We continue Gospel Music Week with the wonderful Andrae Crouch.
Early years
Born Andraé Edward Crouch in San Francisco, California,[1] where his parents managed a dry cleaners. His father, Benjamin Crouch, also had a street ministry, and ministered in hospitals and in prison. Crouch was eleven years old when his father was invited to preach at a small church in a farming community. The church didn’t have a pastor so the bishop invited Crouch’s father to become the pastor. That first Sunday, Crouch’s father asked him to come up front. He said, “Andraé, if God gave you the gift of music to play and sing for him would you do it for his glory all your life?” Crouch said, “Yeah daddy.” A couple of weeks later, his father asked him to come up as the congregation was singing. He said, “If you’re gonna play, play.” Crouch found the key, and started to play the piano. As he got a little older, he started to write songs, and lead a choir. Until he was fourteen, he had a stuttering problem—so he let his sister talk for him in public. [2] [3]
Career
Crouch’s first group was the Church of God in Christ Singers (COGICS) in 1960, which included Billy Preston.[1] The COGICS were the first group to record the song “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power.”
While attending Valley Junior College in California for a career in teaching, he was called to the ministry and formed The Disciples in 1965, along with Perry Morgan, and Bili Thedford. The group became a frequent attraction at “Monday Night Sing” concerts in southern California put on by promoter Audrey Mieir.[3] Mieir would introduce Crouch to Tim Spencer of Manna Music Publishing who would be the first to publish one of his songs (“The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power” which was written by Crouch at age 15 but tossed in the trash because he thought it poor. Sister Sandra thought differently and salvaged it.) In turn, Spencer helped launch their recording career by introducing the group to Light Records founder Ralph Carmichael. Sherman Andrus and Reuben Fernandez were added to the group in time to record their first album, Take The Message Everywhere, in 1968. They were subsequently replaced by Crouch’s twin sister Sandra in 1970. Sherman Andrus went on to join the Imperials. In 1972, singer Danniebelle Hall, trumpeter Fletch Wiley, Harlan Rogers, Hadley Hockensmith and drummer Bill Maxwell joined the Disciples.[3] Many support singers, Kathy Hazzard, Bea Carr, and James Felix were part of the Disciples entourage. Bili Thedford and Danniebelle left for a solo careers.
At the urging of Carmichael, Crouch began to record his compositions in 1968 with the group’s debut album Take the Message Everywhere releasing in 1969. In 1972, the Disciples appeared on network television’s The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.[3] By 1985, they had also performed at the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall and toured 68 countries. Crouch’s most popular songs from this period include “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power”, “Through It All”, “Bless His Holy Name”, “Soon and Very Soon”, “Jesus is the Answer”, and “My Tribute”. Their contemporary gospel sound reached beyond the traditional African American base and touched a racially and musically diverse audience.
The Disciples disbanded in 1979 and Crouch continued on with his solo career with an ensemble Howard Smith, Linda McCrary, Táta Vega and Kristle Murden as well as with the Andraé Crouch Singers. Joe Sample, Wilton Felder, Dean Parks, David Paich, Phillip Bailey, Stevie Wonder, and other secular artists were featured on all of Crouch’s major recording sessions. Crouch had a gift of bringing out unique voices in solos on his projects including El Debarge on “The Lord is my Light” or Táta Vega on “Oh it is Jesus”. He has co-produced with Bill Maxwell projects for The Winans, Danniebelle Hall and Kristle Murden. Many musical acts and solo performers covered his more popular works, including Elvis Presley (“I’ve Got Confidence”), further expanding Crouch’s musical influence. In 1995, he was featured in the Warren Chaney docudrama, America: A Call to Greatness.[4]
In 2006, Crouch released Mighty Wind, a 40th anniversary album featuring guest performances by, Lauren Evans, Crystal Lewis, Karen Clark Sheard, Táta Vega, and Marvin Winans.
Crouch was also a judge for the 10th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists’ careers.[citation needed]
Influence
Crouch was a key figure in the Jesus Music movement of the 1960s and 1970s. As a result, helped bring about contemporary Christian music, and began to bridge the gap between black and white Christian music. Though sometimes criticized for diluting the Gospel message by using contemporary styles, his songs have become staples in churches all around the world and recorded by mainstream artists such as Elvis Presley and Paul Simon.[1]
Crouch is also credited with revolutionizing the sound of urban Gospel music. Crouch was instrumental in bringing Walter and Tramaine Hawkins, Jessy Dixon and The Winans to Light Records, all enjoying successful gospel music careers. His influence has extended to countless artists like BeBe and CeCe Winans, The Clark Sisters, Wintley Phipps, Anointed and Israel Houghton.
In 1996, Crouch’s songs were the impetus for the Grammy Award- winning CD, Tribute: The Songs of Andraé Crouch (released on Warner Bros. Records), which featured a range of artists performing some of his classic songs including the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, Take 6 and Michael W. Smith.
Crouch and his sister, Sandra considered Michael Jackson as a dear friend for many years, whom they loved and greatly respected. In 1987, the Andraé Crouch Choir sang background vocals along with Siedah Garrett, Glen Ballard, and The Winans on Jackson’s hit single, “Man in the Mirror” from the Bad album. The Andraé Crouch Singers were also featured on the songs, “Keep the Faith” and “Will You Be There” from Jackson’s 1991 Dangerous album. Andraé and Sandra also did the choir arrangement for those songs. On Jackson’s HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I project in 1995, the Andraé Crouch Choir chants climactically in a dramatic interaction with Jackson on “Earth Song.” Crouch’s composition, “Soon and Very Soon” was performed at the public memorial service for Jackson at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Which “Living Single” Character Are You?
In a 90s kinda woooorld… posted on February 14, 2014 at 4:48pm EST
http://www.buzzfeed.com/tracyclayton/which-living-single-character-are-you
I’m Maxine…..LOL
https://twitter.com/petesouza/status/435925807853096960/photo/1
http://youtu.be/kMYEvMAfMbk
Public Official Responds to Black Man’s Complaint With Lynching Story
Algood, Tenn., resident Shun Mullins filed a complaint last summer about the mishandling of his mother Dorothy’s death by the local fire department, and for reasons that are inexplicable to decent people, the state investigator, a 40-year veteran named William Sewell, saw fit to tell Mullins the tale of a gruesome, 120-year old lynching that involved the hanging and mutilating of a black man, a story that had been passed down to Sewell through generations. The investigator has since lost his job, but he doesn’t think he did anything wrong.
According to the local NewsChannel5 out of Nashville, Shun Mullins’ mother, Dorothy, passed away recently, and according to Mullins, when the Algood Fire Department showed up, no one did their job:
Mullins claimed Algood’s deputy fire chief refused to do CPR on his mother because she was black and then falsified medical reports to cover it up.
State investigator William Sewell met with Shun Mullins and two women to look into the complaint: Nashville’s NAACP executive board’s Sheryl Allen attended the meeting, and an acquaintance (of Allen’s or Mullins, unclear) named Judy Mainord was also present.
Sewell got down to business investigating this serious, racially charged complaint. Just kidding! The first thing he did was ask Mullins if he’d ever been to the penitentiary, because of course that would have a critical bearing on whether Dorothy Mullins was refused CPR by the Algood Fire Department. I guess if Mullins WAS in prison it would mean he was lying or something? But that line of questioning didn’t really pan out for Sewell, since Mullins did not, in fact, do any prison time. So Sewell, model of professionalism, moved on:
http://jezebel.com/public-official-responds-to-black-mans-complaint-with-1526168636?utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_facebook&utm_source=jezebel_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
another gif for CHICS
http://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/star-lord.gif
Lolo Jones selection criticized again
Updated: February 19, 2014, 11:32 AM ET
ESPN.com news services
After former hurdler Lolo Jones and pilot Jazmine Fenlator ended up in 11th place at the halfway point of the women’s bobsled competition Tuesday, Jones also ended up on the receiving end of some criticism from former U.S. Olympian Chuck Berkeley.
Chuck Berkeley @ChuckBerkeley
Follow
Absolutely no doubt that @KatieEberling would have done better for USA3. Hope the marketing dollars were worth it. #merit #Olympics2014
12:04 PM – 18 Feb 2014
………….
Berkeley competed in the 2010 Games in Vancouver but did not make the U.S. team for Sochi. In an interview with The Associated Press after his Twitter comments, he called the U.S. selection process for the Sochi Games “corrupt” and questioned why Jones received a spot on the women’s roster.
Berkeley, who competed in World Cup this season, said the teams for Sochi were chosen based largely on an athlete’s popularity. He added that some sliders were favored over others with better credentials and that the USA-3 women’s sled Jones is pushing at the Olympics would fare better with someone else in her spot.
“I get that people want to latch on to a media sensation and run wild,” Berkeley told the AP, referring to Jones. “But it comes down to this: There are athletes who deserve to be there who are not there, on the women’s and the men’s sides. And you have to ask yourself why is that the case. What is wrong with the selection process? Why is it flawed? Why is it corrupt?”
After hearing of Berkeley’s remarks, U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation CEO Darrin Steele told the AP on Wednesday that he stands by the team selections. He also noted that certain athletes who did not get picked for Olympic spots, such as Eberling, were able to accept roles as alternates and help the team in Sochi.
While Berkeley did not mention Jones by name in his tweet, the jab toward the former hurdler — always a lightning rod for critics — was thinly veiled at best.
http://espn.go.com/olympics/winter/2014/bobsled/story/_/id/10480475/2014-sochi-olympics-lolo-jones-selection-criticized-chuck-berkeley
Love the mug shot of the dangerouskidshoekiller on the sidebar! LMBAO
February 19, 2014 1:21 PM
Intimidating VW Workers Could Come Back to Haunt Republican Pols
By Ed Kilgore
This news (via Reuters) falls with the predictable weight of another shoe dropping, but it’s interesting that it’s happening so fast, even as conservatives everywhere are still celebrating the successful intimidation of VW workers in Tennessee by local Republican politicians:
I’m sure most Republicans don’t consider Osterloh a legitimate representative of VW management, which has had this socialistic “co-determination” system foisted upon it by socialistic Big Government in Germany (known to U.S. conservatives in other contexts, of course, as the heroic champions of public-sector austerity). But the fact remains that Bob Corker and other noisy opponents of UAW representation of VW workers in Tennessee used the argument that VW would surely send any new work somewhere else if the union was approved to great effect in the runup to last week’s election. It would be richly ironic if that argument turned out to be off by 180 degrees.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_02/intimidating_vw_workers_could049136.php
February 19, 2014 10:34 AM
Early-Term Abortions and the Anti-Choicers
By Ed Kilgore
In a New Yorker column on the lack of enthusiasm of the anti-choice movement about statistics showing signficantly reduced abortion rates in 2008-2011, Margaret Talbot focuses on RTL unhappiness with the inability to take credit for the reduced rates:
What Talbot seems to miss is that antichoice activists almost universally regard the very contraceptive measures most associated with reduced abortion rates, especially the highly effective IUD, not as contraceptives at all but as “abortifacients,” because they operate (or might operate) to interfere with the implantation of fertilized ova on the uterine wall. So for them it is impossible to concede that such methods have led to a reduction in abortions, because they are responsible for an entirely unverifiable number of additional abortions. They don’t much want to talk about this issue publicly, because to an awful lot of Americans, the idea of the IUD as a little abortion machine sounds crazy.
While Talbot misses that nuance, she does usefully make it clear that anti-choicers seem especially interested in interfering with the kind of early-term abortions that a lot of people—including many who probably think of themselves as “pro-life”—find relatively unoffensive, and certainly far preferable to late-term abortions
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_02/earlyterm_abortions_and_the_an049132.php
Lawrence O’Donnell went into great detail on the Senate and why the largest Democratic PAC is not funding Senate campaigns and looking to fund HRC at their own peril. If the Senate goes Republican right now, the President, even a HRC presidency will not be able to govern.
http://on.msnbc.com/1dKbYG0
Really, really sad.
It’s our sad reality.
WATCH OUT FOLKS THE DETRUCTION OF NET NEUTRALITY IS UPON US
Netflix-Traffic Feud Leads to Video Slowdown
ByDrew FitzGerald and
Shalini Ramachandran–Updated Feb. 18, 2014 9:35 p.m. ET
Netflix Inc. subscribers have seen a lot more spinning wheels lately as they wait for videos to load, thanks to a standoff deep in the Internet.
The online-video service has been at odds with Verizon Communications Inc. and other broadband providers for months over how much Netflix streaming content they will carry without being paid additional fees.
Now the long simmering conflict has heated up and is slowing Netflix, in…
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304899704579391223249896550?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304899704579391223249896550.html
Hello, It’s Not the 1960’s Anymore
by BooMan
Tue Feb 18th, 2014 at 05:01:40 PM EST
What kind of dick do you have to be to desecrate James Meridith’s statue at Ole Miss?
The probe into the weekend desecration of the statue of civil rights icon James Meredith on the Ole Miss campus is now a federal investigation.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has joined the University Police Department in pursuing the case and considers the actions of two alleged suspects “a hate crime,” said University of Mississippi spokesman Danny Blanton.
The FBI is investigating, at the request of the university, prosecution as a hate crime in violation of U.S. Code 18243, Blanton said. It prohibits intimidation of a race and makes it a crime to deny equal opportunity and access through intimidation, Blanton said.
“That has prompted them to assist in the investigation,” he said. University and FBI officials are conferring on the investigation this morning, he said.
What did they actually do?
University of Mississippi officials said today they’re hopeful they’ll have in custody soon two men suspected of sullying the campus statue of civil rights icon James Meredith early Sunday by placing a noose around his neck and draping the statue with a flag containing the Confederate battle symbol.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/2/18/17140/7509
What Does the Minimum Wage Have to Do with GOP’s Civil War?
Monday, February 17, 2014 |
Posted by Spandan Chakrabarti at 3:43 PM
The big political news out of Washington last week was the GOP’s complete capitulation on the debt ceiling. LL pointed out here that the early surrender has sparked more infighting within the Republican party, which ABC News’s Rick Klein confirmed on Sunday. Though House GOP’s far right wing wasn’t heard as loudly as Ted Cruz in the Senate thanks to the House being more of a dictatorship (of the Speaker) than the Senate, the Tea Party is just as incensed at the House GOP as they are at the Senate Republicans for allowing an up-or-down vote on a clean debt ceiling increase. Tea Party groups all over the country are pledging to make life difficult for Republican candidates who do not toe the line in an election year.
At that very same time, the president and Democrats have picked another fight with the GOP: raising the minimum wage. Also last week, the president signed an executive order forcing federal contractors to pay a minimum wage of $10.10 to their employees, just as House Democrats announced that they were beginning a long-shot discharge petition to get a vote on raising the minimum wage on the floor.
Sure, you say. But the Tea Party here is aligned with the elected GOP – against allowing Americans working full time to rise above poverty. But if that is what you’re focused on, you’re missing the connection. The push on the minimum wage isn’t meant to separate the mainstream GOP from the Tea Party – it is meant to attach the two in the minds of the American people. If the GOP was hoping to put some distance between their electoral appeal and the nuttiness of the Tea Party, the push on the minimum wage will push them back together like glue.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2014/02/what-does-minimum-wage-have-to-do-with.html
Don’t FUCK with our POTUS, GOP. LOL
Good Morning, Everyone :)
My co-worker deliver my Cookie Crack (Girl Scout Cookies) bright and early this morning :)
LOL One word:
SAMOAS
I have 2 boxes sitting on my counter. All mine! :)
How’s hubby?
He’s still a little weak. He had an echocardiogram and we’re waiting on the results.
@SG2 Praying for healthful results.
Heads up: 2014 BET HONORS airs Monday, Feb 24.
Happy HUMP day, Everyone! :-)