1. Gospel Music for a Sunday Morning

    Posted in: Videos on Sunday, November 11th, 2012

    watch?v=OZxyZ888jfY&feature=share&list=UUiAam_5TxCpRe2D16Q0NE6A

    I shoot a lot of video and have for years.  I was even shooting video before there was video.  When I began filming, it was actually on film.  A lot of the filming I’ve done is for work, but most of the time when I pick up a camera, it’s for myself.  From the time I was a young kid I’ve been making home movies or documenting scenes from life as it happens around me.  Technically what I do can’t be called making home movies, because the word movie implies a finished product that people can watch with a story line that tells them what it is they are watching.  Most of what I’ve shot sits unedited on reels or on video tapes in boxes and on shelves waiting for the day when I finally edit the raw material and turn it into a movie.  My family jokes whenever I break out a camera, that by the time they see any of the pictures they will be so much older they won’t even recognize themselves.

    I bring this up because I’m forced to sit at home for a couple of weeks while I recover from rotator cuff surgery. With my right arm in a sling, I can’t pick up a camera and shoot anything new, but I can sit at the computer and do some one handed editing, so no more excuses, it’s time to edit some of those old tapes. I began with something I shot last spring in L.A.  One night a group of friends and I were hanging out at the home of gospel singer and songwriter, Andrae Crouch, just like we did twenty years ago.  And like twenty years ago, Andrae was at the piano playing and singing, making up new songs when we would challenge him with a title to see if he could create lyrics and a melody on the spot.  I previously posted one of those songs on my web page and on my you tube channel.  It was a funny little tune Andrae made up about me and how he wanted me to loan him some money.

    But Andrae was also singing some of the gospel songs he’s written.  On this evening he played one of his more recent hymns or choruses called, “Let the Church Say Amen.”  The lyrics are simple and the melody has the kind of easy catchy hook that makes it instantly familiar like you’ve heard it all your life, a key element of successful songwriting.  As Andrae is singing some of the ladies in the room soon join in creating a spontaneous gospel performance.

    As I often do, I had my cameras with me and recorded the moment.  And now I’ve taken advantage of my recovery time to edit the video.  I put it together for my own enjoyment and for the other people who were at Andrae’s house that night, but after listening to the song, I’ve decided there may be some fans of gospel music or Andrae Crouch who would enjoy this home movie as well.

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  2. Oldie But Goodie

    Posted in: Videos on Thursday, January 19th, 2012

    Andrae Crouch & The Disciples-\”Satisfied\”

    Boy was I surprised today.  I found an unlabeled video tape and stuck it in the player to see what was on it.  It turned out to be a dub of some old 16mm film shot in the 70′s while I was working for the NBC TV station in Ft. Worth, Texas.  In addition to all the pictures of me decked out in bellbottoms and flowered shirts, there was some rare footage I shot of Andrae Crouch and the Disciples in 1971.

    I filmed their sound check before a concert at a local church for a story about the group on the evening news.   The song was, “Satisfied.”  I’m sure I had them sing it two or three times to get all the angles I needed, but I don’t know where all that film is or what happened to the cut story.  I was thrilled and very surprised to find this one uncut take of, “Satisfied”.  I was sure it no longer existed.

    Forty years sitting in a box has taken its toll on the sound, which isn’t quite up to the correct speed at the beginning.  Also I only had one mic on the camera to record the audio so the mix is not the best, but footage of Andrae and the Disciples singing in the early 70′s is so rare I think this is worth posting.

    Fans of the group will notice this was done before Andrae added the band featuring Bill Maxwell, Hadley Hockensmith, Harlan Rogers, and Fletch Wilcy, and unfortunately this angle doesn’t show Bili Thetford although you can hear him singing and playing bass.

    It’s an oldie but goodie and a fun trip down memory lane.

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  3. I Don’t Know Why

    Posted in: Videos on Friday, May 20th, 2011

    Andrae Crouch & The Disciples-\”I Don\’t Know Why\”

    Apparently it’s Andrae Crouch week on my web page.  I just can’t help myself, every night this week I’ve been editing video I shot with Andrae last month.  Hearing the group together again for the first time in more than 35 years was filled with so many great moments that I just keep wanting to hear more.  Which means I just keep putting together more videos and then posting them for everyone to hear.

    Not only did original Disciples members Sandra Crouch, Perry Morgan, and Bili Thedford show up for the afternoon jam session, but two members of Andrae’s old backup band were also present, Bill Maxwell on drums and Hadley Hockensmith on guitar.  And as an added bonus the legendary bass play Abraham Laboriel dropped by to play on a couple of numbers.  This video of, “I Don’t Know Why” near the end of the song has a couple of awesome solos from Hadley and Abe.  Another reminder of why Andrae & the Disciples were so far ahead of everyone else in Gospel music at the time.

    Also on this video Andrae had Sue, one of the singers from his church, join in on the vocals.  Enjoy.

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  4. Andrae Crouch & The Disciple Reunion

    Posted in: Videos on Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

    Andrae Crouch & The Disciple Reunion

    The original members of Andrae Crouch & The Disciples got together one afternoon in April of 2011 for the first time in more than 35 years.  By original, I mean the version of the group that finally broke through to great success in Gospel music.  It was Andrae, his twin sister Sandra, Bili Thedford, and Perry Morgan.  The idea of the reunion began when I told Andrae I wanted to get some video of him sitting at the piano and playing some of his old songs.  Of course scheduling anything in advance with Andrae is always short on specifics, so his former drummer and co-producer Bill Maxwell was essential in making sure this came together the week I was in L.A.

    After I arrived Bill & I decided to call Perry and invite him just to come up and hangout and visit.  That’s when Bill said, “Thedford and Sandra are in the area, why don’t we see if they’ll also show up tomorrow and maybe sing together  one more time.”  This would never have happened if we had tried to plan it.  Schedules would have needed to be coordinated, and then people would have said they needed rehearsals before they could sing again as a group.  But since it was all so spur of the moment, everyone just showed up, mainly because we all wanted to see each other after so many years.

    As for the music, I wanted to capture a moment like the old days when they would just stand around Andrae at the piano and sing.  Of course Andrae immediately, like the old days, started writing a new song on the spot and assigning parts.  Eventually we got him do a couple of the old Disciples numbers and this video is of the group singing, “The Blood.”  Bili took the first solo because Andrae had a sore throat, but it was an afternoon of fond memories of a time in the 70’s when Andrae Crouch & The Disciples changed the sound of Gospel music.

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  5. In The Beginning

    Posted in: Videos on Sunday, May 15th, 2011

    Andrae Crouch describes writing his 1st song

    Gospel music legend Andrae Crouch is such a gifted songwriter that music seems to effortlessly flow from his fingers whenever he sits down at a keyboard.  Last month I spend a couple of days with Andrae, my friend of more than forty years, and in the short time we were together I think he wrote the better part of five new songs.  And I mean good tunes, memorable, infectious melodies.  After one song that he recognized as having potential to be developed into something special, he quickly started playing another new tune with the words, “Don’t lose it or I can’t use it.”  It was a musical reminder for me to hold on to the tapes or his new composition would just drift off into the ether to be lost forever, since the next day his mind would already be filled with other notes and other music.

    But after he played me some of the new material he’s working on, I asked Andrae if he remembered the first song he ever wrote.  He did and no wonder, it was a good one.  He was 14 years old at the time.  This video is of him singing that first song and telling me the story of how he came to write it.

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