Jordan & Elena Cragun of The Craguns share their story and the stories behind their new album, Steadfast Love!
Show Notes
Jordan’s 2009 feature interview with Liberty Quartet.
The Craguns: Website, Facebook, Steadfast Love
Check out Jordan and Elena’s recent appearance on Southern Gospel Forward!
Transcript
Lightly edited for clarity.
Daniel Mount (00:04)
Welcome to Southern Gospel Journal. My name is Daniel Mount and I am honored today to be joined by Jordan and Elena Cragun. How are you doing today?
Jordan & Elena Cragun (00:12)
I’m doing great. Doing wonderful. Great to be with you, Daniel.
Daniel Mount (00:15)
It is great to be with both of you. So I am looking forward to, as the course of this conversation goes on, talking at some length about your upcoming record. Why don’t you say the name and release date of this record?
Jordan & Elena Cragun (00:30)
The name of the album is Steadfast Love. And the release date is February 6th. Yes.
Daniel Mount (00:36)
February 6th.
And if all goes well, aiming for this conversation to come out on February 6th. So we’ll talk about that at more length in a few minutes.
But for those listeners who are new to you and your music, I thought it might be good if we start with a few minutes first of talking about your background and your testimony, how you came to know the Lord, how you came to love the style of music and your background singing it.
If you don’t mind, Jordan, in this case because I’ve known you for longer, why don’t we start with your story? I went back and checked. I first interviewed you for Southern Gospel Journal in September 2009.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (01:11)
Wow.
Daniel Mount (01:11)
Yeah, it’s been a few years. So you had been with a group called Liberty Quartet for just a few months at that point. We sat down at the National Quartet Convention for a feature interview. And that, I think, was the most fun I ever had in an interview. I’m going to link it in the show notes. We had a lot of fun talking.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (01:24)
You still have that? I’d love to see it.
Daniel Mount (01:34)
I still have, but never posted, the audio. It was funny with Royce munching on crackers and all. I even have a note in there like I might have to start posting audio one of these days! But I do have the words still, and they’re publicly visible, and I’ll link them in the show notes. Anyhow, long time. I’ll put that in. So long-time readers might remember that.
But for those who don’t, can we start with your background and testimony?
Jordan & Elena Cragun (01:46)
I grew up as a pastor’s kid in Ponchatoula, Louisiana. That’s where my dad pastored for over 20 years, the same church. And so I grew up with five siblings, six including myself. And we grew up in church.
I can’t tell you the day and the hour that I was saved. I just know that from a very young age I have loved the Lord. I remember going to the altar as a very young kid under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and being saved; I can’t even remember exactly when that was. I think I was probably four or five years old. But I have loved the Lord all my life. I tell people I can’t remember not loving the Lord. I can’t remember not knowing Him. I can’t remember not feeling His presence and wanting and desiring to serve Him. That doesn’t mean I’ve always done it perfectly, but I’ve just always loved the Lord since I was very young child. That’s probably because I grew up in church and I’ve known the Gospel and heard the Gospel since I was very, very young. So at a very early age, I believe that Gospel and I have known the Lord ever since.
I fell in love with gospel music at a very early age. My dad loved gospel music and passed down that love of four-part harmony to me, especially for any kind of harmony, but four-part harmony was a huge part of our life. The first concert I ever went to was an Inspirations concert. I can’t remember how old I was. And then the next concert that I remember going to was a Kingsmen concert. And my dad told me, “You’re gonna like this one, Jordan.” He kept saying that that man in the green sweater is gonna take that sweater off and throw it in the crowd at some point. Jim Hamill, that was his signature. At some point he’d get that sweater off and wing it into the crowd. I was waiting all night for that sweater to come off, and sure enough, it did! I was so excited. And so that’s how it all started and I’ve been hooked ever since.
I started singing with Liberty Quartet based out of Boise, Idaho in the fall of 2008, and traveled with them for almost five years. And that was the start of it all. And then we started the Craguns twelve years ago. May of 2026 will be twelve years that we’ve been touring.
Elena and I have been married for sixteen years. And I don’t know if you want me to get into all that yet, but that’s my history. That’s my story.
Daniel Mount (04:20)
Maybe, how about this? We’ll tell Elena’s story for a couple minutes and then we’ll pick it back up together once you’re married.
I want to say one thing to what you said. My testimony is actually a lot like yours in that I have a really hard time pointing to this exact day I went from not believing the gospel to believing the gospel, because I also had the blessing of being raised in a Christian family with wonderful, dedicated, godly parents. And that’s okay.
For anybody who’s listening, if you don’t have a date you can write down in your Bible that you know you went from disbelieving to believing – it’s a blessing to be raised in a Christian home. That’s a wonderful testimony too.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (04:53)
Yeah. I think that’s great; that means you were raised right. And it also means you believed the gospel at an early age. An early enough age that you don’t really remember. But you did believe and you were saved.
Daniel Mount (05:00)
Yeah. Exactly.
I know when I was seven, I realized that I needed to be sure. If you will, I prayed a sinner’s prayer. But in my mind, it was like, “I already believe. I just need to remember telling God that I believe.” But I already believed. So that just resonated.
So, Elena, I would love to hear your background and testimony.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (05:17)
Sure. So a lot like Jordan, I grew up a PK. Both of my parents are from different countries. My mom is from the Turks and Caicos Islands and my dad is from Honduras. They both were saved, came over here to a Bible college in Florida. They still live in Florida. They’re both US citizens, but have lived there my whole life. My dad got a degree in ministry and went on to become a pastor, be involved in missions.
And I grew up in church singing with my sisters. And a lot like Jordan, I don’t ever remember not believing.
I do remember there was a time when I was three years old and this was in a Spanish service. My dad’s from Honduras, did a lot of his ministry within the Hispanic church. And I remember I couldn’t even remember, I couldn’t understand the words that were being said as a small child, but I do remember the moving of the Holy Spirit quite vividly. And I remember kind of shaking and looking at my mom because people were at the altar praying. I had to be like three years old, three or four. And I just remember that moving of the Holy Spirit so vividly, and that changed my life.
Just grew up in church, know, singing with my sisters, did a lot of choir singing in high school and in college. And I just always loved, loved music. We weren’t fans of specific groups a lot growing up, but just did a whole lot of singing for church, and never in a million years thought I would be singing professionally.
I tell people all the time: When you say yes to the Lord and his leading, you never know what you’re saying yes to.
I have a degree in psychology and I minored in Spanish in college. And so I kind of thought that’s where my life was going to go. But this is great. This is just honestly kind of a dream. Not necessarily something that I aspire to be, but I was like, I love singing. This would be great. So it’s just it’s just been a wonderful journey after I said yes to the Lord and said yes to marrying Jordan.
[Jordan interjects] That was your big mistake right there!
It’s been quite an adventure. And it’s funny you mentioned that interview that you had with him; I don’t think we were married when you did that interview because we married in December of 2009 and that would have been at NQC 2009.
Okay. Yeah, so we got married a few months later and I moved out to Idaho.
We were out there for about four years and then back to Ohio and then the Lord just opened up the doors for the Craguns to begin this ministry. So it’s been an adventure.
Daniel Mount (08:02)
One little detail I’m curious about. Two actually. You mentioned growing up singing with your sisters in church. I’m curious how many sisters you had and sang with.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (08:12)
I have two sisters and a brother. Sang with my two sisters trio a lot. And we sang a lot in Spanish. I am not fluent in Spanish by any means, but we did sing a lot in Spanish. The first 10 years of my life I spent in Spanish church. We were always in English surroundings as far as our education and all that, but church was always in Spanish for about 10 years. And so most of my singing happened in Spanish.
Daniel Mount (08:13)
That was the other thing I was going to ask because you mentioned the Spanish aspect. I was really curious what sorts of songs you grew up singing because that’s just a cool and different background for somebody who sings this style now.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (08:51)
Sure. So it was a lot of the same hymns that you would sing in English. We just sang them in Spanish. And I tell Jordan all the time, some hymns aren’t as familiar to me in English because I learned them in Spanish. And so I’m even now learning some hymns in English because I was familiar with them in Spanish first.
Daniel Mount (08:54)
So this is totally off topic and I don’t want to put you on the spot too much, but I’ve been learning Spanish on Duolingo for a while. I’m not fluent. But are there any hymns that you remember as the Spanish language being just an especially beautiful rendition of that hymn?
Jordan & Elena Cragun (09:13)
[Jordan] She’s better than she lets on. Don’t let her fool you.
[Elena] We just recorded one, a little snippet that we picked up. “Draw Me Nearer.” [sings it in Spanish] I absolutely love singing in the Spanish language because I think it’s such a beautiful descriptive language. It’s way more descriptive than in English. And so I don’t know. That one is just beautiful to me.
Daniel Mount (09:36)
Nice! And the vowels are just nice vowels to sing. You don’t have the – I don’t know the technical term – the dryer vowels you have in English sometimes.
So you got married in 2009 or 10?
Jordan & Elena Cragun (10:01)
2009. Yes.
Daniel Mount (10:24)
And so you were in Idaho for four years. Did you go straight from Liberty into singing as a family ministry, or do other things between?
Jordan & Elena Cragun (10:29)
Pretty much. Yeah, we started the group right away, but we didn’t record and start touring for about a year in between. So yeah, we had a little gap in between but but we knew what we were doing when we moved from Idaho to Ohio. We were moving because my parents were living there in Ohio, and we were starting this group with my family. So we knew what we were doing.
Daniel Mount (10:40)
Okay. So your dad was with the group from day one, right? And then there was another young man at the start whose name I’m not recalling.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (11:02)
Yeah, my first cousin, Nick Adams, he was with us for the first three years or so. And then my sister joined us and she was with us for eight year. She just had a baby last year. That forced her to come off the road so that their family can actually be a properly functioning family, because we’re on the road 150 days a year. So we had to hire a new alto singer.
We hired Elena’s and my niece. Her name is Denicia, Elena’s oldest sister’s daughter. She’s our new alto and doing a great job.
Daniel Mount (11:32)
Yes, she is, she is.
So I want to focus mostly on the new recording, but I have one question about a song on your last mainline, and that’s “His Way With Thee,” the hymn you recorded on that. That is just a wonderful rendition of that hymn. Is that a song either of you grew up singing?
Jordan & Elena Cragun (11:47)
Oh yeah. Yes, that was a regular hymn we sang at our church. We both grew up in churches that use hymnals and so we grew up singing – we had a chorus book next to our hymnal in in the pew in front of us, but we mainly sang out of the hymnal and that was a regular. And I had always heard it as an altar call, you know, a contemplative song, you know, come to Christ, invitation type song. And it was always played very quietly with the piano. You know, “Would you live for Jesus and be always…” And I told our producer, I want to rethink that. “His power can make you what you want to be” – and when we get to that line, I want to feel the power. And so we put a big orchestra with it and it gave it little different feel than what I think we’re used to hearing.
Daniel Mount (12:25)
Neat! So moving on to your new release, it’s your first release on StowTown. Is it your first release on any of the major Southern Gospel labels?
Jordan & Elena Cragun (12:52)
Kind of. We were just with ARS, who’s a branch of Daywind. They’re one of Daywind’s branches. So we have worked very closely with Daywind and had a wonderful relationship, love all of those people.
This album was just different. Things were different; and we have a great relationship with the folks at StowTown and we just felt like that’s where God was leading us with this new album. So we were very excited to sign with StowTown. So we’ve been privileged to work with two of the best labels in the industry.
Daniel Mount (13:23)
Yes, indeed. How did it come about? Did they reach out to you? How did you get to know the other people at StowTown?
Jordan & Elena Cragun (13:30)
Well, I’ve known Landon Beene ever since my Liberty days.
Daniel Mount (13:33)
Yeah. He did a lot of promoting out that way.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (13:56)
Landon did the first IMC cruise. Liberty and Lauren Talley and the Down East Boys and the Herb Henry Family were on the first IMC cruise. That was back when I was 21; Landon would have been younger. And we both had a little more youthful spirit and had a lot of fun together and a lot of great memories with Landon.
Daniel Mount (14:03)
So this album, I debated whether or not to say this…
In the early years of blogging, I wrote CD reviews all the time. But then there came a point when streaming was big enough that everybody could just go listen to an album for themselves. They didn’t need to hear what somebody else thought of it to see if it was worth checking out. So I really kind of quit giving my opinions about CDs by and large, even the last few years I was blocking. But I really want to say something about this one, so I will.
Once in a while, a group will just release an album that elevates what they do, and I think this is one of those albums.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (14:39)
Wow. Thank you, Daniel.
Daniel Mount (14:49)
And you know, it looks different for different groups. It’s not always that the album has a big signature song or something, it’s just something about that album feels like their style settled in, maybe a level of polish beyond what it’s had before. I’m thinking Perrys, Changed Forever, 2001. In a whole different way, Kingsmen, Big and Live 1973. Cathedrals, Something Special, 1982. Some of those had big songs, some of them not as much perhaps. And it would be premature at this point to say that this album has a big signature song for your group. It’s too soon to know that.
But I really think that in a lot of different little details this album takes what you do already and just ups it, takes it to a new level. And I’m not going to ask you to agree or disagree with what I said because I don’t want to put you in the spot of seeing something about yourself that could come across the wrong way or anything like that.
You know, the songs are really strong. There’s a really strong collection of songs this time around. So are the vocal arrangements and the instrumental arrangements, the mixing and the mastering. It’s just one of my favorite mixed and mastered albums in recent years, the vocal performances.
So I’ll just, I’ll put this part as a question. Can you speak to some of the things you and your producer, Wayne Haun, and the rest of the team did along the way to just add that little extra polish? What are some of the things you did to try to just bring a little extra level to what it is you do with this album?
Jordan & Elena Cragun (16:07)
Well, think first and foremost, I have to give so much credit to Wayne Haun. We’ve worked with some great producers on our last few albums. But Wayne Hawn knows the special sauce, man. I don’t know how else to word it, but it’s just, it’s the entirety from beginning to end, you know, you have to use the best of their field, when it comes to musicians, when it comes to songwriters.
That was one thing I felt. Lyrics on this record were just so, so strong. You know, one of the meter that we used, and maybe not necessarily intentionally, but you know, all these songs come across and we’re listening and trying to figure out what the best fit was. So many of these songs, we found ourselves crying. We found ourselves encouraged. We found ourselves just touched. And we’re no different than anybody else. And so we were like, you know, if this is moving us this way, I feel like this is going to be the same way for people listening. And so that was something that was especially significant in this album.
It definitely starts with the songs, the lyrics. Wayne helped a lot with that. Wayne knows so many writers. And I’ll say this, we’re still a new group in this industry by a lot of people’s standards. Writers will hold their great songs for groups that are a little more longer in the tooth; Wayne helped a lot with that. He helped encourage some writers to give us some of their top songs. And that’s kind of a thing that a lot of people don’t know a lot about, but that’s, we were very blessed and Wayne helped a lot with that.
And then just taking it to the best, you know, the best engineers, the best musicians. Scott Williamson is the guy that mixed this record. There’s a couple really good people in this industry at that, but, in my opinion, there’s nobody better than Scott Williamson. He’s just unbelievable. I don’t know that anyone has changed our sound and had as big of an impact on our sound than Scott Williamson because he’s the one that puts it all together. He puts the blend together and the mixing and and if you get that right, that’s pretty huge.
Daniel Mount (18:26)
Yeah, it made me… there was one detail you said there that made me smile. I was listening through this album and I am not kidding you, one of the thoughts I had was: “Wayne Haun went to Rachel McCutcheon and Adina Bowman and a couple other writers and said, ‘No, actually give the Craguns some of your best songs, this is worth it.'” I was actually genuinely thinking that. It’s just funny that you said that because I was like, “Yep, that lines up!”
Jordan & Elena Cragun (18:47)
Thank you. Well, Wayne did the same thing because Wayne’s a great songwriter.
Daniel Mount (18:58)
He is.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (19:18)
And he wrote at least two on this album and he had a song that was for another artist; and he made some adjustments. The artist made an adjustment, and they gave that song to us. And I think that was one of the best songs on the record.
So there was a lot of that going on and Wayne was fighting for us. And I’m very thankful to Wayne for that. Very thankful.
Daniel Mount (19:21)
Just listening through the record, I thought he was. I thought he was.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (19:24)
Yeah, he did. He invested in us, is a good way to say it.
Daniel Mount (19:25)
Yes. So let’s… There are a couple songs I want to make sure I specifically mention and then I’ll ask if there’s any others that you want to specifically mention.
But, obviously, we have to talk about “Faithful.” It’s a really great song, but it’s also a really great album opener to set the tone for the album. Can you just share a little bit about why that song stood out to you, why you chose it?
Jordan & Elena Cragun (19:46)
Yeah, that is just that is all the foundation of our ministry. Truly. The Lord has been so faithful to us. And, you know, that was one of those songs when we heard it, we, we were just weeping because that is our testimony. The Lord has just been so faithful that He has showed up time and time and time again in this ministry. And, you know, we were kind of still nobodies when it comes to singing and doing this, and just God showing up when we needed him every single time, opening doors for us. He’s faithful.
Should we share a story? We should.
Daniel Mount (20:27)
Sure, go for it. I love it, I love it, go for it.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (20:37)
We have so many miracles. OK, let me tell you a story. So we were we were about to get our first coach, our first bus. When you’re a few years in, that’s a huge, it’s the biggest financial expense of every artist is their bus.
But we were praying and trying to find the right one and we had a certain amount of cash set aside to go to that coach. And I was looking everywhere I could find. I found one in Florida. Found it on eBay.
And I had called this stranger. Actually, we were just emailing each other, and we had arranged for me to fly to Florida. And upon viewing this coach and walking it through and looking over, I was gonna hand him the cash and drive it home. And we were at Silver Dollar City that weekend.
And so we drove to Silver Dollar City. We were coming back on a Sunday afternoon, and the next morning I was flying out of Cincinnati Airport to go to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to potentially buy this coach.
But a few days before we left to go on that trip, Elena told me – we were walking into Hobby Lobby, and Elena goes, “Jordan, this is going to sound weird. But I’ve been fasting and praying about this bus situation.” I didn’t know she had been fasting and praying. She said, “And while I was praying this morning, she said, I felt so strongly in my spirit that you should not buy this coach that you’re going to Florida.” But what she felt strongly in her spirit was that somebody was going to give us one.
I kind of chuckled, and I went, “Babe, I mean, you know, well that’s great. But I mean, we’ve got to get this and we’ve got the plans and I’ve already got the plane ticket.”
And she’s like, “Okay. I know it would sound crazy.
And I think she was probably second-guessing herself.
[Elena] I was. And at that point, I really felt like the Lord was just telling me: You need to tell Jordan this. So I felt relieved. I’m like, I did what I was supposed to do. He can do it with it whatever he wants to.
[Jordan] So I kept trudging forward with the plans. Well, we went and sang that weekend, and we were on the way home, and I was gonna fly out the next morning.
And that gentleman, whom I had never met in my life, did not know us; we had never met. He sent me a text and said, “When you leave tomorrow from Cincinnati, don’t bring any money with you because I’m giving you this coach.”
So that was just pure miraculous – God confirming it through Elena. And then it was just a miracle. We’ve got so many stories like that down through the years, and I love to give Him all the glory. And that’s why we sing songs like, “Faithful Is What You Are, Faithful is what You do.” He’s proven it over and over and over again.
Daniel Mount (23:06)
So another one I have to bring up is “But For The Grace Of God,” an old Stuart Hamblen song. And your dad, I think it’s the best vocal performance he’s put on any Craguns album. I don’t know all his work before this point, but that arrangement is perfect for his voice and that song is perfect for him. And I love how he sings it.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (23:26)
I love to hear him sing that too. And what a great song. Dad has a special voice, you know, of course I’m partial and I’m bragging on him, but he’s got a unique, just one of the smoothest, richest tones that you’ll ever hear.
Daniel Mount (23:30)
Yeah. I was having a conversation by text a couple weeks ago with a friend who’s a singer in a family group that tours up in Minnesota and Wisconsin a lot. And we were talking about how there are really two types of bass vocalists in Southern Gospel. There’s the, if you will, the low note specialists who can really rattle the rooftop and might not always have the prettiest solos.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (23:58)
Okay.
Daniel Mount (24:03)
And then there are the bass singers who are very smooth tones and can sing low but might not go as low. And we were talking about how George Younce was a two-way. He really was thoroughly in both categories. And how Pat Barker is a modern-day example of that, thoroughly in both categories.
I heard a live stream of your group a couple weeks ago where your dad sang that song. And I texted my friend, Caleb Garms, and said, “Ray Cragun is another one of those two-way bass singers.”
Jordan & Elena Cragun (24:32)
That’s true. He is a real bass, not just a great blending bass.
And you know, we’re a little different. And I’ll be honest, there’s times where I wish… Because a mixed group is different than a male quartet. It’s just different. And a bass is not as appreciated in a mixed group because the harmonies are different and they’re not as conducive to that bottom part. Sometimes I wish he could crank a little more than he does. We definitely let him uncork on at least a few songs a night and let him do it.
Daniel Mount (25:03)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I’m curious about this song because a number of groups have recorded this song, “But For the Grace of God,” through the years. And I’m just curious what the version was you grew up knowing best. Did you know it as a Bill Gaither song, or Stuart Hamblen’s original version, or some other version?
Jordan & Elena Cragun (25:20)
Yeah, I had never heard it until my brother sent it to me. One night while I was driving, my brother sent me Bill Gaither’s solo record that he released. I mean, that’s probably been over 20 years ago now. And I had never listened to that record and I had never heard that song, but I heard Bill Gaither sing it and I just thought it was one of the best lyrics I had ever heard.
And so it’s always been in the back of my mind and I’ve had that song on the list, so to speak, for a while. And if we ever got the opportunity I thought that song would be a great feature for Dad. And that’s what happened.
Daniel Mount (25:56)
I had only listened to that Bill Gaither solo record once or twice. I didn’t hate it! I was going through so many records at that time to review. I only happened to listen to it a couple of times. And when your dad was singing that song, it was just something in the back of my mind when it was like, “like a child when she holds a bird with a broken wing.” I was like, “I have heard that line before.” I had to go look it up. Bill Gaither did it, and I didn’t remember? Shame on me!
Jordan & Elena Cragun (26:15)
Yeah. You know, Bill’s a lyricist, you know, he’s one of the greatest lyricists that’s ever lived.
Daniel Mount (26:24)
And Gloria.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (26:45)
Yeah, and Gloria. So anything he sings is probably going to be just good, rich. So when my brother sent that, I listened to the whole thing just because I’m always looking for ideas that some people may not catch. And he had a few on that record that were just sort of songs that were in the mainstream, songs that a lot of people are probably going to think is a new song.
Daniel Mount (26:48)
One other question on that song is I’m curious why you arranged it to be, if I recall correctly, solo throughout, no harmonies?
Jordan & Elena Cragun (27:00)
Well, because this is back to the point about bass singers and mixed groups, I could have harmonized above him, but our alto, but when he has the melody, it’s very hard for that alto singer to get down to that part that’s right above me. You know, so he’s singing, “but by the grace of God,” and then I’m, I’m right above him. And then that alto would have to be pretty low.
Daniel Mount (27:05)
Mm-hmm. That makes sense.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (27:26)
So it’s tricky. So honestly, that’s probably the biggest reason, is that anything that he’s singing the melody on to stack harmonies on top of it, I would be no problem, but that next part would be tough.
Daniel Mount (27:39)
Okay.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (27:39)
Yeah, that’s simple. And he sounded so good, I thought it carried itself.
Daniel Mount (27:44)
So you’ve both been doing some introduction videos to these songs on your YouTube channel leading up to the release. And one thing I love in these intro videos is when you both, it’s not just Jordan’s thing, it’s not just Elena’s thing, you’re both discussing the song’s Scripture references, where this song is coming from in Scripture, in these introduction videos.
Through the years, I have found that I appreciate songs more when I think about the scriptures they come from. And maybe this shouldn’t be the case, but once there’s a song I love from a scripture passage, I kind of love that Scripture a little more, too, because it’s kind of speaking to me in two ways. The words on the page and the words sung are both speaking to me. So I love that you’re tying that into your songs. This is a question for both of you. What are some of your favorite Scripture and song connections on this album?
Jordan & Elena Cragun (28:12)
Yeah. I think everything you sing should have a connection to Scripture. It should be verifiable, should be theologically sound. If it’s not, as far as I’m concerned, you’re in bad trouble.
Daniel Mount (28:39)
Yeah.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (28:46)
My favorite … Well, the song, “If I Wait on the Lord,” you know, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. And Jordan talks about this in our live concerts: The concept of waiting is not something that’s very popular these days because everything is so press the button and it’s there. You don’t have to wait on anything, hardly.
But there’s a promise; and waiting on the Lord, your strength will be renewed, your life will be sustained if you just wait on the timing of the Lord. So that Scripture … like you said, now that you hear this song, that Scripture just is so much more real and encouraging connecting the Scripture and the song together. So that’s one of them. Yeah.
[Jordan] “God’s Love and Me” would probably be my favorite. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. What an amazing promise. And then it’s so thorough. You know, He’s so thorough. There’s no height. There’s no depth. There’s no principalities. There’s no powers, no spiritual forces above or below. I mean, He’s so thorough on what can’t separate us from the love of God. Absolutely nothing. And that song is Scripture, and I love it.
Daniel Mount (30:07)
And I have to mention one more that I love, and that’s “As Long as the Lord Builds the House.” I love that connection to the psalm.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (30:07)
Yeah. As long as the… Which Psalm? I just read this verse.
Daniel Mount (30:21)
It’s in the Psalms of Ascents, but I just can’t remember what the number is.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (30:23)
I think it’s Psalm 127. Yeah, Psalm 127:1. Trying to get the wording right…
Daniel Mount (30:28)
Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (30:40)
Yes. They labor in vain who build it. Thank you, Daniel. I literally just was reading that. I just did the video for that and I’ve read that Scripture.
Daniel Mount (30:45)
No problem. Well, I didn’t have it memorized, I had to go pull that up.
All right, so actually, one more question along those lines. As you’re picking songs, is that part of how you think about songs? Because video after video, this is part of how you’re explaining the songs to people, you know, it’s connected to this verse. And I’m imagining as you’re listening through songs, you’re thinking of the Scriptural connection.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (31:15)
Definitely, yeah. Theology is very important to me and to us. We are big on theology and we think that theology has to be right. There’s a lot of songs that are good and then there’s a line in there that I’m like, there’s one line. I’m just like, I don’t like how that words that.
That’s how I view every lyric that I get. Sometimes the writers roll their eyes at me like, “Come on, you’re being too much.” And maybe sometimes I am, but it’s the Word of God is everything. It’s the foundation of everything. And so if it’s not biblically accurate, then it just claws at me. It drives me nuts.
Daniel Mount (31:50)
Amen!
I’d love to talk about the two songs that your children sing, which would be, “If You Ever Wonder if He Loves You” and “When I Sit With Jesus.” How do you pick songs for your children to sing? And does the process look different than when you’re picking a song for one of the adults in the group to sing?
Jordan & Elena Cragun (32:14)
Yes. Sorry, I’m talking a lot here, but…
Well, they’re kids and they don’t have a whole lot of life experience, especially spiritually speaking. So we definitely take that into consideration because we don’t want them to be talking about some trial and tribulation that they’ve been through and they’re, you know, kids.
So that is part of the process of picking songs for them. We like songs to be theologically accurate. We also like them to be situationally accurate to the singer, so appropriate to the singer. So, you know, if there’s a lyric that talks about, you know, life experience and all that kind of thing, you know, it would be for more of the older people, you know.
Even our alto singer, Denicia, is not married and she’s never had kids. And there were a couple solos on this record that would have been great vocally for her to sing, but I didn’t feel like the lyric fit her life experience. So I’d switch it to Elena. And vice versa. If there’s a lyric for a young person that, you know, that’s why Denicia is saying, “Leaving Every Answer Up To You,” because she’s in a place in her life where she’s just getting started and this has been a crazy year for her and she graduated high school. There’s a lot of unknowns in her future, but she’s leaving all the answers up to God, you know. So we definitely think about the lyric matching the appropriate singer for sure.
Daniel Mount (33:35)
I was going to ask actually which songs on the album she sang because her voice is close enough to yours that it can be hard to tell. But actually, the one at the top of my list was “Leaving Every Answer,” if I had to guess one. I was wondering if it was her. And the interesting thing to me was how much – despite being from a a different ethnic background, if you will – she really has a tone similar to Courtney Collinsworth Metz. When people ask me, who’s your favorite alto singing out there right now, I’ll name her – just love her tone. Denicia’s tone on that song is really good. I love what she did on that song.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (34:19)
Yeah. She has a beautiful tone. She really does.
Daniel Mount (34:22)
Back to your children, “When I sit with Jesus” has the bridge of “Sitting At the Feet of Jesus.” It was so cool to hear the two of them sing that together. It kind of made me want to hear the whole song. I’d love to hear them do that whole song one of these days.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (34:39)
Yes, yeah. You know, the fun part about that, we had that song, the music and everything. We were getting ready to go into the studio. The two of them went off and just started practicing. And usually when we get to the studio, you know, the producer is like, “I want you to do this, I want you to do this,” and kind of directs us on what to do.
But they had spent their little time at home going over this song. And Wayne was like, “OK, let me hear you guys on this.” You know, we run through it and then he’ll start making tweaks. But they went in there and they sang that song. And he was like, “Well, I like it. Go record it.” So they didn’t make one change to it. So this song was arranged by by them. They did a pretty good job on it!
Daniel Mount (35:20)
Wow, that’s really cool! That’s really cool.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (35:29)
This lyric was one that we thought a lot about letting them do. Back to the point, because it’s a little bit more of talking about the troubles and trials of life and we can go to Jesus. And we actually had second thoughts on letting them sing this. I thought that there’s also an element of having children sing a song that just helps it hit home a little better sometimes. And I felt like this was on that line that we were just talking about, but it was OK, and we went ahead with it, and I’m really glad we did.
Daniel Mount (35:57)
You have two live streams that I could find on YouTube since Denicia had joined the group. In fact, I think one of them was her first weekend. And then one was like maybe December or so. And I was amazed in both of them – you know, often when you have children on a recording and it sounds good, sometimes Melodyne or Autotune helped little bit. Of course, everyone has a few fixes. But both of your children were so on pitch. I’m just curious what you do to work with them to help them improve their singing. Okay, there’s an occasional person like Lauren Talley who’s born with pretty near perfect pitch, but almost everybody has to work at it, at least some. And I’m curious how you work with your children to help them become better singers.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (36:41)
To be honest, we haven’t done a whole lot of work with them at home. Truly, the Lord has just gifted them and blessed them with beautiful tones. We do a lot of singing for fun. Like, I’ll hear them up in their room and they’ve got – especially Grant, he’s got Cathedrals stuff on and he’s just singing at the top of his lungs. That boy loves old quartet music. He’s always playing the Stamps, he’s playing the Cathedrals. We sang with Gold City a few weeks ago, and he was backstage with Jeff Chapman going, “So who do you think’s lower, you or Tim Riley?” I’m like, “Be quiet!” [laughter]
But I love that he’s a nerd. I love that he’s a Southern gospel nerd like me. Yeah.
We did start working with them a little bit, you know, just to make them aware of tones, not getting it too nasally or whatever. But honestly, we haven’t spent a whole lot of time working on that. Truly, we’re very blessed. They’re pretty natural and they do sing a lot. So we’ve been putting them on stage since they were little kids. And they have recorded a couple times and the studio is the best way – So if there was two things that helped them, I would say it’s probably just singing a lot and then a studio. We did work with them a little bit in the studio and tried to help them open around the sounds a little more and that kind of thing. But pretty much they’ve just taken it and run with it.
Daniel Mount (38:11)
Neat! All right, so going a bit of a different direction. Although you were kind of just talking along those lines. There are just a number of different styles within Southern Gospel. There’s quartet music. And even within quartets, the Cathedrals are kind of different than the Kingsmen, who are kind of different than Gold City.
But within mixed groups, youhave a number of different mixed group styles. You’ve got country gospel in the tradition of the Hinsons. You’ve got mountain gospel in the tradition of maybe the McKameys or Inspirations. And you got bluegrass, and groups influenced by 80s CCM like Steve Green and Sandi Patty, or influenced by 90s CCM like 4HIM. But you and the Collingsworth Family, I would say, are kind of the two main groups out there right now who really seem to have a lot of influence from 70s inspirational music. And by that, I mean the style of Henry and Hazel Slaughter, Lanny Wolfe Trio, Bill Gaither Trio, the stuff they were doing in the 70s. I just hear a lot of resonances of that and what you’re doing. And on this album, you have songs like “I Am Persuaded” or “As Sure As The Lord Builds The House” as good examples of this.
And is that just something that has happened? Did you just happen to have an arrangement that sounded good? Or is that something you consciously grew up with? Just curious where those influences come in.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (39:28)
We grew up with all of it, you know. And Elena grew up a little different than me. Elena grew up in a family that wasn’t super Southern gospel people. I mean, it wasn’t that they didn’t like it. It was just, you know, her parents grew up listening to more islandy type music. Her mom’s from Turks and Caicos and it just was different. I mean, then she grew up on a Christian college campus that would have been a little more choral in nature. Stuff from the 70s would have been involved.
I grew up in a very southern gospel family, all the way. You know, when I was a teenager, it was Jay Parrack and Tim Riley and Gold City and the Cathedrals and the Gaither Vocal Band. Those were my primary influences. So it’s a bix mixture.
We are related to the Collingsworth family. I don’t know if you knew that or not.
Daniel Mount
Yeah, I did. That actually came up in the 2009 interview we did. I was re-reading that, but that was one detail I had remembered.
Jordan & Elena Cragun
So maybe there’s – my mom was raised obviously very much like the way Kim was raised. And so I’m sure some of those influences have trickled down to me. And that might be a little, be a reason for some of the similarities there.
Daniel Mount (40:20)
Yeah. So: “My Faith Still Holds.” Why did you choose to sing that song? Besides the fact that it’s an amazing song.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (40:52)
Is there a better song than that one? It’s a great song.
You know, I think the whole theme of the album was the Lord’s faithfulness to us, His love for us, and it was kind of like that final stamp on that album. Like “This is who He’s been to us, this is who we are holding on to.” That was kind of just like our final statement.
And I wanted a big one. I wanted to make a statement with a big song. Wayne was telling me, “Well, we’ve got some ballads on this record. I think you’ve got enough ballads.” And I was like, I need a bigger one. So I wanted something that was just bombastic, just big, and would just take it all the way to the house. And Wayne did with this arrangement.
Daniel Mount (41:37)
I was looking into it the other day. So Bill and Gloria Gaither wrote it, and they recorded it with the Bill Gaither Trio in 1972. And I was looking at sghistory.com, which is a great site to see all the albums every group has recorded if you’re a nerd like me or you or your son.
Unless SG History missed something – and they’re so comprehensive they rarely do – since 1972, since that original version by the Bill Gaither Trio, that song, as far as I could tell, has only been recorded by male quartets and soloists. Maybe local groups, you know, but as far as a group touring on a national basis, best that I could tell, this is the first time since the original version that a mixed group has done it.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (42:25)
Wow. That’s interesting. That’s interesting. Yeah. Well, anytime we’re going to sing an old classic like that, we’d look for the references just to see what’s out there, to make sure we’re not copying something. And I couldn’t find a lot, honestly. I couldn’t find a lot. I mean, there was a few, but I don’t know that I could find more than three or four versions of it. And I know there’s more than that, but I just couldn’t find a lot.
Daniel Mount (42:56)
Not on streaming. If you go back like 10 or 15 years, you have a rendition each for Mark Trammell Quartet and Gaither Vocal Band. And other than that, you’re pretty much going back to the 70s. Like there are a number of groups in the 70s, Gaither Vocal Band and Mark Trammell Quartet did two male quartet versions 10, 15 years ago. But I just thought that was the most interesting thing for a song that was so good for the Bill Gaither Trio when they first did it. I could not find another mixed group who had done it since that original version.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (43:03)
Hmm. Yeah. And I’ll tell you what, Daniel, when we sing that live, people are on their feet with their hands raised. That’s just something about that that just resonates with the believer. It blesses me singing it. That’s probably the funnest song we sing and we’ve been closing the night out with it on this tour. I love that song.
Daniel Mount (43:29)
I’m sure.
That makes sense.
Are there any other songs from this album that I didn’t specifically bring up that have something that really resonates with you? Something you’d like to talk about?
Jordan & Elena Cragun (43:53)
I think we covered most of it, most of them.
Daniel Mount (43:57)
Yes, we covered most of the album. There are a few more good songs on there. So where can people keep up with your tour schedule and keep up with you online?
Jordan & Elena Cragun (44:11)
Go to thecraguns.com, hit that tour tab and you can see where we’re going to be. If you have the BandsinTown app, follow us on there. Go follow our Facebook page. We’re always updating where we’re going to be. But the most surefire way is our tour page on our website, thecraguns.com.
Daniel Mount (44:31)
One other thing I want to mention for anybody who’s listening, if you’ve made it this far in, I would encourage you to also check out another episode they’re recording this week with Southern Gospel Forward, another podcast I absolutely love. It’s probably going to be a lot more fun and exciting. This one’s a little calmer, but you can appreciate both sides of them. I encourage you to go check that episode out as well. I will link it to the show notes.
Jordan & Elena Cragun (44:48)
Hahaha! Thank you, Daniel.
Daniel Mount (44:55)
Sure! And to everybody who’s listening, thank you for listening to Southern Gospel Journal. You can keep up with the latest episodes on YouTube, Facebook, or your favorite podcast platform, or on southerngospeljournal.com. Thanks for listening!