Tag: Southern Gospel Radio

Southbound takes stock of what’s ahead while a new song does the talking now

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AMY TURNER

The Florida-based gospel quartet Southbound has been quietly productive of late, with new music taking shape in the studio even as the group’s current release continues to reach listeners. In a candid moment, vocalist Jody Braselton offered a look inside the recording process and the themes driving the work.

The group is currently laying down tracks for what Braselton describes as a brand new project, still in its early stages. Among the songs recorded so far, one stands out for him personally. “We’re in the studio recording a brand new project,” he said. “And out of all the songs that we’ve done so far, and we’ve only recorded a few of them, I think my favorite that Pastor Clint Brown wrote that we are recording right now is a song called Miracles.”

The song, penned by Pastor Clint Brown, carries a message that Braselton says speaks to something universal. “And it just talks about how as many miracles as God has done in my life, in their life, and maybe even in your life over the years, there is no shortage of miracles,” he explained. “Whatever it is you need in your life, God didn’t run out of miracles. He’s not done healing. He’s not done setting free. He’s not done saving people and changing their lives.”

While that project moves forward behind closed doors, Southbound’s current release is already in rotation on Texas Gospel. The song, titled “Nothing,” takes an unconditional view of God’s love, exploring what it would take to separate a person from His grace. The short answer, according to the lyrics: nothing.

The song poses a series of searching questions before arriving at its repeated refrain. “What could I do to forfeit and lose all of this grace you’ve given me,” the lyrics ask, “what could I say to push you away God what could make you ashamed of me.” From there, the song builds toward its central declaration: “there’s nothing there’s nothing there’s nothing I’ve been through there’s nothing I can do that could keep me from you that could break us apart or make you regret your scars.”

The writing leans into imagery of ransom, return, and redemption, with lines that frame God’s pursuit of humanity in strikingly relational terms: “what would you do be willing to lose to pay off my ransom everything where would you run so bring home your son when you hear me calling anywhere.” Later, the song turns to the limits of what can stand against grace: “the never strong enough the power of your blood what can you love what can stop amazing grace what’s left inside that grave there’s nothing there’s nothing.”

For a group whose catalogue has long centred on themes of faith and restoration, “Nothing” fits neatly into that tradition, even as “Miracles” promises to push that conversation forward once the new project finds its way to listeners.

Head coverings in 1 Corinthians 11: what the passage really teaches

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TEXAS GOSPEL VOLUNTEER

1 Corinthians 11:5 states that a woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonours her head. This verse has prompted longstanding debate: does it require women to wear a physical covering in church today, or was it a specific instruction for first-century Corinth?

The answer is not simple, and sincere believers have held different views for centuries.

At the heart of the passage is a theological truth about order and distinction. Scripture teaches a clear structure of headship: God over Christ, Christ over man, man over woman (1 Corinthians 11:3). This order is meant to govern both the home and the church.

Within this structure, women express their honouring of God’s design in particular ways. Some of these expressions are cultural; others are rooted in creation itself. Paul notes, for instance, that a woman’s longer hair is a natural covering, a gift from God reflecting this distinction.

Head coverings, in certain cultural settings, have served as a visible symbol of this order. Whether that specific practice is universal or contextual is where Christians disagree. What is not in dispute is the underlying principle: men and women are distinct by design, and that distinction carries meaning in worship.

The outward practice may vary across cultures and eras, but the call to honour God’s created order, in both attitude and action, does not.

But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.

1 Corinthians 11:3

He was a sweetheart of a man’: the gospel project that brings personal memories of Elvis to life

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AMY TURNER

His voice sold millions of records, his name still sells out tribute concerts, and his gospel recordings remain some of the most emotionally raw performances in American music history. But to Billy Blackwood, Elvis Presley was something simpler, and more human, than any of that.

“He was just the kind of guy, honestly, it was hard not to love him,” Blackwood recalled. “He was just a sweet man, just a gentle, real, loving man.”

It is that personal dimension, the Elvis who existed in small rooms with a handful of people rather than on stadium stages, that gives a new collaborative recording project its particular weight. Ronnie Booth, one of gospel music’s most respected voices, has joined forces with the Blackwood Brothers Quartet for “Together: Gospel Tribute to the King,” a collection built around the sacred songs that shaped Elvis Presley’s faith and defined his spiritual identity.

Billy Blackwood, who sings baritone and has worked as a songwriter throughout his career, is one of the few people still active in gospel music who knew Presley personally. He was the younger son of James Blackwood, the quartet’s longtime leader and public face, and those family connections placed him in rooms where Elvis was simply himself.

“When you’re in a room this size and there’s eight or 10 people around, you get to know what somebody’s like when you have enough exposure,” Blackwood said. “I think his life and his thinking, maybe his heart got really corrupted by what the world had to offer. But my gosh, I just loved him. He was a sweetheart of a man.”

The Blackwood Brothers Quartet was not merely a successful singing group. For nearly a century, it has functioned as something closer to an institution. Founded in 1934 by brothers Roy, Doyle, and James, along with Roy’s son R.W., the quartet began building a following during an era when gospel music was still finding its place in the broader American cultural landscape.

The early decades were not without tragedy. In the late 1950s, Roy and Doyle retired from the road, and in 1954 R.W. was killed in a plane crash, a loss that shook the gospel world. James Blackwood, however, rebuilt. Under his leadership, the quartet assembled a new lineup of singers and took their music far beyond the American South. They performed in all fifty United States and every Canadian province. They carried their sound to Great Britain, across Europe, into the Middle East and Northern Africa, south to South Africa, and across Asia to Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. By almost any measure, they became the best-known name in gospel music history.

James Blackwood died in 2002, but the tradition he built did not end with him. His sons, Jimmy (James Jr.) and Billy, carried the work forward. More recently, Jimmy retired after 49 years on the road, leaving Billy as the keeper of a legacy that now spans more than eight decades.

Elvis Presley’s relationship with gospel music was not a publicity exercise. He grew up in Assembly of God churches in Mississippi and Tennessee, singing hymns long before he ever walked into a recording studio. The Blackwood Brothers were part of that world, and young Elvis was part of their audience. That connection eventually grew into something more personal, and Billy Blackwood’s recollections of Presley carry the kind of detail that only comes from genuine proximity; not the carefully managed image of a superstar, but a man who could sit comfortably in a small group and show his actual nature.

Blackwood’s tenderness in describing Presley is matched by an honesty about the pressures that made his later life so complicated. The faith, he suggests, was always real, even when everything around it was not.

One track from the project, “Put your hand in the hand,” is currently in rotation on Texas Gospel now. For Ronnie Booth and the Blackwood Brothers, the album represents something beyond a conventional tribute; it is a recording made by people who carry a direct connection to gospel music’s most storied era, honouring a performer whose faith, whatever its complications, was entirely genuine. For Billy Blackwood, that faith was the truest thing he ever saw in Elvis Presley, and it is clearly the part of him he remembers best.

The Kingsmen mark 70 years with an album that looks back and forward at once

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AMY TURNER

Seven decades is a long time for any musical act to remain not just active, but relevant. For the Kingsmen, a southern gospel quartet whose roots stretch back to the mid-1950s, that longevity is both the subject and the occasion for their upcoming album, “Still Jesus,” due July 10 on Horizon Records.

Subtitled “A Seventieth Anniversary Celebration,” the record draws from multiple eras of the group’s history, weaving together vault recordings, newly arranged older material, and five original songs written specifically for this project. It is a broad undertaking, and one the band approached with deliberate care.

“We have always been diligent to honour our Kingsmen roots,” said guitarist Alan Kendall, “but those exact same roots also tell us that the Kingsmen have always been a forward-thinking group.” That tension between preservation and progress shapes the album’s structure. Some tracks pull from the catalogue, updated in arrangement but faithful in spirit. Others were unfamiliar to the band entirely, including a song written by Squire Parsons in 1989 that the group had never previously recorded.

The material spans a considerable sonic range. “I’ll Live Again” represents the group’s more traditional sound, while “I Forgive Your Sin” and “When Sunday Morning Dawned” feature expansive orchestration. Country-inflected tracks like “That Very Moment” and “I Stand Upon The Rock of Ages” broaden the palette further.

Songwriters contributing new material include Ronny Hinson, Kenna Turner West, Joseph Habedank, Lee Black, and Rachel McCutcheon, each of whom has had charting success in the gospel genre.

The album closes with what Kendall describes as the most iconic song in the group’s history, “Is That the Old Ship of Zion,” performed by a 19-member Kingsmen Alumni Choir drawn from across the group’s seven-decade lifespan.

Brandon Reese, who manages the group and plays drums, frames the project in terms of both family legacy and personal faith. His father, Ray Dean Reese, is a legendary figure in southern gospel music, and the younger Reese has been integral in steering the Kingsmen through recent years. “Most importantly, it is my prayer that you hear something in this album that helps you in your every day walk,” he said, “because no matter the issue, the answer is Still Jesus.”

The album is available for pre-save ahead of its July release.

What are spiritual gifts and how do they work in the church today?

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JEFF TURNER

Every believer receives a gift from the Holy Spirit. It is not earned, but given with purpose. As 1 Corinthians 12:7 reminds us, the Spirit’s work in each person is meant to benefit others. No one is left out, and no gift is meant to be kept to oneself.

Passages like Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 describe gifts such as teaching, serving, giving, leadership, and faith. Rather than fitting neatly into one category, most people find their gifting is a blend of several of these , expressed in a way that’s uniquely their own.

These gifts aren’t given for personal recognition. Their purpose is always outward: to strengthen and support the body of Christ as a whole.

Discovering your gift doesn’t have to be complicated. As you continue to serve faithfully, the shape of your gift becomes clearer over time. The goal isn’t a perfect definition, it’s availability and a willing heart. When each person offers what they’ve been given, the whole community grows stronger together.

As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the multifaceted grace of God.

1 Peter 4:10