during one of his Sunday Night Shout performances in Nashville. I remember thinking that if I were an atheist, I might be swayed to belief by Mike Farris’s music . At the very least, I figured I’d have a great time at his show. His energy and charisma are infectious, even if you’re just listening to his CD.

    In the above clip, Mike Farris performs “Can’t No Grave Hold My Body Down”. It’s played by real musicians and sung by someone who can sing and knows how to sell a song. As I listen to Farris and his band, I’m thinking I’d love to see him live. And I wouldn’t laugh at him the way I’d laugh at Roger McDuff.

    It should come as no surprise that religion spawns a lot of stars. Many faiths depend on the emotional connection people have with inspirational music and charismatic orators; they help convince people to believe. And so the most successful religious leaders usually have a lot of talent and charisma. Sometimes, people start off as religious performers and go secular, and sometimes they start off secular and become religious.

    The late, great comedian Sam Kinison started out as a preacher. He used his ability to preach to convert legions of people to his brand of comedy. I clearly remember back in the fall of 1990, listening to the radio station at Longwood University. Someone played Sam Kinison’s hilarious cover of “Wild Thing”. I never would have guessed back then that he had once been a preacher, but it later made perfect sense, given his comedic style.

    Sam Kinison’s video for “Wild Thing” even starred former church secretary Jessica Hahn, the very same one who helped cause the downfall of televangelist Jim Bakker’s ministry.

    Rock star Katy Perry was raised by evangelical Christians and released a gospel record in 2001 before she turned to mainstream pop in 2008.

    Here’s a clip of her singing under her original name, Katy Hudson, when she was still performing gospel music. I must admit, I don’t really follow Katy Perry’s career, but she’s obviously very talented and charismatic. Religion gave her a place to hone her talents before she burst on the pop scene.

    Another very talented band that came out of religious roots is Robert Randolph and the Family Band. I was introduced to these talented folks in 2004, when they opened for Eric Clapton. Robert Randolph started out playing music in church and now he’s getting more fans by the day.

    The Osmond family is obviously a religious musical group, owing to the family’s strict Mormon beliefs. But they’ve been performing secular music for over fifty years, with genres spanning everything from barbershop quartet to country. Unlike many young Mormon men, most of the Osmond brothers did not serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, mainly because they were helping to convert people with their music. Nevertheless, they did release a religious concept album in the 1970s called The Plan.

    This is a clip from The Plan. It’s a far cry from their hit song, “Crazy Horses”, which was about air pollution.

    And, I would certainly be remiss if I didn’t mention Pat Boone, who back in the day was considered a sex symbol akin to Elvis Presley. It’s kind of hard to believe that now, as he shills products on television and makes anti-Obama statements. Still, the man was a bona-fide rock star and movie star in the 1950s and 60s and remained a star in Christian circles well beyond his heyday.

    Many years later, he even released a “heavy metal” album. Okay, it was an album full of his big band interpretations of heavy metal songs. Still, I had to give him credit for trying to be cool.

    Despite all of the talented performers that have come into or out of religion, I still have to admit I get a huge kick out of watching the less talented ones on TBN. I also admit to occasionally watching Ernest Angley’s show solely for the cheesy music. What can I say? It makes me laugh.

  • American Idol Season 12: Cutting Down To 5

    Photo via YouTube screen shot from the American Idol channel
    Photo via YouTube screen shot from the American Idol channel
    Finally. We’re done paying the Lazaro tax.

    Before we get to how the elimination went down, there were two fun Idol alumni performances.

    Who rocked the stage?

    Scotty McCreery as “The Boy Next Door” performed first. I think Phillip Phillips’ success was helped by McCreery’s win from the previous year.

    McCreery’s boyish charm makes him easily likable. He performed See You Tonight and had the teenage girls screaming.

    Kelly Clarkson performed People Like Us. I’m adding the video of Clarkson’s performance because you must see what she’s wearing. She may have dressed herself in the dark.

    Who were in the bottom two?

    Ryno broke them into groups of two.

    The groups were:
    – Lazaro and Amber
    – Janelle and Angie
    – Candice and Kree (Summer)

    Sometimes when Ryno does this, he surprises us with the results. In this case, there weren’t any surprises. They ended up exactly where you thought they would.

    Lazaro and Amber were in the bottom two.

    Who went home?

    Thankfully, it was Lazaro. I don’t think I could’ve taken any more of him and I’m not sure he could’ve taken the pressure of singing again knowing that he was barbecue chicken.

    Idol holds a live Twitter poll when the singer who has been eliminated gets to sing for their life. To show you how useless social media can be, during Lazaro’s performance, it was nearly 60/40 to save him. More than half of the Twitter accounts who participated thought the judges should’ve saved Lazaro. How preposterous is that?

    This preposterous:
    Nicki Minaj gif

    Randy made it as painless as possible. He sent Lazaro home sweet home.

    There is danger in sending Lazaro home. We don’t have anyone else to pick on. Everyone else is at least halfway decent so people are going to have to create villains. If it weren’t for Angie’s turn from pageant wannabe to goofy teenager, I’d put my money on her. But now? I think it will be boring Janelle.

    Next week, Janelle could be in big trouble.

  • Irish balladeer extraordinaire, Christy Moore, and the power of mix tapes!

    I first found Christy Moore in 1996, when a friend sent me a mix tape…

    Remember mix tapes? I grew up with them. Okay, actually I grew up taping songs off the radio, but sometime in college, I was introduced to the mix tape phenomenon when I worked at a summer camp. A British friend of mine made me my very first mix tape with some excellent songs on it by artists I had never heard of prior to listening. A few years later, I was in Armenia as a Peace Corps Volunteer and another friend from Belfast, Northern Ireland, sent me a mix tape. The tape he made had all British or Irish artists on it, some of whom with which I was already familiar. But there was one song on that tape that ended up turning me into a Christy Moore fan.

    Who is Christy Moore?

    Christopher Andrew “Christy” Moore was born on May 7, 1945 in Newbridge, County Kildare, Ireland. He is an Irish folk singer, song writer, and guitarist who has been playing music for a living since the mid 1960s. Originally, Moore worked at a bank and played music for fun, but when there was a strike in 1966, he went to England and had a great time. He realized he liked playing music better than working in a bank with a manager standing over him all the time. Trading in his bank job for a job as a laborer, Moore began frequenting pubs and clubs in Ireland, where he met and began playing music with other musicians. In 1972, Moore released his first major album, Prosperous, which he named after the village Prosperous in County Kildare. He formed a band which was originally known as CLAD, but was eventually renamed Planxty. Moore played with the band until 1975, then embarked on a solo career.

    The first Christy Moore song I ever heard…

    In 1996, I was hungry for good music. In Armenia, there were a lot of vendors selling bootleg albums on cassette. I had a good time blowing some of my monthly allowance on music, though I was somewhat limited in what I could find. I mean, there was no shortage of mainstream American pop– especially Michael Jackson, because the Armenians were nuts about him– and it was easy to find Russian and Armenian pop, as well as “rabiz” music. But I would have never in a million years found Christy Moore in Armenia had my Irish friend not sent me a tape.

    I remember listening to that tape on my Walkman as I walked the long way back to my apartment after picking up my mail at the Peace Corps office. Christy Moore’s gentle baritone sang a cover of a song originally recorded by The Pogues, “Fairytale of New York”…

    I enjoyed the way Christy Moore sang this song, introducing it with his lilting Irish accent. Every time I hear his version of “Fairytale of New York”, I’m reminded of that day in Armenia and how hopeful and exciting it was to be in my mid 20s and living abroad. Of course, I had many tough years ahead of me, but I didn’t know that at the time. This song still makes me smile.

    Years after I returned to the United States, I sought out Christy Moore’s music. I specifically wanted the album that had his live version of “Fairytale of New York” on it. I found an imported album on Amazon.com, Live At The Point. It was expensive when I bought it, but I see now that it’s dropped in price to less than half of what I paid for it. I loved the disc and later purchased another live album by Moore, Live At Vicar Street. That album had a fun Moore original, “Lisdoonvarna”.

    I liked it so much that I started wishing I could see this man play live. Maybe someday we’ll make it to Ireland. For now, I have to settle for the other albums I’ve purchased by him, to include 2009’s Listen and 2011’s Folk Tale. I recently reviewed both of those albums and realized what a great storyteller Moore is with his songs, some of which he covers and some of which he writes himself. Listening to Moore’s music forces me to learn some Irish, too… or at least some Irish slang, since his lyrics sometimes include words I’ve not been exposed to here in America. His songs are also often about Irish affairs, which again I have to familiarize myself with since, not being from Ireland, I wouldn’t necessarily know about them.

    My husband, Bill, is of Irish ancestry and is very interested in world events. One time I was listening to Christy Moore and he sang a song written by Bobby Sands, an Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and member of British Parliament. Sands was just 27 years old when he died of a hunger strike in 1981 while incarcerated in an Irish prison hospital. I was nine years old in 1981 and had never been exposed to Sands’ story, so I didn’t know anything about him. Bill gave me the scoop as we listened to Sands’ song, “McIlhatton” as interpreted by Christy Moore…

    I love it when I learn new things through music, especially when I can share it with people I love. Other songs by Christy Moore led to more learning about Ireland and Irish people and further fueled my desire to make it to Ireland someday. I want to see the origin of my husband’s people.

    And to think my devotion to Christy Moore’s music started with a humble mix tape. Maybe it’s time we revisited that particular fad… with updated technology, of course!