Danny Jones, Vice-President of the Singing News, shares stories behind over 700 issues, and:
- Some of the most unexpected things Singing News has received in the mail
- A memorable typo that the printer caught at the last moment
- Memorable moments from three decades of the Singing News Fan Awards
- Launching the Memphis Quartet Show
- The vision for Singing News TV
Show Notes
2021 interview on Southern Gospel Podcast: https://southerngospelnewspodcast.libsyn.com/episode-140-danny-jones-singing-news-magazine
Singing News: https://singingnews.com/
Singing News TV: http://singingnewstv.com/
Transcript
Lightly edited for clarity.
Daniel J. Mount
Welcome to Southern Gospel Journal. My name is Daniel Mount, and I have the honor of being joined this evening by Danny Jones. How are you this evening?
Danny Jones
I am doing very well, Daniel. How about yourself?
Daniel J. Mount
I am doing great. Can we start with your background and your testimony, where you’re from?
Danny Jones
Well, I’ve been around long enough to where all of my memories are in black and white. So that should give you a good starting point there. Actually, I was born in May of 1966, so I’m about to touch on my 60th birthday. It really doesn’t seem that long. However, I have noticed a few changes along the way, but I’m not going to complain.
I was originally from the state of Florida. My parents, ironically, both grew up in north Georgia about five miles from each other, but they never met until they were both living in Florida. So that’s where I came along. And as a youngster, they returned to Georgia. I grew up in the state of Georgia, a little town called Greensboro, and that city would become instrumental in my gospel music career later on. And then from there, I spent some time at the University of Georgia. I like to tell people I liked that school so much, I spent seven years trying to get a four-year degree. And then it was while I was in school, both high school and college, that I first began dabbling, for lack of better terms, in Southern Gospel music.
Now, let’s back up just a little bit. Both of my parents had fathers who were actively involved in singing schools and the song conventions and different church activities where they led the music. And in that entire family on both sides, both my dad and my mom’s side, you find a long history of people involved in music, mostly shape-note music, and most all of it within the church arena. So while I can sing a little bit, the world is not ready for that. And for whatever reason, God decided He would put me right in the middle of the behind-the-scenes aspects of Southern Gospel music.
And the year 2026 is actually my 46th year in Southern Gospel music. So I was marginally kidding when I said my memories were in black and white. On a more personal level, again because of my family’s heritage, church was a very important part of our upbringing. And for years, I had several uncles on both sides of the family who were involved in ministry at some level or another. Some pastored a church, some were evangelists, some were music ministers, things like that. So it’s always been right in my forefront, if you will, of what the music actually represents.
But it got very personal for me back in the 1980s, 1988 to be exact. And I realized that you can watch all of that unfold in front of you. You can hear the songs, you can sing the songs, you can walk the talk, that type thing. But until you truly live it, truly give yourself to the Lord, it’s only acting a role. And in 1988, I quit acting the role.
So that’s everything in a nutshell. Gospel music has basically been most of my life since a very, very early age. As a matter of fact, my parents took me to my first Southern Gospel concert when I was two weeks old. Now, the groups that were on the concert were the Florida Boys and the Dixie Echos.
I do not remember it, obviously, but there are pictures of me at that event. It was an auto dealership grand opening. Both of those groups were singing there.
Daniel J. Mount
That’s very neat. You had, I think, a fascinating history in your early years in the music between WGRG radio, working for radio promotions for Eddie Crook and Dave Wilcox. And then something we actually have in common is you also worked for Crossroads for a while.
Danny Jones
Basically, it all started with radio. As you mentioned, WGRG in Greensboro, Georgia – it’s now changed its call letters to WDDK, I believe. And the owner of the station, it was a small town, and the owner did everything. And finally it became too much for one person to handle.
And he knew of my interest in gospel music and had seen me at different events and all the different things involved there, and he asked me one day, “Would I be interested in doing a Sunday Southern Gospel show?” Well, it took me all of a millisecond to say yes, and that’s where it started. And while I was doing radio there at the station, I first became acquainted with people such as Dave Wilcox and Eddie and Bob Crawford, Marvin Norcross, his legacy, Ken Harding, all the people that you read about in the history books of Southern Gospel music. Well, that’s where I first got acquainted with them, was at the radio. And as I was doing radio, Dave Wilcox approached me one day about doing some independent contractor work in radio promotions for the Eddie Crook Company.
The company was going like gangbusters at the time. You know, they had such artists as the McKameys, the Bishops, and the list goes on and on and on. But he also had a very thriving custom recording division. And that was where the developmental labels such as Harvest and Cedar Hill were housed. Well, those artists also started getting significant radio airplay and they needed attention. And so Dave and Eddie approached me about it.
We did that for a couple years, I was still there in Georgia while I was doing radio. And then the opportunity came along to move to Nashville in 1991. I worked with Eddie for a little over five years, or almost five years, and right after that I had the opportunity to go to work for another of gospel music’s legends, Eldridge Fox.
I cannot begin to tell you how many doors Eldridge opened for me. Eddie also opened a lot of doors for me, but Eldridge, for some reason or another, found something in me that he truly believed in. He really emphasized that if I wanted to do something in gospel music, he would help me. He would show me every possible door to walk through, and he did.
So it was bittersweet six months later after joining Foxy and all the folks at Horizon and Crossroads Music when I got the call from Jerry Kirksey about joining Singing News. And to show you how things work, Foxy knew before I did. Jerry Kirksey had actually called down to Asheville, where Foxy was, talked to Foxy and talked to a couple other people there like Chris White, and broached the subject. I didn’t know this until later. So when he called me, I was somewhat floored by the opportunity. I mean, I had known Singing News all of my life. I remember getting it because Mom and Dad subscribed to it, and it was, you know, in the early phases of a newspaper.
So when that call came, the first thing that went through my mind is, I can’t do this, because Foxy had just literally paid to move me from Nashville to Asheville, had put a lot of effort and time into me and my wife and young son, and, you know, I hated to walk out, for lack of better terms. Well, one day while this was going on, like the day after I got the call, Foxy walked into my office and said, “Hey, what you doing?” And I said, “Well, right now I’m just trying to tidy up a couple of things for this next radio sampler that we were doing at the time.” You remember those. And he said, “Well, come on, go with me. We’re going to ride into town.”
Now, when you rode into town with Foxy, that means he wanted to talk about something. He didn’t need you to go help load stuff into his trunk of his car or anything like that. He wanted to talk. And the first thing I thought of was, “Uh-oh, I’m in trouble. They know I’ve talked to Jerry Kirksey,” that kind of thing. We hadn’t left the parking lot of Horizon when he turned to me and said, “If you don’t take that job, you’re crazy.” He said, “You know, opportunities like this rarely come along, and in my opinion, I think you’re a perfect fit for that.” And he said, “I hate to lose you,” and all that, “but you really need to consider this.”
And I said, “Well, you’ve just done all of this for me, and now you’ll never get your investment back.” And he said, “If you don’t take this job, I’m going to send every member of the Kingsmen over to your house and box you up and send you to Boone.” And he would have. So that took a lot of pressure off of me. And that was, you know, I started there with Singing News in August of ’95. And I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Foxy and, of course, the Kingsmen. During my time there, we all got to be really good friends and still are.
Foxy was – you’ve heard stories of his generosity and all the things he’s done for young people in gospel music. I can assure you that every word of it is true because I lived it myself. And then, so I’ve been with Singing News now going on almost 31 years, and we’re still here.
Daniel J. Mount
And I would, you know, there are so many more things we could talk about, so many interesting things you did in those years. But just for the sake of getting to everything else, I would encourage the listener: you did an episode with Arthur Rice and Darren Sutherland on their podcast about three or four years ago. I’ll link to it in the show notes, and go listen to that. Danny has several more stories from those early days, and that’s well worth your time to listen to, in part because there’s some great stories, and in part so that I don’t waste any time asking the same questions again.
But one thing I would like to ask: I’m going to guess that just about everybody who’d be 13 minutes into a Southern Gospel podcast has heard of Singing News, but not everybody knows the early days. Can you just briefly give a context, a minute or two, J.G. Whitfield’s founding, when Maurice Templeton came in, just to discuss the history up to the point you joined for those people who have heard the name, maybe even subscribed, but don’t know the early days?
Danny Jones
May of 1969 was the very first issue. J.G. Whitfield, who was a leading concert promoter at the time, had been given the idea by J.D. Sumner. And the purpose of the Singing News at the time was to promote concerts, and that was the main driving factor of Singing News. So Mr. Whitfield got some other promoters of that time together. They all submitted their mailing lists and all their information about their upcoming concerts. May of 1969 rolls around, the first issue rolls off the press, it’s put in the mailing system – which, by the way, it took three attempts to get that first issue into the mailing system because of various rules and regulations and a complete and total misunderstanding on the part of the people at the post office and Jerry Kirksey. They both admitted it afterwards and everything, but it took three times of carrying over 100,000 newspapers back and forth from the Singing News office to the post office.
So Mr. Whitfield had the Singing News from 1969 into late 1985, and he was approached by Maurice Templeton, who had been a customer of Mr. Whitfield advertising some gospel music cruises as well as some other travel-agency-related things. And Maurice had seen the effectiveness of that advertisement because what he was wanting to give to people, or encourage people to do, well, that was the prime market for those cruises and the other trips that he had, like to the Holy Land. So Maurice was at the leadership of the magazine from about early 1986 through the end of 2005.
January 1, 2006, the ownership transferred from Maurice and the other board members of the Singing News at that time to what would go on to become Salem Media Group. And then from 2006 on into May of 2021, Salem had control of the magazine. And then in 2021, a new company called Sea Walker Media was created. It was put together by dozens of Southern Gospel industry people. Not just a big corporation somewhere or just a handful, but several, literally a couple dozen or so, of people involved in Southern Gospel music created and launched Sea Walker Media. And now Sea Walker Media, which I’m a part of, includes Singing News Magazine, Singing News TV, and Singing News Radio. Mr. Whitfield’s little newspaper, as he called it, to promote concerts has now gone into a whole new world, not only with those three entities, but also a huge social media presence.
Daniel J. Mount
So you came in as managing editor after Deana Surles, later Deana Surles Warren, moved on. What did the managing editor do in the early days? What were your responsibilities?
Danny Jones
Well, there’s two ways to answer that. The technically correct answer is I was to oversee the majority of the articles that went into the magazine. I was responsible for coordinating with the different writers of the magazine, making sure they got their articles in on time, doing some literal editing of those things, sometimes for content, sometimes just for sheer grammar issues. Basically, almost like an English teacher. Anything that an English teacher would do, I would wind up doing within the magazine. And then there were some PR responsibilities as well.
Now that’s the technical side. The real thing that actually was on my employment contract was a one-liner from Jerry Kirksey that said, “Whatever we need done.” So that was probably the more accurate statement of the two. But from managing editor, I went into editor, and then from editor to editor in chief when Jerry retired. And then from editor in chief I went to publisher for a little while, and then on into vice president.
Daniel J. Mount
This is something I’m curious about. You know, well, for context, the generation, whenever we come in to Southern Gospel, the generation we come up with, the people who are our age are often some of our best friends in the industry, and then the people who come after us in a similar way. But it’s a little different when we’re talking to somebody who’s been a legend for 30 or 40 or 50 years before we ever came in. So I’m curious, year one, had you already been involved in the music enough to kind of know everybody? Or was there anybody you talked to in those early days that made you just a little bit nervous to talk to because they’d been a legend for so long?
Danny Jones
I think the answer is both. Okay? Because of being involved in it so early, I was around a lot of these folks literally as I was growing up. For example, I can remember being around the Lewis Family when I was six years old. And I’m not talking about just at a concert. I’m talking about running into them in a store because our town where I lived was not that far from where they lived, so we would run into each other frequently.
So you had that. And then in terms of the legends that may have been a little bit intimidating, I don’t know that anybody really made me so nervous that I could not talk to them. I may have been a little more reserved than I was later, but I remember the first time I met people such as J.D. Sumner, Jake Hess, Hovie Lister, Wendy Bagwell, Les Beasley, all of those characters. I can remember my first real conversation with those people. And I will tell you this, every one of them, every single one of them, were gracious. They answered all of my questions. They did not rush me away, you know, “Get away from the table, kid,” or anything like that. They all took their time with me. And, you know, that’s something that you can’t put a price tag on.
So I’m very grateful to have been able to grow up in that era where there were still a lot of the people that we view as legends who were still in their prime, still doing a lot of concerts, things of that nature. And then when you start looking at the people of today, the Gerald Wolfes of gospel music, well, we all basically grew up around each other. I mean, I can recall playing backstage with some of the very people you see in groups today, and we were just running around in our T-shirts and blue jeans while our relatives and friends were on stage doing their thing.
So a lot of the people in gospel music today are not just people that I would consider business associates. Well, they’re friends from way back. And a lot of us have made the comment that we don’t view each other as group members or people in the business or anything. You know, “I remember him, we went down to Sonic,” things like that. It has a very different feel now as compared to back then simply because we have so many people in the same age bracket, probably actually more than ever before.
Southern Gospel went through a very big generational change with the passing of people such as Hovie and Rex, and then there was a gap. And that gap now has brought us to the days of Mark Trammell, Greater Vision, you know, that era right there. I’m using them because they’re easy to remember and put a timestamp on. That’s where we are now. And we will probably have another generational gap after this generation has retired or moved on. There’ll be a little bit of a lag again, and then you’ll have a new set.
Daniel J. Mount
Exactly. Now, several things you said in there about how these are people you grew up with and have been lifelong friends, that ties into something that everybody talks about when they talk about you. And that is how Singing News can only put one artist on the cover each issue. And there can only be one number one hit at the top of the charts each issue, and each fan award per category, per year, there’s only one winner. And besides the cover, there’s only so many pages. You can only do so many stories and talk about so much of what’s going on every month.
And for a lot of people, that could be a cause for jealousy and frustration that they’re not on the cover more than somebody else and whatever. But you’ve been able to bridge that gap and be everybody’s biggest cheerleader, and everybody knows you are and loves you.
Did that come naturally to you from growing up in this, or was this something you had to intentionally work at, your approach and how you talk to people and how you work with people, to avoid frustrations that somebody else was on the cover last month?
Danny Jones
I think the best way to respond to that is by saying it is an example of God’s grace. You’re exactly right in what you just said. With only 12 covers a year, you can only do so much. And one of the biggest frustrations that myself, Rick Francis, and other people on the staff have is, okay, we’ve only got 12 covers. What do we do with those 12 covers? Because, you know, you’ve got a group that’s got a special anniversary coming up. You’ve got a group that’s got a really great new album that’s going to be the signature album of them all for that group. You’ve got such-and-such artist over here who’s had a big success in something.
You wind up juggling so much that it becomes almost a nightmare for us, just trying to spread it all out, because you’ve got all these different groups, all of whom are doing great things and need to be recognized. You’ve got all of these entities, record companies and such. Well, they’re pushing hard for their artists. I mean, that is just part of it. You know, they’ve got to promote and do things on behalf of their artists. So, you know, we get it from that angle too. We hear from a lot of people throughout the year, “Hey, such-and-such would be a great cover.” And 9.5 times out of 10, they are 100 percent correct. It would be a great cover. The problem is we only have 12.
And you also look at things like when an artist starts reaching retirement age, and you know that the next year or so is probably going to be their final year. Well, you’d like to do something nice for them as well. There’s another element that goes into it. So it can be a little bit of a land mine sometimes. That’s why we also use the conversation feature as a way to counterbalance the lack of more than 12 covers. So it can be very challenging.
As far as the charts, fortunately we just report what we’re given.
Daniel J. Mount
Exactly.
Danny Jones
All the individual charts come in from the radio stations out there, and they’re all fed into a computer, tallied up. And what comes up is what goes into different positions. Fan awards, same way. We don’t nominate anybody. As a matter of fact, that’s why I do not have a personal subscription to the magazine, so I can never, never cast a vote and be the deciding factor. So again, once the computer spits out the results, that’s what we go with.
And one of our biggest challenges every year is how do you cram 20 or 21 categories in a two-hour program at the National Quartet Convention? Well, it is a challenge. And unfortunately, that limits the thank-you speeches sometimes. It also curtails the number of songs that can be performed, all those different factors. So we try to make it as entertaining as possible. And that’s where we rely on people such as Michael Booth, Jeff Easter, a lot of the other folks that you see hosting – Tim Lovelace, Karen Peck, Lauren Talley, the list goes on and on. It’s those folks who really pull it off.
Rick, myself, Scott, you know, we give them a guideline. We do not give them a script. We just say at 20 minutes past the hour you need to be at this point. Look over my way occasionally. I’ll tell you if we’re running ahead or running behind. Once that program starts, it’s in the hosts’ hands, and we just hang on for the ride, to be honest with you.
Daniel J. Mount
Neat. You know what? I have a couple more questions about the magazine, memorable issues, that kind of thing. But while we’re talking about the Fan Awards, I have a couple of questions there, so let’s just talk about that while we’re there.
I don’t want you to feel any pressure to share anything you’re not comfortable about sharing, but within what you’re comfortable about sharing, I’m just curious what the process looks like when you have a conversation of: It’s time to bring this new award category in. Like, we had favorite songwriter for decades, and then at one point you did favorite non-artist songwriter for a couple of years to give some of those songwriters who write many of the songs in the charts. I get why it happened. I’m just curious what the conversation looks like when you’re like, this is the new award we should bring in this year.
Danny Jones
Well, the conversation generally is born with this thought: What can we do to strengthen the program? We know that we do have four or five award categories that are in the back of our minds. The biggest problem is trying to find a place to put it within the program because, you know, we don’t really want to split up the fan awards and make it a two-nighter or present certain awards at a different location. We really don’t want to do that. We feel like it’s best being all together, one cohesive program, because you don’t want to give anybody the impression that you’re slighting them, that their award does not mean as much as the ones on the main stage, for example.
So we do have a few categories that we would like to try at some point. But what we do is we pay very close attention to the ballots, the nominating ballots, when they come in. You know, that is a totally blank ballot. It lists only the category, gives you a line to put in the person that you want to nominate. And we watch and see how many of each category is actually voted upon, you know, in that nominating thing. And if you were to happen to see a category that for some reason very few nominations were coming in, that would tell us that, okay, this one might be one to consider for dropping.
But at the same time, they’ve been a part of the program and they’ve come to be expected. And we’re a little bit trapped, to be honest with you. Over time, the core of the program, what you’re seeing now, those 20 or 21 categories, those are the ones who have stood the test of time. This past year we did add one category, another DJ category, because without DJs, this music is in serious trouble. And there are so many different methods now of playing gospel music, either as a syndicated program or a standalone radio station. So that’s the conversation.
Daniel J. Mount
Now I want to preface this next question by saying I’m not asking you to name favorites, favorite people getting an award, anything like that. This is more about stories.
What are some of the most memorable fan awards moments that stand out to you that you’ve been part of, whether it’s a funny moment, a moving moment, an award that was really meaningful to the person who received it?
I’m not asking you to pick favorite winners. That’s not a fair question to ask you. This is just memorable stories. What stories really stand out?
Danny Jones
Well, there’s several. Because of my involvement with the Fan Awards, a lot of times I’m the one who crafts the structure of the program. Sometimes I do it by myself. Sometimes I work in conjunction with Rick Francis and some other folks there at the magazine. I’ll help secure the hosts, the different presenters, that kind of thing. And I remember a couple times two hosts that I paired together created probably one of the most magical moments, or one of the most emotional moments ever on the Fan Award stage. It was the year that Brian Free and Tracy Stuffle presented Favorite Female Singer, or Favorite Alto. I think it was.
Daniel J. Mount
It was 2005. Whether it was female singer or alto, it was 2005. That was top of the list. If you didn’t bring it up, I was going to ask you about that moment.
Danny Jones
You know, obviously because of what I do, I have just a little bit of advanced knowledge on the winners. Once we get the results back and they’re all certified by all the folks, you know, I do see the winners most of the time. On that particular year, I had already paired Tracy and Brian simply because bass and tenor. That was my whole thought going into that. But right before the program, I called Brian off to the side and I said, “When you get the winner’s envelope, let Tracy read it.” And he looked at me and he said, “Okay. Any certain reason?” I said, “No, just let Tracy read it.”
Now Brian’s a sharp fellow. He already knew because he knew what awards were being presented during his segment. So he put two and two together pretty quickly. But that turned out to be an incredible moment. Tracy had zero idea that that was coming.
Daniel J. Mount
It’s obvious, to look at the reaction on his face, that he did not.
Danny Jones
And considering what happened with Tracy later and ultimately his passing, I’m glad I had the forethought to do that because that created such a special moment, not only for he and Libby, but for everyone who was there.
Other moments – any time I paired Darrell Stewart and Roger Bennett as presenters, it was nerve-racking because I had no idea where either one of them were going to go. I knew the fans would get a great program out of it. So we paired them with time. There’s an interesting moment by the – there is a clip of Darrell and Roger presenting, I think they were presenting Favorite Baritone at this particular point, and they’re up there. In fact, this is the clip that’s floating around the internet probably more than any other Fan Award clip. And there is one shot in that segment where you see Roger turn around and look into the pit around the stage there at the Fan Awards. And if you read his lips very carefully, he says, “I’m going to kill you.” He was talking to me because Darrell was in his best form that particular night. And it was one zinger after another.
You know, Roger and Darrell were great friends, but even Roger told me later, he said, “Okay, I almost couldn’t handle Darrell. He had me…” And he didn’t mean it in a bad way. He was just saying, okay, he one-upped me every time. But you know, those kind of moments, those are what enable the fans to win. They have a great time. They get away from their problems for a couple hours. They get to sit back and enjoy and laugh and have a good time. And that was really my goal of pairing those two, because I knew the fans would win. So those, anytime with Darrell and Roger, that was a big moment.
We’ve also had some special individual moments with different categories along the way. To name them all, we could sit here all night. But I think one of the other biggest moments that I recall was actually just a couple years ago when we presented a lifetime achievement award to Ray Dean Reese. By then, Ray had basically quit touring with the Kingsmen. His health was not the greatest. He was having difficulty walking, and he still wanted to be at Quartet Convention, and he was. And I had to ask Brandon, his son, “How’s he doing this week?” because I knew what we were going to do. And he said, “Right now he’s doing pretty good.” I said, “Do you think he’d want to get on stage and help present an award?” And he said, “Well, maybe. We’ll just have to see when we get to that point.”
So during the Fan Awards program, Brandon and Ray came walking in and sat down on the front row, and I had an opportunity to sneak by Brandon. I said, “Is he up to it?” He said, “Yeah, I think so.” Well, we called Ray to the stage to receive that. He didn’t know it was coming. Brandon didn’t know it was coming either. So it was a really precious time to do that. And by the way, I did get Ray to help present the award for Favorite Southern Gospel Artist right then. So that was pretty cool to be able to do that.
Daniel J. Mount
One question ahead of how you navigated a situation that could have been confusing for fans, but ultimately I think ended up being really cool, was I think it was 2006, the year Inspirations, I think, and Signature Sound tied for, I believe it was quartet of the year, Favorite Quartet. How did you navigate that situation, or did you just let it play out as it happened?
Danny Jones
When you know, in ties, even though it’s only happened once, there have been several near misses. And sometimes these categories, the difference between, you know, the winner and say whoever would be number five, just to throw out a number, sometimes the difference is not that big. I think sometimes people would be a little bit surprised how close some of these categories actually are. So we knew at some point it might happen because we had seen a few near misses. So to us, when it actually happened, well, we said it would happen one day.
And there’s all kinds of scenarios that run through your mind at something like that. But the right thing to do was to share the award.
Daniel J. Mount
Yeah, that was really cool.
One other thing I’ve just noticed, it’s really interesting to listen to the audience reaction as the top five are read out. And sometimes there’s almost this pent-up enthusiasm of cheers. It feels like for somebody who is really doing great, they have some strong songs, but the voters might not have quite caught up to that yet. And then it’s almost – catharsis is maybe too fancy a word for this context – but then the reaction when they actually win the award. Like the Inspirations for a couple years, and the Young Inspirations were really taking off. In 2023, the level of enthusiasm when their names are called in the nominations, and then I think it’s 2024 they start winning everything. Is that something that stands out and is obvious to you as you’re listening there, like the audience is feeling it’s about their time the year before? Is that something that comes through in the recording, or is it something that just seems to me?
Danny Jones
It varies. I think what you’re dealing with is the natural tendency of someone who would like to see something different. You know, just see a change.
And, you know, it’s the fan awards. We’ve often looked at things like, all right, we set a time limit. You can only win an award X number of times. Or if you win an award this year, you gotta sit out next year. Well, here’s the problem with that. Those are not bad theories, but here’s the problem with that. If you start dictating that a person can’t win for a reason that they’ve already won it, are you really having a fan awards at that point?
And we have seriously considered adjusting things like I just told you. But at the end of the day, it’s a fan award and the fans get to choose. I think what you see in instances like that is, one, people do like changes in award shows. Two, their enthusiasm level naturally starts declining a little bit. And that’s usually in the part of the program where I say, “Jeff Easter, go out there and help us.”
Daniel J. Mount
Nice!
This is kind of a pivot back into talking about the magazine. So with the Norcross Award and then later the Norcross-Templeton Lifetime Achievement Award, those are two people I never got the chance to meet, Marvin Norcross nor Maurice Templeton. Although I overlapped enough Quartet Conventions with Maurice that I would have thought I did, but I don’t think I ever actually met him.
But you and the rest of the Singing News team must have held these two men in high regard to name your lifetime achievement award for them. Would you mind sharing a story or a couple stories of your experiences with them, or other people’s, that just illustrate the kind of people they were and why they were the two people that for years Singing News chose to name the lifetime achievement award after?
Danny Jones
Well, let me back into that. Originally it was the Marvin Norcross Award. Yes. And that was given the name – Maurice Templeton and Jerry Kirksey named that award in honor and memory of Mr. Norcross. Marvin Norcross was an incredibly brilliant man, not only in terms of producing records, knowing what worked for a particular artist with an audience, all of that, but he was incredibly sharp just in sheer terms of business. And he was a great man of integrity. You know, his word was much stronger than any contract you could put on paper. If Marvin said he or Canaan Records was going to do something, it got done. No questions about it. It happened.
And Marvin was also a big leader in his community. You know, obviously he was involved in his home church, but he was also involved in the local Little League baseball teams, not just individual teams but the entire league. In fact, there is a field there in Texas named after him. And everything that Marvin touched, he touched with integrity, he touched with grace, he touched with humility. And he was just the kind of person that you feel like you need to aspire to be. Just a very, very gracious and good person.
Unfortunately, he passed away in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1980 while he was working on an album for Governor Jimmy Davis. In true Marvin Norcross form, I don’t know that he would have been any happier. If he could have chosen his way to leave this world, I think it probably would have been in the recording studio. So even though he passed away at a hotel between two days of recording, just knowing that he was at a recording during his final hours, that would have made him very happy.
Years later, when Salem Media Group owned Singing News, the leadership of Salem decided to rename that award and tag Maurice Templeton to it. So you had the Norcross-Templeton Award. In a lot of ways, Maurice was a modern-day Marvin Norcross. Yes, he was involved in a lot of different things, but Maurice never was involved in the recording process other than when he had his own group, the Eleventh Hour Singers, way back long before Singing News. But they had a lot of the same characteristics otherwise. And Jim Cumbee, I believe, and a couple other people involved in Salem Media at the time felt it appropriate to rename that award.
Daniel J. Mount
Neat. All right. You’ve put out a lot of issues of Singing News through the years, and I’m curious if any issues really stand out in your memory above the rest as either being an especially special issue, perhaps commemorating somebody’s career, whatever it might be, or an especially challenging issue for technical reasons or other reasons to get to the finish line.
Danny Jones
One of the ones that really stands out was the September 1999 magazine cover that had the Cathedrals on it. It was their farewell. And that was the single biggest-selling issue ever of Singing News Magazine. That’s outside of subscriptions. That is just pure individual copies being sold. At convention that year, we literally could not keep them. They just went that quickly. Everybody wanted that final one. That was a big one. That was very memorable.
There was another issue way back, and it was right before I got there. I don’t recall which month. Actually, I was there. I had just gotten there. There was one issue that we sent to the printer, and if you’ll notice on the bottom of every page, it says Singing News or SingingNews.com, something like that. Well, back then it said Singing News on one side. Well, somehow or another, during the proofing process, we did not realize that someone had forgotten one of the two G’s in the word Singing.
Daniel J. Mount
Oh no!
Danny Jones
Yep. So we sent to the printer an issue that had Sining News on the bottom on one page. Now, fortunately, someone at the printer happened to do a random check right off the press, flipped through it, happened to land on that page, and saw it. Well, immediately the presses stopped and they made a call and said, “You might want to redo this one.” So we sent up a new file that had all the G’s in it. But here’s what really happened that we’re still perplexed about today. According to them, according to the printer at the time, about a hundred copies or so of that issue had been printed with Sining News on that page.
We think those issues actually got mailed. No one to this day has ever returned one except for one. There was one copy that made it back to us. The rest of them, we have no idea where they are at. And so if you happen to have one of those issues that has Sining News on the left-hand page, you’ve got something really rare. So that was one memorable thing. I’m just glad it got caught early in the production run.
We’ve also had several issues that featured a tribute to someone after they had passed. Those were always very special. They were also sometimes very, very difficult to pull together. I remember the issue with Glenn Payne announcing his passing in October of 1999. That would have been the December issue, I think, by then. The magazine was literally at the printer when Roger Bennett called and said that Glenn had passed. So we quickly made another page announcing that, sent it to the printers, and got it inserted in time to go out on that issue. The following issue, we did a proper tribute to Glenn, but I remember that one because we had about 20 minutes to turn that around.
As far as other personal issues, I’ve been involved in a little over 700 issues now. They’re all – trying to pick one a lot of times is like trying to pick your favorite child. They’ve all got their issues, their little quirks, things of that nature. And there have been a couple issues that we almost made a deal with God: if we can just get this thing out the door, we will never ask for anything ever again.
Daniel J. Mount
Okay, here’s a fun one. Back when I was blogging, I had a PO box and I got a few crazy things, but my favorite was 15-plus years after the Cathedrals had retired, somebody addressed a padded envelope to the Cathedrals at my PO box. Cover letter, how closely they followed the Cathedrals, how much they loved them, and here’s some songs I wish you’d consider recording. And they’d been retired for 15 years! They must’ve Googled the Cathedrals and seen a story I did about them and, okay, that’s their PO box, you know, contact page. Do you have any funny memories of something you got submitted in the mail over the years?
Danny Jones
Well, we’ve gotten several song demos just like that. “Can you pass this along to so-and-so? Can you do this? Can you do that?” We get a lot of that. We also get a lot of fan photos, people taking pictures with their favorite artists. And what’s interesting sometimes is every now and then you’ll get someone, and this is me and my close friend, Glenn Younce.cSo every now and then that does happen. That’s always good for a smile.
But every now and then we would get a coupon, for example, for a discounted rate on a subscription. Now, I don’t mean like a coupon from three months ago or a subscription offer from three months ago. I’m talking about a coupon from 1973. They found it in a newspaper version, clipped it out, and sent it to us with a check made out for that amount. And when we got our first one like that, that’s when we realized we need to put an expiration date on these coupons or the subscription blanks in the magazine. Because if you don’t have an expiration date, you have to honor it. So we had to honor a few before we wised up and put an expiration date on the offer.
But I think the song demos, the outdated subscription cards, those were probably the things that stand out the most. Every now and then there is one other thing. This happened when I was at Singing News in Boone back in those days. We got a large package, probably the equivalent of an 8 1/2 by 11 envelope, and it came in and it was real bulky. And when you try to feel what it was before you opened it, it’s like we couldn’t figure out what it was at all. Finally, Jerry took a knife and very carefully opened it because we had no idea what this was. Well, it turns out that a group had left one of their audio cables at a church. And that church, instead of contacting the group or whatever, they thought, if we get it to Singing News, they will get it to the group.
Daniel J. Mount
That’s a good one!
Danny Jones
We’ve done a few things like that.
Daniel J. Mount
That’s cool! So before I move on from Singing News into a couple other aspects, one thing I wanted to loop back to that we talked about briefly: the transition to Sea Walker Media taking over Singing News. And well, one thing you mentioned specifically was that a lot of industry people were involved in that. And that makes perfect sense because Singing News means so much more to the industry than just the print magazine. The print magazine matters, the charts matter, the fan awards matter, Singing News TV matters.
Can you share a little bit about the efforts that were made to make that transition happen and keep Singing News going? I’m not asking you to say anything private, just whatever you’re comfortable sharing of the efforts that were made to keep Singing News going in that time period.
Danny Jones
Well, what was happening over time is Singing News was a very small piece of the media giant called Salem Media. And if you wanted to put it in terms of sheer numbers, we represented a single-digit value of Salem’s entire business. Salem Media was built upon contemporary Christian music, talk radio, things of that nature, and they excelled at it. So Singing News was just a little blip on their radar. They, you know, we had a good relationship. They were always great to me, for example, but it was not their specialty.
So in early 2020 or so, there was talk beginning to circulate that maybe it was time for Salem to do something different, not just with Singing News but a lot of other things. And at the same time, there were some people who were interested, if Singing News ever became available for whatever reason, and they would like to have an opportunity to be involved in a new venture.
Fast-forward a little bit to late 2020. Some individuals were talking one day at lunch and they realized that what this individual wanted to do, and this individual wanted to do, and this individual wanted to do, and this individual over here wanted to do, all could be grouped together under a new company that would specialize in Southern Gospel media, whether it be radio, whether it be TV, whether it be print, social media, what have you.
All right, remember what I just said about Salem. At the time of that potential creation of a new entity, Singing News became available. And then it was a case of those people who were looking to do something and that magazine being available coming together. A board of directors was established. It was a set of investors, several investors, and they were all involved to some degree with Southern Gospel music.
So everything finalized in the spring of 2021. It was actually announced at Singing in the Sun in April of 2021. That’s when the official announcement was made. And that was a very interesting day because earlier that day, I was in Myrtle Beach at the same time, and Rick Francis was on an airplane on his way to Myrtle Beach. And about the time that he was safely in the air around 30,000 feet or whatever, and I was between different functions at Singing in the Sun, that is when a Zoom meeting was held to inform that there had been a change. Rick and I did have some advance notice because of what we do, but that was the first time the employees of Singing News and other elements of Salem found out about the new ownership.
So we went on stage that night with Salem’s blessing, shared with the audience that there would be a change, and it just kind of went from there.
Daniel J. Mount
I also wanted to ask you a question about the Memphis Quartet Show. Do you know, because you were part of the founding of that event, as far as in my understanding, do you know if the initial idea came from let’s do an all-quartet show, or let’s make a major Southern Gospel event in Memphis specifically, then the quartet focus came later?
Danny Jones
Well, Stewart Varnado, who was a longtime pianist of the Dixie Echoes, he is the one who originated the idea. And then he approached Duane Garren, Scoot Shelnut of the Dixie Echoes, Greg Inman, who is Clayton Inman’s brother, Jimmy Blackwood, and myself, and said, “Here’s an idea I’ve got. Would you be interested in trying this?” His concept was let’s have the J.D. Sumner Memorial Concert.
That was originally what was going to take place, and it would be held in Memphis because of J.D.’s long association with Memphis and the fact that a lot of people recognize Memphis as the original home of the National Quartet Convention, which it was. But also there was such a rich heritage of quartet music in Memphis, i.e., the Blackwood Brothers and so forth.
Long story short, branding an event as the J.D. Sumner program just did not work for various reasons, none of which were troubling, but logistically it just did not happen. So the idea went from a J.D. memorial event featuring quartets, which was J.D.’s favorite thing, into, all right, we’ll have a quartet program named after the city in which it’s held. So that’s how that happened.
And then once the first one took place, the response was tremendous. People liked the format because it was so different from a lot of the other concerts and because of that natural tie to Memphis quartets, Memphis. It just had all the ingredients to be a special event. It was not designed to take over another event. It was not designed to compete with another event. As a matter of fact, one of the biggest struggles we had the entire time was trying to find a weekend when the event did not step on another promoter. And that caused a little bit of a headache, just trying to find the right weekend to do that.
But that’s how the Quartet Show really came to be. It started out as a memorial thing for J.D., morphed into the Quartet Show, got labeled as Memphis. And we had a tremendous crowd that first year. Most all of the leading quartets in gospel music were on there, plus some fresh faces from the quartet world. And then every year it morphed into a more fine-tuned event. It featured longer sets by fewer artists, tried to come up with some matinee programs that were different. We had the very first ever Booth Brothers quartet program, little things like that. We tried to throw in something different on the matinees just to give people a break from quartet after quartet.
But what we found out was this, and it caught us all by surprise, really. We knew there was a genuine love for quartet singing. You know, it has been for years. James D. Vaughan, his first group that he put on the road was a quartet. But I think even all of us somewhat underestimated how many people were still so passionate about quartet singing. We felt that the response would be good, and it was. And it was.
All of us enjoy other styles of gospel music, trios, family groups, all of that. There’s a place for all of them, but there was a certain magic in having a quartet event in Memphis. And here it is, you know, 13, 14 years later, and it’s still going strong, even though the original board members of the Memphis Quartet Show, all but two, there are two originals left on the board. And the rest of us have moved on to different things. But we’ve all said the same thing, that if we ever wanted to get back into promoting the event, we’d probably all wind up right back there in Memphis.
It’s a neat thing. It’s a great way to spend four days if you like quartet singing. And I think now that you may have noticed that there has been a little change in how it’s presented, it’s now called the Quartet Show. And that move, I think, is a great idea because it just talks about what you’ll see there: quartets. And everybody knows it’s in Memphis now. So call it the Quartet Show.
Daniel J. Mount
That sounds good.
I probably shouldn’t have put this question near the end, but I’d like to ask the question that prompted the idea of, “I should reach out to Danny Jones.” And that is, I saw a recent post on Facebook from Jonathan Wilburn. He was encouraging people to sign up for Singing News TV, but he was talking about how the success of Singing News TV was going to help the future of the genre. And so I’d love to talk about that, the vision for Singing News TV in a world where there’s an abundance of low-quality live streams on YouTube and Facebook that don’t pay artists anything. And I think it might help fans just to hear the vision behind Singing News TV.
Danny Jones
Well, the vision of Singing News TV really started with Scott Godsey, but it was quickly shared with several others in Sea Walker Media. The whole idea behind Singing News TV is to do this, is to present Southern Gospel music, whether it’s a quartet, family group, trio, soloist, duet, whatever, to present Southern Gospel music at a very high quality, the best quality that we can get.
There is also a desire to do it properly because we have seen programs that have not always presented gospel music in its best light. So we wanted to do something that truly put this music out in front of other people in a high-quality way.
Everybody who has been around gospel music for even just a short time has heard the term “Gospel Singing Jubilee.” Even though it was a product of the late ’60s through the early ’80s, the effect of that program is still being felt today because some of those people who were on those early programs are still on stages today. And every night, you can almost guarantee, “I used to watch you on the ‘Gospel Singing Jubilee,'” or “My parents saw you on ‘Gospel Singing Jubilee,'” or whatever, you know, some variation of that. TV is powerful.
And now that the world has gone into such a digital age, the concept of TV coming in by rabbit ears or something like that, that’s almost gone. So everything is apparently edging, sometimes screaming and kicking, toward streaming. And that’s how Singing News TV became a stream-based venture. It was simply the desire to present Southern Gospel music 24 hours a day, seven days a week, giving people the option to pick and choose what they wanted to watch. You know, we like to make this statement that Singing News TV is a little bit – you can say it’s Netflix gone Southern Gospel – because you have the ability to, “Well, I want to see that concert,” or “I want to see this interview,” or something like that.
It’s been challenging because there was really nothing before it to give us a roadmap. Also too, when you start considering the number of songs that are on there, there is a tremendous amount of royalties that are owed to the publishers and so forth. You know, it keeps our accountant busy taking care of those quarterly statements and, you know, making sure that everybody’s properly paid and things of that nature. But it’s all being done to keep this music alive, keep it in front of people. You know, we firmly believe that gospel music is in front of more people than ever before, thanks to social media, thanks to traditional radio, whatever. But never before has Southern Gospel music been so accessible around the world, not just here in our own little corner, but everywhere.
Several artists today, they will tell you, “Well, we get email from such-and-such country,” or things like that. And that’s just proof that the music is out there. We wanted to be able to not only let people listen to the music, we wanted them to see their favorite artists. We wanted them to see their favorite artists at a certain event.
And here’s what we found out. A lot of times if a program shows an artist, say at Myrtle Beach, Singing in the Sun, singing there, well, you know what? Those folks who saw it on Singing News TV one year looked at everything going on there and said, “You know, I’d like to go there one time.” Well, next year, instead of watching it on TV, they were in the audience. That type of thing happens very, very frequently.
So not only is it a way to promote the music and the artists, also to help promote events when possible, and also it’s a way to help introduce some new faces to gospel music. You’ll find legends on there, but you’ll also find some new faces. So the whole driving idea behind Singing News TV is very simple: keep Southern Gospel music alive and in front of people.
Daniel J. Mount
Neat!
And I think it’s helpful for fans to hear one detail that you just mentioned, and that is when we’re watching a live stream on Facebook or YouTube, the songwriters are almost never getting – I don’t want to say never – but almost never getting paid, as I would understand it. But when we pay, not only are we getting high-quality live streams, but the money is also filtering back to people to help keep making this music. And I think that’s a good component.
And it’s a blessing for somebody like me in northern Ohio, where many groups don’t come up to northern Ohio all that often, to have something high-quality to watch.
Danny Jones
Right. And then also, too, we have discovered that Singing News TV has been a real blessing to people who are unable to get to concerts, whether it’s distance or whether they physically can’t get there because of being confined to a hospital or a nursing home or something like that. And that’s an unexpected blessing. It thrills us to know that someone has a chance to listen to their favorite music again, even though they can’t attend in person.
We’re just very grateful that God has allowed us that opportunity. We’ve got several things planned for Singing News TV. We’ve got some new events warming up in the bullpen, as they say. So you’ll be hearing more about them down the road. But we just want to encourage people that however you support Southern Gospel music, do it. Support it. Attend when you can, you know, and support the artist. It’s a ministry. I mean, yes, there’s a lot of entertainment involved. There is. But it’s also a ministry. Music a lot of times softens the heart for the Word to come through, a message or a sermon. It all works hand in hand, and we’re just trying to do our part.
Daniel J. Mount
Neat. And when it comes to doing your part, you and the rest of the Singing News team, but I’m speaking, I guess, to you specifically in this conversation, have poured a lot in, in so many different ways, invested not just into the magazine but in Southern Gospel in so many different ways through the years.
What’s kept you going in the rough times?
Danny Jones
That’s a great question.
I think a lot of it is this. It’s part of me because I was around it at such an early age. I’m not sure how to function without having a Southern Gospel element in my life. I’ll be honest, I’ve considered doing other things more than once, but at the same time, I’ve never been released by God to go do that. Now, that may happen tomorrow, you never know. But right now, He’s got me here for a reason, and until He says move, I better stay put.
But what keeps us going is when we hear the stories like I alluded to a moment ago. Someone is able to hear their music again but they can’t go, like a traditional concertgoer. Someone’s life being touched by something Connie Hopper wrote in the magazine or one of the other writers. Things like that make the editing, the rewrites, the “I can’t believe we can’t find that picture” moments, that kind of thing, they make them all worthwhile because we live in a day and time when encouragement is not always easy to find.
So if we can encourage someone along the way, make them smile, make them forget their issues, or maybe recall a childhood memory that gives them comfort because their grandmother sang “Jesus Loves Me” to them at nap time, whatever it may be, if we’re able to do that, then we all rest fairly easily at night.
Daniel J. Mount
Nice! Okay, last question. What do you hope Southern Gospel looks like 25 years from now? And what do the fans and artists and everybody working behind the scenes need to do to get us there?
Danny Jones
I hope what you see is a lot of what I have seen along the way. There is a tremendous amount of cooperation between groups that the audience really never sees because you go to the traditional concert and group A gets up and sings 30 minutes, groups B and C follow.
What you don’t see a lot of times is things like this. Group A has a baritone vocalist who barely can talk, has laryngitis, but he’s still there. What you don’t always see is somebody from group C backstage with a microphone singing that part for that guy in group A. Not because they had to, not because someone said, all right, you got to go do this. I know it’s because they wanted to help. That type of cooperation… I cannot tell you the number of stories behind the scenes of how one group would make another group’s bus payment because their dates, for whatever reason, had canceled suddenly. There is so much like that that goes on that people never, ever know. Never.
I hope that as Southern Gospel music goes on into the future, that type of thing continues. I hope we see more of the trend that we see now. If you really think about it, our talent level, the talent pool that Southern Gospel music has right now is so full that it’s about to overflow. We’ve got some of the very best singers. We’ve got some of the very best musicians. There are so many great artists right now that it’s almost hard to describe them all. I hope that continues.
I also hope that we see more young people want to be involved in gospel music. There is a long list of young people involved in this music right now, and I hope that list continues to grow, and I think it will grow. Musically and stylistically, I hope this industry, or Southern Gospel music in general, never forgets what opened the doors for these groups. But at the same time, they are able to present their songs and their messages in a way that goes straight to the heart of the listener of today.
You know, sometimes a good pastor, for example, will tell you, I may be able to reach this person by saying this, but the pastor next door, he can’t use that, he can’t say it and get through, but he can say this and it works. Same thing applies to gospel groups. Not everything works for everybody. Once everybody finds what works for them, may they continue to use it. Hopefully God will bless it. And between everybody involved, Southern Gospel music can keep going.
Daniel J. Mount
Thank you. That’s well said. And I also want to thank you for the example you’ve set through the years for me and for everyone else who writes about Southern Gospel, talks about Southern Gospel. It’s not just the words you say, but how you approach it, how you cheer everybody on and help foster the culture that makes Southern Gospel as special as it is. Thank you.
Danny Jones
I appreciate you saying that. I just, you know, at the end of the day, I’m just being me. What you see is what you get. My stage persona is way different than offstage. I’m a lot more chatty and animated onstage than I am in real life. You know, my wife sometimes accuses me of, “Do I need to check your pulse? You okay over there?” But that’s my dad coming out in me. Very reserved, very quiet, but at the same time could talk to a phone book.
I had a lot of good teachers – Glenn Payne, Eldridge Fox, Les Beasley, and a few others. They invested in me in a big way. They took me off to the side and said, “I don’t think I would say that again onstage. Say it this way.” Yeah, they would take me aside and say, “Okay, if you want to do this, you need to do this first.” They were overwhelmingly willing to share their knowledge, their insight, their wisdom.
And even today, you know, this sounds simple and some people will laugh at it, but I find myself doing so many things that Foxy told me to do, Glenn Payne told me to do, that sometimes I wonder how I would have made it without their advice. And something as simple as, you’ve gone through this yourself, sometimes you get a shirt, a long-sleeve shirt, that no matter what you do, the sleeve just keeps coming down on your hand and that kind of stuff, even though it’s supposed to be a certain size. Something as simple as this: Glenn Payne saw me onstage one night somewhere, constantly fighting my sleeves. I come off the stage, he said, “Come here. I’m gonna give you a rubber band.” And what he did, he just showed me how to take that rubber band, wrap it around my arm, and voila, magic sleeve holder.
Okay, now that’s something simple, but what a difference it made onstage. No playing with your sleeve. The cuff is always at a certain place. It’s little things like that that you would miss had someone not taken the time to say, “Hey, come here, let me show you.” And I find myself doing that a lot. Pat Barker and I were talking about this probably two or three weeks ago about something, and we both realized, wait a minute, somebody taught us that, and now we’re telling other people to do things like that.
And I think as long as we’re able to continue those conversations and carry on those traditions that we were taught, we hope that a couple more generations will benefit from people like Glenn and Rex and all those folks because they made a difference and they made this industry.
Daniel J. Mount
Well, thank you for passing those stories along, and thank you for your time. I have so enjoyed this conversation. Thank you for taking some extra time, and I hope that people who listen enjoy it just a fraction as much as I have.
Danny Jones
Well, you’re very kind. I appreciate you doing it. If anything else you need, you know where I’m at.
Daniel J. Mount
Thank you. I’d encourage anybody who’s listening, if you aren’t already, go to SingingNews.com to subscribe to the magazine, SingingNewsTV.com to check out the Singing News TV service. Anything else you’d like to promote?
Danny Jones
Well, SingingNews.com, SingingNewsTV, Singing News Radio, all things Singing News. Don’t forget our friends at the Quartet Show. Don’t forget our friends at the National Quartet Convention. Don’t forget things like Silver Dollar City as they present two weeks of Southern Gospel music, the Ark there in Kentucky, Singing in the Sun, all the major events, all the little events. Support them all.
Daniel J. Mount
Well said! And to the listener, thank you for listening to Southern Gospel Journal. Keep up with the latest episodes on YouTube, Facebook, your favorite podcast platform, or on SouthernGospelJournal.com. Thanks for listening.