Styles

On this radio station you will find the following music styles;

Gospel (black gospel as not southern gospel)

Gospel music is a music genre in Christian music. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is composed and performed for many purposes, including aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, and as an entertainment product for the marketplace. Gospel music usually has dominant vocals (often with strong use of harmony) with Christian lyrics. Gospel music can be traced to the early 17th century,^[1] with roots in the black oral tradition. Hymns and sacred songs were repeated in a call and response fashion. Most of the churches relied on hand clapping and foot stomping as rhythmic accompaniment. Most of the singing was done a cappella.^[2] The first published use of the term ″Gospel Song" probably appeared in 1874. The original gospel songs were written and composed by authors such as George F. Root, Philip Bliss, Charles H. Gabriel, William Howard Doane, and Fanny Crosby.^[3] Gospel music publishing houses emerged. The advent of radio in the 1920s greatly increased the audience for gospel music. Following World War II, gospel music moved into major auditoriums, and gospel music concerts became quite elaborate.^[4]

Gospel blues is a blues-based form of gospel music (a combination of blues guitar and evangelistic lyrics). 

Style

Gospel music in general is characterized by dominant vocals (often with strong use of harmony) referencing lyrics of a Christian nature. Subgenres include contemporary gospel, urban contemporary gospel (sometimes referred to as "black gospel"). Several forms of gospel music utilize choirs, use piano or Hammond organ, tambourines, drums, bass guitar and, increasingly, electric guitar. In comparison with hymns, which are generally of a statelier measure, the gospel song is expected to have a refrain and often a more syncopated rhythm.

Several attempts have been made to describe the style of late 19th and early 20th century gospel songs in general. Christ-Janer said "the music was tuneful and easy to grasp ... rudimentary harmonies ... use of the chorus ... varied metric schemes ... motor rhythms were characteristic ... The device of letting the lower parts echo rhythmically a motive announced by the sopranos became a mannerism".^[5]

Roots and background

Coming out of the African American religious experience, gospel music can be traced to the early 17th century.^[1] Gospel music has roots in the black oral tradition, and typically utilizes a great deal of repetition. The repetition of the words allowed those who could not read the opportunity to participate in worship. During this time, hymns and sacred songs were lined and repeated in a call and response fashion, and the Negro spirituals and work songs emerged. Repetition and "call and response" are accepted elements in African music, designed to achieve an altered state of consciousness we sometimes refer to as "trance", and strengthen communal bonds.

Most of the churches relied on hand clapping and foot stomping as rhythmic accompaniment. There would be guitars and tambourines available every now and then, but not frequently. Church choirs became a norm only after emancipation. Most of the singing was done a cappella.^[2]

20th century

The holiness-Pentecostal movement, or sanctified movement, appealed to people who were not attuned to the Europeanized version of black church music. Holiness worship has used any type of instrumentation that congregation members might bring in, from tambourines to electric guitars. Pentecostal churches readily adopted and contributed to the gospel music publications of the early 20th century. Late 20th-century musicians such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Mahalia Jackson, Andrae Crouch, and the Blackwood Brothers either were raised in a Pentecostal environment, or have acknowledged the influence of that tradition.^[11]

The advent of radio in the 1920s greatly increased the audience for gospel music, and James D. Vaughan used radio as an integral part of his business model, which also included traveling quartets to publicize the gospel music books he published several times a year.^[12] Virgil O. Stamps and Jesse R. Baxter studied Vaughan's business model and by the late 1920s were running heavy competition for Vaughan.^[11] The 1920s also saw the marketing of gospel records by groups such as the Carter Family.

The first person to introduce the ragtime influence to gospel accompaniment as well as to play the piano on a gospel recording was Arizona Dranes.^[13]

In African-American music, gospel quartets developed an a cappella style following the earlier success of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. The 1930s saw the Fairfield Four, the Dixie Hummingbirds, the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, the Five Blind Boys of Alabama, The Soul Stirrers, the Swan Silvertones, the Charioteers, and the Golden Gate Quartet. Racism divided the nation, and this division did not skip the church. If during slavery blacks were treated as inferior inside the white churches, after emancipation they formed their own separate churches. The gospel groups which were very popular within the black community, were virtually unknown to the white community, though some in the white community began to follow them.^[14] In addition to these high-profile quartets, there were many black gospel musicians performing in the 1920s and 30s, usually playing the guitar and singing in the streets of Southern cities. Famous among them were Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Joe Taggart and others.

In the 1930s, in Chicago, Thomas A. Dorsey (best known as author of the song "Precious Lord, Take My Hand"), who had spent the 1920s writing and performong secular blues music under the name "Georgia Tom", turned to gospel music, establishing a publishing house.^[4] He had experienced many trials in his life,including the death of his pregnant wife. Thomas gained biblical knowledge from his father, who was a Baptist minister, and was taught to play piano by his mother. He started working with blues musicians when the family moved to Atlanta.^[15] It has been said that 1930 was the year when modern gospel music began, because the National Baptist Convention first publicly endorsed the music at its 1930 meeting.^[16] Dorsey was responsible for developing the musical careers of many African-American artists, such as Mahalia Jackson.^[4]

Meanwhile, the radio continued to develop an audience for gospel music, a fact that was commemorated in Albert E. Brumley's 1937 song, "Turn Your Radio On" (which is still being published in gospel song books). In 1972, a recording of "Turn Your Radio On" by the Lewis Family was nominated for "Gospel Song of the Year" in the Gospel Music Association's Dove Awards.^[17]

Following the Second World War, gospel music moved into major auditoriums, and gospel music concerts became quite elaborate.^[4] In 1950, black gospel was featured at Carnegie Hall when Joe Bostic produced the Negro Gospel and Religious Music Festival. He repeated it the next year with an expanded list of performing artists, and in 1959 moved to Madison Square Garden.^[18] Today, black gospel and white gospel are distinct genres, with distinct audiences.

Style

The secular version of this music is urban contemporary music, which is musically indistinguishable, but which takes non-religious subjects for its lyrical content.

Urban/contemporary gospel music is characterized by dominant vocals, usually performed by a soloist. Common instruments include drums, electric guitar, bass guitar, and keyboards.
The lyrics very often have an explicitly Christian nature, although "inspirational" songs feature lyrics that can be construed as secular in meaning. For example, a song about a father's love for his son may be interpreted as God the Father's love for God the Son, or as a human father's love for his human child. This lyrical ambiguity echoes the double-voicedness of 19th century spirituals, and may have musical crossover appeal to the larger secular market (Darden 2004:79-80). Common themes include hope, deliverance, love, and healing (Waldron 2006).

In comparison with traditional hymns, which are generally of a statelier measure, gospel songs are expected to have a refrain and a pronounced beat with a syncopated rhythm. Compared to modern praise and worship music, urban/contemporary gospel typically has a faster tempo and more emphasis on the performer. Like traditional black gospel music, the performer's emotional connection to the audience and the lyrical content of the song is valued highly.

The genre includes Christian hip hop (sometimes called "Christian rap"), Which is described in a separate link on this site.
 

Styles

On this radio station you will find the following music styles;

Southern Gospel

Southern gospel music is a genre of Christian music. Its name comes from its origins in the Southeastern United States whose lyrics are written to express either personal or a communal faith regarding biblical teachings and Christian life, as well as (in terms of the varying music styles) to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music. Sometimes known as "quartet music" for its traditional "four men and a piano" set up, southern gospel has evolved over the years into a popular form of music across the United States and overseas, especially among baby boomers and those living in the Southern United States. Like other forms of music the creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of southern gospel varies according to culture and social context. It is composed and performed for many purposes, ranging from aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, or as an entertainment product for the marketplace.

Origins

The date of southern gospel's establishment as a distinct genre is generally considered to be 1910, the year the first professional quartet was formed for the purpose of selling songbooks for the James D. Vaughan Music Publishing Company in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. Nonetheless the style of the music itself had existed for at least 35 years prior although the traditional wisdom that southern gospel music was "invented" in the 1870s by circuit preacher Everett Beverly is spurious. The existence of the genre prior to 1910 is evident in the work of Charles Davis Tillman (1861–1943), who popularized "The Old Time Religion", wrote "Life's Railway to Heaven" and published 22 songbooks.^[1][2][3] Some of the genre's roots can be found in the publishing work and "normal schools" of Aldine S. Kieffer and Ephraim Ruebush. Southern gospel was promoted by traveling singing school teachers, quartets, and shape note music publishing companies such as the A. J. Showalter Company (1879) and the Stamps-Baxter Music and Printing Company. Over time, southern gospel came to be an eclectic musical form with groups singing traditional hymns, a capella (jazz-style singing with no instruments) songs, country, bluegrass, spirituals, and "convention songs". Because it grew out of the musical traditions of white musicians from the American South, the name Southern gospel was used to differentiate it from so-called black gospel.^[4][5]

Early performers

Southern gospel is sometimes called "quartet music" by fans because of the originally all-male, tenor-lead-baritone-bass quartet make-up. Early quartets were typically either a cappella or accompanied only by piano or guitar, and in some cases a piano and banjo in areas that were influenced by bluegrass music such as Appalachia. Over time, full bands were added and even later, pre-recorded accompaniments (soundtracks) were introduced.

In the first decades of the twentieth century, southern gospel drew much of its creative energy from the holiness movement churches that arose throughout the south. Early gospel artists such as The Speer Family, The Stamps Quartet, The Blackwood Family, and The Lefevre Trio achieved wide popularity through their recordings and radio performances in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. On October 20, 1927, The Stamps Quartet recorded its early hit "Give The World A Smile" for RCA Victor, which become the Quartet's theme song. The Stamps Quartet was heard on the radio throughout Texas and the South. A handful of groups were considered pioneers in southern gospel music for a series of "firsts." The Blackwood Brothers, with James Blackwood and J.D. Sumner became the first group to travel in a Bus, which is on display at the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Sumner also was instrumental in creating the National Quartet Convention, an annual music festival where many groups, both known and well known perform for a week. The Speer Family was known for bringing blended groups to mainstream popularity where both Male and Female performers toured together.

1960's

The best known group of the 1950s and 1960s was Statesmen Quartet, which set the trend for broad appeal of the all male quartets that would develop years later. The Statesmen were known for their showmanship and introduction of Jazz, ragtime, and even some early rock and roll elements into their music and their stage appearance with trendy suits and wide audience appeal and were known for their signature song, "Happy Rhythm" (Rockin and a'Rollin).

Representative artists

From the start of the genre, the predominant type of artist has been the male quartet. Notable examples from the past and present include, The Blackwood Brothers, Brian Free and Assurance, The Cathedral Quartet, Christian Troubadours, Ernie Haase & Signature Sound, The Florida Boys, The Gaither Vocal Band, Gold City, The Inspirations, Jake Hess and the Imperials, The Kingdom Heirs Quartet, The Kingsmen Quartet, Legacy Five, The Oak Ridge Boys, The Stamps Quartet, The Statesmen Quartet, and the Plainsmen Quartet.Notable artists

J.D. Sumner and The Stamps toured with Elvis Presley, who originally wanted to be a Gospel singer despite trying out for numerous groups and never receiving an offer to join. Sumner and Presley met when Elvis was 14 years old and the two forged a strong relationship. Sumner sang at Presley's funeral and debunked many myths about Presley's alleged substance abuse and also credited Elvis for saving his life when Presley confronted Sumner about his alcoholism. Sumner held the world record for the lowest bass note ever hit for a human being until 2002, four years after his death.

The Cathedrals were perhaps the most successful quartet of the 1980s and 1990s. The group had massive appeal and recorded their 1987 album Symphony of Praise with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and also made numerous appearances NBC's The Today Show. After the deaths of frontmen George Younce and Glenn Payne, the Cathedrals spawned off two current groups that are immensely popular, The Legacy Five and Ernie Haase and Signature Sound.

Several secular artists have expressed their love for and influence of the genre by recording southern gospel albums or performing gospel songs in concert. Among them are Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Bob Dylan, Larry Gatlin, Alan Jackson, Kentucky Thunder, Jerry Lee Lewis, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, The Oak Ridge Boys, Brad Paisley, Dolly Parton, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Ricky Skaggs, The Statler Brothers, and Travis Tritt.

Today's southern gospel

By the 1990s, the "old-timey" quartet-style music began to develop to include more soloists and duos. Although still mostly popular in the Southeast and Southwest, it has a nationwide and even an international audience. The music remains "more country than city, more down-home than pretentious".^[6]

Over the last decade, a newer version of southern gospel has grown in popularity. This style is called progressive southern gospel and is characterized by a blend of traditional southern gospel, bluegrass, modern country, contemporary Christian and pop music elements. Progressive southern gospel generally features artists who push their voices to produce a sound with an edge to it. The traditional style southern gospel singers employ a more classical singing style.

Lyrically, most progressive southern gospel songs are patterned after traditional southern gospel in that they maintain a clear evangelistic and/or testimonial slant. Southern gospel purists view lyrical content and the underlying musical style as the key determining factors for applying the southern gospel label to a song.

Although there are some exceptions, most southern gospel songs would not be classified as Praise and Worship. Few southern gospel songs are sung "to" God as opposed to "about" God.
 

Sheep Laughs Comedy Show

The Sheep Laughs Comedy Show is a weekly 15 minute professionally- produced and family-friendly variety radio show, featuring clean comedy by Christian comedians. Standup, skits and songs, all under one hoof!

Fred Passmore

Produced by long-time radio and comedy veteran Fred Passmore, of Sheep Laughs Records, The Sheep Laughs Comedy Show is available for radio airplay, for listening while on this page, or for downloading to your iPod to take along with you.

Each week, you can enjoy a new fifteen minute program that showcases a wide range of Christian comedy talent. There's a lot of dedicated talent out there... and Fred is rounding it up and herding it all together for you to enjoy.

Jeremiah the Janitor

Plus, you'll be "swept away" by the janitor with the jokes, "Jeremiah,"

heard just about every week on the program!Beginning with program #10, Jeremiah often stops by the studio ("coincidentally" only while I'm taping) to tell one of his humorous stories, as only he can!

All this now from Monday to Friday at 02 AM and 02 PM CST on your own Eagle Wings Online Radio.

With thanks to Fred Passmore for providing this Great Clean, Christian Fun.

Styles

On this radio station you will find the following music styles;

Messianic Music

Music styles have changed over the years, but one thing does not change, and this is the association that we have with our memories.

Certain kinds of music will always resonate deeper with us than others. I enjoy the sound of Bob Marley, but I suspect that Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights" carries more meaning for Jamaicans from Marley's generation. I love Indian food, but it's not as familiar as my grandma's rugelach. Remember the scene in the film Ratatouille where the food critic is instantly transported back to the sounds and smells of his mother's home by eating one bite of ratatouille? Music is similar.

Some Background on Messianic Music

It was this resonance that made Messianic music in the 70s and 80s fresh, unique and instantly recognizable.
Joel Chernoff, Paul Wilbur and Stuart Dauermann were among those who produced an array of Messianic music that listeners both Jewish and non-Jewish could enjoy.
Often, they fused Eastern European Jewish minor chord progressions, danceable freilachs and Israel-focused lyrics.
It was a familiar, lively sound that is still pulsing through many Messianic congregations today.

When Jews for Jesus began in the early 70s, there were many young, talented Jewish believers who were seeking ways to express their Jewishness and their "Jesus-ness." Fortunately for the budding Messianic Jewish movement, they were encouraged to use their gifts. Some of this encouragement came from the churches who were interested in hearing fresh Jewish cultural expressions of faith.

At that time the landscape of the Jewish community was different than today.
Many Jewish believers had been raised within a first or second-generation Jewish immigrant community and were familiar with Eastern European Jewish culture.
Some had grown up with Yiddish-speaking parents or grandparents and many had firsthand experience of anti-Semitism.
Most were also first-generation in their faith and paid a price for following Y'shua, sometimes being cut off from family and friends.

Consequently, the Liberated Wailing Wall reflected American Jewish culture and the personal faith journeys of its members.
Much of the music reflected an Eastern European Jewish sound; the performances had a Fiddler on the Roof look and feel.
Though the team accomplished a lot, times have changed.
Today, fewer and fewer Jewish people relate to that kind of music.
The Jewish community has become increasingly diverse.
Sephardic Jewish culture, for example, has gotten belated recognition from Ashkenazic Jews.
Jewish people tend to be less connected than in previous generations to Eastern European shtetl culture.

Tuvya Zaretsky did his doctoral work on ministry to Jewish intermarried couples.
He noted that at the time he wrote, about 2004, the intermarriage rate among American Jews stood at around 50%, while in the case of cohabiting Jewish people, 81% lived with Gentiles.
The children of Jewish-Gentile couples also intermarried 75% of the time. Many of these Gentile partners had some kind of Christian background.

This means that for many Jewish people today, Jesus and the church are not as far removed from Jewish upbringing as they once were.
And intermarriage has broadened the ethnic diversity of the Jewish people.

Music, Worship and Truth

Throughout history, music has played an important role in worship, the expression of truth and the affirmation of peoplehood.
Jewish people have an especially rich history of musical expression. The Scriptures were memorized and meditated upon through chanting and singing.
Theological truths were often conveyed through the poetry.
The Psalms carried theological significance that was set to a meter and melody familiar to the people of Israel.
The work of the psalmists helped foster corporate Jewish identity and provided a context for approaching God's truth.
The Psalms served as the songbook of the worshiping people of God throughout the ages.

Songs memorialized God's faithfulness and the history of Israel. Psalm 98:1-9 called Israel to "sing a new song." Moses did just that upon crossing the Red Sea (Exodus 15:1–18). Deborah sang a victory song after the king of Canaan was killed (Judges 5:1–31). David sang a song of lament over the death of Saul and Jonathan in 2 Samuel 1:17–21.

We also find songs in the Good News. Mary bursts into praise in Luke 1:46-55 after being chosen to be the mother of the Messiah; Philippians 2:1-30 is considered one of the earliest New Testament hymns.

And many throughout history have continued to contribute to this tradition, from Syriac sacral music to Martin Luther, a music lover whose hymns such as "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" are still sung in churches around the world today.
The American Moravian movement, for instance, used music to express their faith, writing a huge corpus of sonnets and arias, many of which are highly esteemed by classical music listeners today.

Music and Social Change

Music has united people for social change. We see this in both the secular and Jewish arenas.
Sometimes the change is for the better, sometimes for the worse, but it is undeniable.

In the Jewish world, the Jewish national movement was spurred on by composers both in Israel and abroad.
The St. Petersburg Society for Jewish Folkmusic, founded in 1908, was comprised of graduates of the St. Petersburg and Moscow Conservatories who rediscovered their Jewish national roots and created a new genre of Jewish art music.
Numerous Israeli composers have been important in affirming Israeli identity, such as Paul Ben Haim, who was known for nationalistic themes.
Today, Matisyahu has raised the Jewish profile through his Hasidic image and as of late a return to a western image with a shaved, beardless face.

Music, a Catalyst for Personal Change

Music not only can bring about social change, but personal change as well. Sometimes it does this by bypassing the usual channels of information and truth.

Aaron Abramson wrote ;

When I was serving with Jews for Jesus in New York, I went to Yale University one summer for a time of outreach. There I met a Jewish student who was an English major.
He had been studying Milton's Paradise Lost and had become rather spiritually interested.
But ultimately it was the evocative Christian lyrics of an artist named David Bazan of the band Pedro the Lion that had raised the issue of Jesus in a way that caused him to pursue more answers. We were able to discuss the New Testament in more depth as a result.

Similarly, Moishe Rosen's wife Ceil became receptive to the gospel after listening to Christmas carols.
There was something about the music that made the truths of the gospel approachable for her.
 

A stylistic mix with a message

As we this history from Jews for Jesus on Messianic music we understand that the messianic music truly spans styles from Classical to Rock but with a deep root in the middle eastern sounds, in a language mixed with Hebrews and Jiddish.
Galilee of the Nations write;

While Jews and Christians everywhere commemorated the miracle of the restoration of the Jewish people to their Land, another restoration of sorts was also occurring there: the restoration of an ancient sound, one reminiscent of those that once echoed through the halls of King David's palace, and along the corridors of Solomon's temple—a harmony of harps and lyres, of trumpets and tambourines, of Levites singing Hodu L' Adonai Ki Tov (Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good) with the company of Israel replying, Ki L'Olam Chasdo (His mercy endures forever)" (Psalm 107, 118 and 136).

That restored sound would flourish by way of a newly-formed record label, Galilee of the Nations (GOTN) and its inaugural Messianic praise and worship album, Adonai.
This was the first project of its kind, a first-rate production featuring Messianic recording artists from the Land of Israel, including Karen Davis, Barry and Batya Segal, Esther "Eti" Horesh and others. The compilation received immediate international acclaim, securing distribution in 160 countries and selling over 250,000 CDs—and still counting.