Tag: Mark Bishop

Seeing the Bigger Picture in Life’s Tapestry

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TEXAS GOSPEL VOLUNTEER

Life can often feel like a collection of separate moments, some filled with joy and brightness, others with sadness and shadow. It can be difficult to understand how these different experiences fit together to form a larger story. This is the central theme in the song “A Lovely Tapestry” by Grammy-nominated and Dove Award-winning Christian music artist Mark Bishop.

Mark has been a recording artist and songwriter in Gospel music for more than forty years. His music often strives to help people see the bigness of God in everyday happenstance. His song “A Lovely Tapestry” explores the idea that our lives, with all their varied experiences, are like threads in a grand design created by God.

“Living one day at a time as we do we only see the individual threads of our lives and some days those threads are happy colors Reds and yellows and golds and then some days the threads are dark and shadowy blacks browns and grays And if it were up to us, we’d never have any dark days. That’s just human nature. We’d never visit those shadowy places There’d never be any rain. There’d never be any sadness But if God is creating a beautiful tapestry in our lives Then we kind of have to realize that the best artists use all the colors to paint a picture with depth and contrast and Shadow and light maybe in the end one of these days when we finally reach heaven God will reveal to us the masterpiece that he was creating in our lives and we’ll see a grand story,” Mark Bishop said.

The lyrics of the song paint a picture of everyday life. It tells the simple story of a man and woman: she sang soprano in the church choir, and he worked at the factory. They had two children and not much money, but their hearts were full. They fell in love, made a home, and experienced life’s blessings. The song describes ordinary moments like weekend fishing trips with their son and driving their daughter to ballet. Eventually, the song speaks of the passage of time, growing older, and the man giving his daughter away at her wedding.

The lyrics also touch upon the idea that we might not always understand the difficulties and sorrows we face. “We might not see the story that he’s weaving all the ups and downs all the joy All The Grieving”. However, the song suggests that these experiences, both good and bad, are part of a larger, beautiful design.

The song concludes with a hopeful vision of the afterlife. “When it’s all said and done and life is over will we see all the stories he was weaving all the plans for you and me when we get to heaven maybe he will say to me we made a lovely tapestry we made a lovely tapestry all the things we couldn’t see fit together perfectly we made a love the tapestry”. The idea is that when we reach heaven, God might reveal the complete picture of our lives, showing how all the individual threads came together to create a “lovely tapestry”. Even the dark and challenging times have a purpose in the overall masterpiece.

Through “A Lovely Tapestry,” Mark Bishop offers a message of faith and hope, and encouragement. We are all part of a beautiful and meaningful design. Just as an artist uses all colours to create a rich and complex painting, so too does God use all our experiences to weave a grand and lovely story.

Mark Bishop Celebrates a New Kind of Love with “Grandkids”

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JEFF TURNER

Mark Bishop, a well-respected figure in Southern Gospel music, has released a new song called “Grandkids”. This is his first new music with Sonlite Records since his album “Home” from last year. The song is a heartfelt tribute to the special experience of having grandchildren.

Before he became a grandfather, Bishop heard many people say that the love for a grandchild was unlike any other. He remembers thinking, “‘wait… I love my wife and my daughters as much as I could love anyone… so it’s like that right?’ They said, ‘no… it’s a whole new love.’ I immediately dismissed it, thinking, ‘yeah, right.'”. However, Bishop now understands this unique bond, saying, “But it turns out that they were right”. He explains that “It really is a whole new love,” and “that ‘new’ love… that’s what this song is about”.

The song “Grandkids” starts with a piano melody that appears before each part. The first verse and chorus feature Bishop’s voice accompanied by gentle finger-picked guitar. As the song progresses, more instruments and harmonies are added, but they never become too loud, keeping the focus on Bishop’s personal delivery. The lyrics describe simple and joyful moments like “Chasing butterflies without a hope of catching one” and “Holding onto little hands, wading in the creek”. It also paints pictures of “Sitting on the front porch swing… falling fast asleep”. The song is meant to bring joy to anyone who has grandchildren or looks forward to having them.

Mark Bishop has had a long and successful career in Gospel music, spanning forty years in 2024. He is a Grammy-nominated and Dove Award-winning artist. Before his solo career, Bishop was part of the family group The Bishops from 1984 to 2001, along with his father and brother. The Bishops were popular, appearing on television shows like TNN’s Nashville Now and The Grand Ole Opry. They had many successful songs and received numerous awards.

Many of The Bishops’ well-known songs were written by Mark Bishop. He continues to be a busy songwriter, creating music for his own albums and for other artists in the genre. After The Bishops retired, Mark started his solo career in 2001 and continued to have chart-topping songs. He was recognized as “Soloist of the Year” at the Singing News Fan Awards in 2005. His album “Beautiful Day” was nominated for a GRAMMY Award in 2020. In 2022, he received the “J.D. Sumner Living Legend Award”. Through his music, Mark Bishop aims to help people see the importance of God in their everyday lives. With “Grandkids,” he shares a deeply personal experience of love and joy.

From Mark’s Gospel to Music: The Story of Blind Bartimaeus Lives On

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AMY TURNER

Gospel music veteran Jonathan Wilburn‘s newest album is “Songs from the Front Pew,” featuring a fresh take on the traditional gospel song “Old Blind Bartimaeus.” The lyrics speak of the New Testament story of Jesus healing a blind beggar (Mark 10:46-52.)

The song isn’t exactly new. Our music director found it was recorded by the Golden State Quartet in the 1940s and possibly others before then. A recording by The Bishops in the 1980s was also popular.

For this new rendition, Wilburn collaborated with an impressive quartet of talent. Producer Ben Isaacs assembled a dynamic group featuring himself, Mike Rogers, Gene McDonnell, and Wilburn on vocals. The production was enhanced by Stewie French’s distinctive lead guitar work.

“I think it turned out absolutely great. It’s just got a lot of energy,” Wilburn shared about the recording, highlighting the special quartet arrangement that brings new life to this timeless story of faith and healing.

The song recounts the Biblical narrative of Bartimaeus, a blind man who called out to Jesus for healing as He passed through Galilee. This gospel classic emphasizes themes of faith, persistence, and divine mercy, culminating in the miraculous restoration of Bartimaeus’s sight.

Johnathan Wilburn’s arrangement maintains the traditional gospel quartet style while incorporating contemporary production elements.

Mark Bishop brings truth and wisdom to his upcoming album, Home

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CROSSROADS RECORDS

Arden, North Carolina (December 5, 2023) — “Every new recording project takes on its own personality, even after nearly forty years of recording music,” says GRAMMY-nominated artist Mark Bishop. “It never grows old. New songs, new ideas, different combinations of singers and musicians… they all come together to make a whole new thing.”

The truth and wisdom of this observation are borne out on Home, now available for pre-save/add ahead of its January 26 release.

For where Home’s predecessor, 2021’s Some Distant Mountain, reflected Bishop’s deep love and respect for a “mountain music” rooted in folk songs, Celtic sounds and timeless ballads, the new one takes a different, though no less creative — and rooted — approach that wraps the enduring messages of God’s love and Christ’s redemption in moments of startling musical vision. Opening with an up-tempo affirmation of faith that can triumph over Satan’s efforts:

The story of old Job shows Satan comes to everyone.
When he comes to you, well you can make the devil scat
By saying, “I found something better.
I found something better…
I found something better than that.”

Home introduces an accomplished crew of musicians — along with background singers Amber Eppinette Saunders (11th Hour) and Freddie Ratliff — capable of delivering inspired and soulful backing no matter which direction Bishop’s creativity takes them. Nowhere is the breadth of that creativity, and the depth of that talent, more evident than in the title — and focus — track, an evocation of generations of joyous African-American gospel that features a remarkable set of harmonies by Ratliff that surround Bishop’s exuberant lead.

Still, whether it’s the minor key groove of rising first single, “I Met Someone On The Way To The Cemetery,” the Beatles-esque sophistication of “If We Can’t Be Happy Here,” which includes some deliciously appropriate whistling by Bishop himself, the duet with Karen Peck Gooch on a foreboding “But There Is A Cross” or the magnificent closing, “Ten Thousand Witnesses,” with its swelling orchestral passages and celebratory choir, all of these are performances and songs — all written by Bishop — that perfectly match the living message of God’s grace to compelling music.

“With Home, we explore through music and lyrics how God moves through our lives, through big moments and little ones,” says Bishop. “He’s there in our love of family. He’s there through the ups and downs of life. He’s weaving a grand tapestry that one day will be revealed to us. We will see what at the time only He could see, on that day when we finally make it ‘home.'”