Tag: Southern Gospel Radio

Carolina The Band loses a longtime voice as Mitchell Whisnant steps away

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JEFF TURNER

Every band has a shape that shifts over time; new members arrive, others move on, and the sound bends around whoever’s left holding the songs. For Carolina The Band, that shape is changing again. Mitchell Whisnant, the North Carolina outfit’s lead guitarist and vocalist, has announced he’s leaving after five years of touring and recording with the group.

The news lands the way these things usually do in the music world: quietly, then all at once. Whisnant framed his exit not as a rupture but as the natural end of a chapter, saying the decision came after a season of reflection, gratitude, and anticipation for what lies ahead, both personally and professionally. It’s the kind of language that sounds diplomatic on paper but carries real weight when you consider what those five years actually looked like: van rides between towns, soundchecks in rooms that were half empty and then, eventually, full; the slow accumulation of a following built one night at a time.

That grind is where Carolina earned its reputation. The band has spent years crisscrossing the country, and the qualities that show up on any list of what makes a great live act, dynamic performances, exceptional songwriting, pristine vocals, and an enthusiasm for the audience that never reads as manufactured, are the qualities people keep coming back for. Carolina built that trust the old-fashioned way, night after night, and it’s part of why Whisnant’s departure feels significant rather than routine.

Bands survive lineup changes; the good ones almost always do. But there’s no pretending a five-year member walking away doesn’t leave a mark on the sound and the story. Whisnant’s guitar work and vocals have been part of Carolina’s identity since he joined, and whoever steps into that space next inherits not just a role but a relationship, the one between a band and the fans who’ve watched it evolve.

Carolina’s evolution has always been the story anyway. Each change has forced growth, and each new person has left a fingerprint on the collective style that defines the band. Whisnant’s exit is simply the latest chapter in that ongoing rewrite, and if the band’s history is any indication, they’ll keep moving, keep touring, and keep finding new ways to hold onto what made people fall for them in the first place.

Don’t waste the dash between your birth and your death

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NELSON NOLAND

Life is short, and how a person spends it matters more than most people pause to consider. The writer of Ecclesiastes makes this point through vivid images of the body wearing down, sight dimming, hearing fading, strength leaving, sleep slipping away. These pictures aren’t meant to depress; they’re meant to be honest. The message is clear: don’t wait until life is giving out to start living for something that lasts. The word “remember” carries more weight than occasional reflection. It means to pay full attention with the intention of actually obeying. Seek what matters most, and seek it early, before the days come when you look back wishing you had.

The book also questions whether life has any real meaning at all. The writer’s answer: a life apart from God is hollow, a lamp with no flame. But a life built around God is anything but empty. Scripture is presented not as a dry rulebook but as an anchor, something to hang your life on when everything else shifts. It prods like a goad and holds steady like a nail driven into solid wood. In a world of competing opinions and endless self-help advice, the writer tells us that none of that searching ever brings a person to firm ground. Only a word from God himself can do that.

The real danger isn’t living a wild or obviously wasted life. It’s living a respectable, comfortable life that never aimed at anything eternal.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive compensation for his deeds done through the body, in accordance with what he has done, whether good or bad.

2 Corinthians 5:10

If the resurrection is removed from the gospel, everything falls apart

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TEXAS GOSPEL VOLUNTEER

The resurrection of Jesus is not just one part of the Christian message that can be quietly set aside without consequence. According to Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:15, removing it from the gospel does not simply weaken the message, it destroys the integrity of everyone who has ever preached it. If Christ was not raised, then the apostles who gave their lives for this message were not brave men of faith. They were people who died for something that was not true.

But there is something even more troubling than that. If Jesus did not rise, then Jesus himself made promises he could not keep. He said he would rise, and if he did not, then either he was wrong or he was misleading people. That is a thought that cannot be squared with who Jesus claimed to be. The resurrection is not a footnote. It is the hinge on which the whole gospel turns. Take it away and nothing holds together. Keep it, and everything in the Christian life finds its proper place.

But God raised Him from the dead, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.

Acts 2:24

Understanding Slavery and Service in Scripture

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JEFF TURNER

The tension here is real, and it deserves honest engagement.

Scripture does address slavery as a living institution. Slaves are instructed to obey; masters are called to fairness and care. The Bible does not endorse the cruelty of those systems, nor does it dismantle them outright. It works within them, shaping conduct through the deeper values of kindness, respect, and responsibility. Every human relationship, however broken its structure, is meant to be governed by righteousness.

But there is a second thread running through the New Testament, and this one transforms the image entirely. Believers are called servants, even slaves, of Jesus Christ. Paul himself wears this title with honour. Christ is Master; we belong to Him. Our obedience flows not from compulsion, but from devotion.

Here, the language of slavery becomes a portrait of faith itself, a life of willing surrender, steadfast loyalty, and joyful service to the Lord. The institution, with all its injustice, is reframed as a spiritual metaphor pointing toward something holy.

So the Bible neither celebrates harmful systems nor ignores the world as it was. It speaks into history while reaching beyond it, guiding people to live rightly within their circumstances, and calling all of us to understand our truest allegiance: not to any earthly power, but to Christ alone, the Master worth serving.

 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 6:19–20

Something’s Goin’ On: Anthem Edition finds its voice in faith and harmony

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AMY TURNER

There comes a time in every gospel quartet’s evolution when the songs stop being just songs and start being confessions. For Anthem Edition, that moment arrived while they were combing through material for their upcoming Sonlite Records EP, Something’s Goin’ On, out August 28.

“When we started searching for songs to record, each member of the group had songs that truly spoke to where they are in life right now,” says Tim Rackley, the group’s founder and a member since its earliest days as The Old Paths back in 2003. “We knew, if the songs moved us in a powerful way, they would move the listeners as well.”

That’s not marketing language; it’s a philosophy Rackley has clearly built a career on. “You cannot deliver a song fully if you don’t feel it yourself,” he says, and it shows in how the seven-track collection comes together. Three songs have already made their way into the world, including “He Is Who He Is,” which is climbing the charts as we speak. The other four are new, and together the whole project moves like a conversation, up-tempo celebration giving way to something quieter, then rising again.

The EP opens and closes on its most joyful notes, bookended by “He Is Who He Is” and the title track, but the real emotional center lives somewhere in the middle. “He Still Washed His Feet” pulls the group into something intimate and reflective. “Land Of Joy Untold” leans into a relaxed, country-inflected groove. “I’m Another Lazarus” plays like a testimony shouted from the rooftops. It’s a group finding range, not just repeating a formula.

I am saved, I’m a living testimony of His grace
I’m the evidence of what the Blood can change
That sins can be erased
And it’s all because of mercy I am saved
I am saved

Then there’s “I Am Saved,” the project’s focus track and, by Rackley’s account, its clearest statement of purpose. Producer Roger Talley brought contemporary textures into the arrangement without losing what makes a quartet chorus hit the way it does. The lyrics don’t dress up the message:

“Filled with strong songs, great harmonies, and messages that point people to Christ, this project blends the best of Southern Gospel tradition with a fresh sound for today’s listeners,” Rackley says. “From start to finish, these songs encourage, inspire, and remind us of God’s faithfulness. Something’s Goin’ On shows just how far this lineup has come.”

That distance is worth sitting with. What began in 2003 as a trio called The Old Paths, founded by Roark and Rackley, grew into a quartet and eventually national recognition. Signing with Crossroad Music’s Sonlite Records in 2012 led to the breakout album Right Now, two number one hits, and a Singing News Fan Award for Favorite New Quartet. There was a hiatus in 2015, a return to the road in 2017, and then, in late 2022, a full rebrand: The Old Paths became Anthem Edition, with Andrew Utech stepping in on bass. Cameron Edens joined as tenor in the fall of 2023, filling out the lineup that now sings these songs like they mean them, because, according to Rackley, they do.

Something’s Goin’ On is available for pre-save now, ahead of its August 28 release on Sonlite Records.