Copious Notes

Harlan County native Phil Stacey. Photo courtesy of Reunion Records.

Listening to Phil Stacey’s Into the Light, you think, if this guy wasn’t on American Idol, he should have been.

His debut on Reunion Records under the guidance of legendary Christian producer Brown Bannister sounds very Idol, with songs that showcase soaring choruses and emotional lyrics, and Stacey definitely has the chops to deliver them.

It also sounds very contemporary Christian — hence, Idol’s friendliness to Christian singers the last few years. That’s also what makes Into the Light a little disappointing.

His post-Idol debut on Lyric Street records was a refreshing sound for the Christian market, introducing some country songwriter cleverness in songs like It’s Who You Know, and bringing some genuine energy to the project. But Stacey says he was miscast as a country guy and pop was always where his heart was, hence the move to the Christian pop label and embrace by Christian pop royalty — Michael W. Smith is his labelmate.

The result is a solid album with catchy tunes like Inside Out and soaring worship ballads like One. He also pulls out a great Rich Mullins cover, Hard to Get, that could serve to show some younger listeners there’s more to the Christian pop legend than Awesome God.

What’s really missing here is any sense of Stacey’s own individuality, which seemed to be so present on that 2008 debut. With Into the Light, Stacey has been embraced by the Christian music establishment. On future efforts, he needs to avoid sounding like a generic contemporary Christian artist.

Is the GMA in trouble?: My fellow Christian music blogger Joanne Brokaw has an interesting post about recent cuts and layoffs at the Gospel Music Association and the just-annouced $1,000-a-plate Save the GMA fundraiser. Is Christian music’s umbrella organization in danger of going under?

Close, but not quite here: Yes, we do have Jeremy Camp coming Thursday night and Casting Crowns in a few weeks. But there are two Christian tours of interest not quite getting here, but they will be close if you’re the road tripping type.

~ If you’ve wanted to see Newsboys with Michael Tait out front, they get as close as Wilmington, Ohio, just north of Cincinnati, Nov. 15. Click here for Newsboys tour itinerary and ticket links.

~ You may also have heard plenty of TobyMac and Relient K live, but still find the concept of their Winter Wonder Slam tour together irresistible. It hits Louisville Nov. 29.

When Phil Stacey was a ­contestant on American Idol, he was pegged as a little bit country.

So that’s where the Harlan County native ended up after the show, on the country label Lyric Street Records. In 2008, he released a self-titled debut.

But anyone who was paying attention and knew a little bit about Stacey could hear something in the twang: a message.

Phil Stacey. Photo courtesy of Reunion Records.

“Even on my country record, every song was based on a Bible verse, to me,” Stacey says. “People who knew Christian music would say, ‘How could you put a John Waller song on a country CD?’” Stacey adds, referring to a modern rock worship leader and songwriter, “but we managed to pull it off.”

Since then, Stacey has made what he calls “a lateral move from Disney’s country label to Sony’s Christian label.”

And what a Christian label.

On Aug. 25, Stacey’s Into the Light will be released on Reunion Records. That would be the same label as Michael W. Smith, with whom Stacey also shares a manager. And he recorded the album with legendary Christian music maestro Brown Bannister, who was behind many of Smith’s and Amy Grant’s big successes.

“It was intimidating going into the studio with someone who’s worked with such gifted people,” Stacey says, noting other Bannister collaborators such as Russ Taff and Michael English. “But at the end of the day, he started out as a youth pastor, and he has a minister’s heart, which set my nerves at ease.

“We talked about the Bible and verses behind songs, and prayed before tracking. I admire Brown more as a person than for his musical background.”

This fall, Stacey hits the road with Smith.

“He’s been so encouraging,” Stacey says. “He’d send me texts like, ‘Phil, I really like this record,’ which meant the world to me.”

So far, the Smith/Stacey tour itinerary does not include Kentucky, though Stacey says he does get back home frequently.

Read the rest of this entry »

Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Simon Cowell on stage at the "Idol Gives Back" fundraising special of "American Idol" in April 2008. AP Photo by Mark J. Terrill.

We caught up with Harlan County native and former American Idol competitor Phil Stacey this morning to talk about his new album, Into the Light, which is set to drop Aug. 25. Before we got into that, we had to ask him about the AI earthshaking news that dropped Tuesday about Paula Abdul leaving American Idol. That will presumably leave the show with Simon Cowell, Kara DioGuardi and Randy Jackson as the show’s new trio of jusges. Here’s what Phil said:

Phil Stacey. Reunion Records.

I don’t know that the audience will miss her as much after a couple of seasons, and it’s just Kara, Randy and Simon. I’m sure the audience will get adjusted to it. The ones that I feel bad for are the future contestants on American Idol.

Paula was the only one on the judge panel that knows what it’s like to put your soul into what you’re doing and have it criticized before millions of people. She judges with a tender touch. She’s always willing to say something encouraging. I appreciate that, because you can receive a hundred positive comments and feedback, and the one negative is the one that’s going to stick out. So when somebody that’s so important to the show takes the time to encourage you, it means a lot.

Not to mention the fact that as busy as her schedule was, she always took time out for the contestants. She came to visit us every week bringing gifts with little messages to encourage us and keep us going, like t-shirts that said “Shoot for the stars, and you just might become one” — far too cheesy to wear in public, but it was very nice of her. If kids were ever visiting the Idol set, she always wanted to be there to take pictures and provide gifts.

I think she’s a really special person, and I’m very sad to see her go.

Asked what viewers will miss on the panel, Stacey, who was LexGo’s Idol blogger last season said:

They’re missing a huge aspect, because now you don’t really have a performer. Kara can sing, but she hasn’t performed in front of as many people as watch American Idol for a career. She’s sang on the show, but she’s not been heard by that many people. And she’s obviously never gone through the scrutiny of trying to pursue a performing artists’ career and having doors repeatedly shut in your face, and that’s what the American Idol contestants are going through.

I think you’ll lack that aspect of it. Simon is judging what he can sell on the show. He’s the A&R guy, he’s looking for the whole, ‘What’s the bottom-line dollar figure?” Randy’s judging the raw musicality, because he’s a great musician. Paula was the artist, and the artist is gone. You have a songwriter on the panel, but the artist is gone.

We’ll have more on Stacey’s new album next week.

Danny Gokey visited Faith Builders International in Milwaukee May 8. Photo by Carrie Antlfinger | AP.

This year’s American Idol finals ­offered the nation 13 singers from across the country with ­different strengths, looks, backgrounds and styles. But six of them had ­something in common, aside from wanting to be the next American Idol: They all had experience as church worship leaders.

That included two of the final three competitors in the eighth season of Idol, which wraps up Wednesday with a two-hour season finale.

Danny Gokey, 28, was praise and worship leader at two Faith Builders International locations in Wisconsin.

Kris Allen performs Kanye West's "Heartless" on "American Idol" May 12. Photo by Frank Micelotta | PictureGroup for FOX.

And Kris Allen, 23, has worked with praise and worship teams at two New Life churches in Arkansas.

Gokey was booted Wednesday night, so Allen is the one who is going on to compete in next week’s final against Adam Lambert, long considered the front runner in this year’s race. And that was fine by several Christian music observers.

“I see the worship leader in Danny, but Kris has more of the ability to be artistic,” said Joanne Brokaw, a Christian music writer who brought the preponderance of worship ­leaders in this year’s Idol field to light with a Feb. 27 post on her Beliefnet.com blog that asked, “Is this the season of the worship leader?”

Other artists in this year’s final group who have Christian music backgrounds were dueling pianist Matt Giraud, blind musician Scott MacIntyre, oil rigger Michael Sarver and Memphis mother Lil Rounds.

“The thing that really struck me was not just that they were Christians, but they were church worship leaders,” said Brokaw, who has since ­predicted Allen will win the finale, already ­being ­characterized by some as David vs. Goliath. “These are people who have actively been ­working within their churches as musicians.”

And that work can give a singer a leg up on the ­competition. Read the rest of this entry »

Tonight, we got the spectacle of American Idol’s judges acting like they might just use their save on Michael Sarver.

Seriously. I don’t even think Sarver expected they would do that. He seems like a nice guy with a sweet voice and solid stage presence. But by beating out Alexis Grace he already made it farther than he should have expected to. He will be fine. I even suspect he may be courted by the Christian market, as he has the right profile for CCM and he is a church worship leader.

Adam Lambert in one of his many great "American Idol" performances. Photo by Michael Becker | FOX.

But the judges cannot use their one-and-only save this early on for one big reason: One week, Idol Nation may collectively go off the reservation and put Adam Lambert at the bottom, and if that moment happens, the judges have to have the ace in the hole.

Don’t think it’ll happen? Two words: Chris Daughtry. Remember, season five? He seemed like a lock and finished fourth.

Now, as an alert reader notes, the judges don’t have the save after the Top 5, which is a good point. But the judges need to hold on to this new privilege to save a serious candidate for the top prize, a contestant whose fan base maybe needed a wake-up call, and not blow it on someone who never had a realistic chance anyway.

Lambert cannot be Daughtryed.

I have not been glued to Idol for eight consecutive seasons. But in what I have watched, Lambert is the most talented singer to grace that stage. First, his vocals are unreal. He can easily be a throwback to those virtuosic screamers of late ’60s/early 70s rock — think Robert Plant or Ian Gillan. Pop music hasn’t heard a voice like this in a while.

But more important, Lambert knows how to use it, and he can truly make songs his own. Just consider the psycho journey into the desert of his Ring of Fire last week, followed by a rethinking of Tracks of My Tears that floored Smokey Robinson this week.

Now, in one way, you can use that old logic that contestants are better off as runners up, thereby gaining the exposure but guiding their own careers. And you could see how that might benefit Lambert, like it has Daughtry.

But do you think Simon Cowell and Co. like seeing No. 4 rolling up the hits while the winner that year, Taylor Hicks, gets dropped by his record label? This is supposed to be about finding the next star, not the next supporting player in Broadway revivals.

So the judges need to use this little bit of actual power they have been given judiciously, to avoid a really big mistake. And leaving Lambert out of the Final 5 would be huge.

• Make sure to catch the thoughts of LexGo Idol blogger Phil Stacey.
• I also recommend my friend, my groomsman, Rodney Ho at the AJC.

Delirious frontman Martin Smith in India in January. A visit to India inspired the CompassionArt project.

Click play to hear our interview with Martin Smith, in which he talks about CompassionArt, India and the end of Delirious.

Copious Notes podcasts are available on iTunes.

Over its last couple of albums, Delirious has become increasingly vocal about poverty and disease around the world.

One of the British band’s most recent worship anthems, Our God Reigns, pricked listeners and singers consciousnesses with the idea that the cost of an order of Chinese take-out food could cover the cost of medicine for an impoverished victim of AIDS.

“I remember going to India for the first time and being completely shocked, like being hit over the head with a baseball bat,” says Martin Smith, the group’s leader singer and songwriter. “I realized that people lived on the same planet as me with completely nothing. That set a massive thing off in me, feeling like I couldn’t just get on a plane and do nothing. I had to make a personal response.

“That was the beginning of Delirious trying to find new things to say, and react to what was going on inside of us.”

That reaction has come to fruition on a much larger scale, in a new multi-artist project called CompassionArt.

The new album, released Jan. 27, features 14 songs by 19 of the biggest names in contemporary Christian music, including Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Stephen Curtis Chapman, Israel Houghton and Tobymac.

All of the artists involved waived all of their fees, including songwriting and royalties, so the proceeds from the album and its companion book will all go to CompassionArt and the 16 international charities it has selected.

“All of the people involved in the project had been talking for the past few years about how it is not enough for us to just do our thing and write songs and that sort of stuff,” Smith says. “We started to see it as our responsibility to be a voice.

“We thought, what would happen if all of us got into a room and started writing songs together, and that’s what happened in January ‘07 in Scotland.”

Smith says getting all the songwriters together was far easier than he expected.

“Now the challenge is sustaining it,” Smith says.

The singer says the measure of success for this project will be a bit different than, “selling loads of records. It would be when we see lives changed on the ground. When we see people that haven’t got water, suddenly have clean water, when we see people that enough food and become part of a sustainable community and have anti-retroviral drugs and malaria meds. That would be an incredible thing to happen from this project. That would be extraordinary.”

Smith will be making CompassionArt the focus of his attention, as Delirious is splitting up after final shows this year, ending in November.

“It’s a sad time, but also happy in looking forward to new opportunities,” Smith says. And CompassionArt is, “The thing we wake up thinking about every morning.”

Our Idol lands a deal: American Idol season six artist Phil Stacey, who has been writing the American Idol blog for LexGo.com, has landed a recording deal with Provident/Reunion Records. Stacey was born in Richmond and was raised in Fairfield, Ohio. He released his first album on Lyric Street Records in 2008. He is now working with producer Brown Bannister on his Provident debut, which is slated for late Summer 2009 release.