Copious Notes

The 2006 Indianapolis Colts produced one Super Bowl championship and two Christian music artists.

First on stage was punter Hunter Smith, who launched a duo called Connersvine with ­Indianapolis singer-songwriter Chris Wilson. Then, earlier this year, we got the solo debut from tight end Ben Utecht.

Ben Utecht takes a break at Cincinnati Bengals training camp in Georgetown last year. Photo by Al Behrman | AP.

“He was one of my close friends on the team, still is,” Utecht says, recalling that championship season with Smith. “That is something we definitely have in common. He had a guitar in his locker, and there’d be times he’d be writing in the locker room. So we had a chance to talk about music and write some stuff together.”

That locker room dynamic is gone now. Smith and Utecht have moved on from Indy. Smith now punts for the Washington Redskins, and in a few weeks, Utecht will arrive in Georgetown for training camp as a member of the Cincinnati Bengals.

That will end a very different off-season for Utecht, who released his self-titled debut album in April and has performed and done interviews to promote it.

“God has kind of worked with me and opened the right doors at the right time,” Utecht says from his Cincinnati home.

In Indianapolis, Utecht became friends with gospel music legends Bill and Gloria Gaither, even recording at the Gaither studio and singing at some of the Gaither family “Homecoming” events. He also got to know Christian pop legend Sandi Patty, who he says was “like a mom to me in Indianapolis.” She ultimately made him the first artist on her Stylos Records label.

Even with that support, Utecht said he had some convincing to do in the music business.

Patty’s manager helped him get meetings in Nashville but warned him, “Athletes doing music is looked at as kind of a gimmick. And I had some people tell me flat out, ‘I was doing this meeting as a favor,’ but once they put the CD in, they realized I could sing, and I had trained.”

Utecht comes from a musical family.

Read the rest of this entry »