Josh Singletary shares stories behind the songs on Tribute Quartet’s new album, Forever.
Show Notes
Tribute Quartet: https://www.tributequartet.com/
Forever: https://listen.daywind.com/tq_f
Transcript
Lightly edited for clarity.
Daniel Mount
Welcome to Southern Gospel Journal. My name is Daniel Mount, and I have the privilege today to be joined by Josh Singletary of Tribute Quartet. How are you doing this evening?
Josh Singletary
Wonderful. Daniel, it’s good to see you. It’s been a while since we’ve talked to each other.
Daniel Mount
It has. I’m glad to have the excuse to get back at it.
Josh Singletary
I’m sure you are. That’s awesome.
Daniel Mount
I’m going to assume that 95% of the people tuning into an album interview about your newest release will know who you are. But for those couple percent who don’t, would you mind just briefly introducing yourself?
Josh Singletary
Yeah, my name is Josh Singletary. I started in Gospel music about 25 years ago with family group called the Wilburns out of Carthage, Tennessee. When they retired, one of the fellow alumni and I started our quartet, and we’ve been doing Tribute Quartet now for 20 years. This year is the 20-year celebration, and it’s just mind-boggling. I can’t believe 20 years has gone by. That goes to show you, man, life is a vapor.
Daniel Mount
Congratulations! Life is a vapor. I was already blogging about Southern Gospel when you launched Tribute, and I remember putting up the stories discussing the launching of Tribute, the selecting of the name. So yeah, 20 years back for me too. I remember covering you back then.
Josh Singletary
Oh man, that’s just crazy. So yeah, for those who don’t know, I play the piano and sing baritone for the group and do some of the arranging and some producing here and there. Yeah, that’s mainly what I do. And then I do all the social media stuff, all the videos, all the office stuff.
Daniel Mount
Yep. Working hard!
Josh Singletary
Working hard, gotta make it happen.
Daniel Mount
So this album came out a few weeks ago. And it was almost exactly, almost to the date, three years since your last album of a new song, Always Grace, January of 2023. So has this album been in the works for a while?
Josh Singletary
Actually, no. What’s funny about that is this was – we didn’t start the process, this album, until March, April of 2026 [2025]. We do these Quartet Tribute albums. And we’ve gone back done some albums of songs recorded on other albums back in the day that we no longer carry. So we had been in the process of releasing a lot of that, and two years, three years passed, and we hadn’t even done a brand-new album.
So no, it would seem as if we had been working on it for that long, but no. It was started in March, and we realized, you know, it’s time, and we really need to come up with something brand new and something different to say for sure.
Daniel Mount
Neat! So as you go through the recording process, I’ve heard you say before, and I think even in social media for this one, you often pick an album title, not just because it’s a song title, but because as you’re putting together and recording that collection of songs, you see themes start to emerge. So what are the themes that emerged in the songs that led you to title this project Forever?
Josh Singletary
Well, we were discussing it one day. Me, Gary, and Gus were in the bus discussing. We were thinking we need to come up with a title that really sums this up. And we began to just look at it, and we began to see this thread of the character of God.
Within this album, we have songs about grace, songs about the blood, songs about who God is and what He does and how His promises are real and how He always comes through and how He never fails.
I was talking to someone the other day. Listen, I follow rabbit trails, but I always get back to it. I was talking to someone the other day about how, you know, each of us have our own issues and we struggle with those things. And lots of times we fail with those things. To not say in churchese, “fighting your own demons.” You know, put it in a secular term, those things that you struggle with on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis that you have to constantly give up and sacrifice. And we were talking about how it’s funny when people say, “That God stuff, God, it’s just a crutch.” My response to that is, “Yeah, it is a crutch. I cannot live a day without the faithfulness of God. I cannot live a week. I can’t live another second without Him near me. I have to have Him near me because if I don’t, I am like a blind man leading a blind man. I have no which way I’m going. I don’t know which way I’m going.”
I’m going to mess up everything if I don’t have Him talking right here and me talking back. It’s the relationship. And I think that that’s another thing that kept coming up with this album. How just He’s always there.
We are each friends of people, and there are times where, seasons in our lives, we’re closer with other people than other seasons, and may not be by choice. Maybe just life happens, or maybe it is by choice, maybe something happened within that relationship, and so there’s no longer that connection. That doesn’t happen with the Lord. That never happens with the Lord.
And so when we were discussing that, we were discussing these names, these words that would, and we couldn’t pinpoint it. I looked at Gus and I went, “What about forever?” He went, “Huh.” And Gary went, “Huh.” And I went…
So we decided. Ian was in bed, I think, at the time. And so we all went, Forever it is.
And then, on a side note, it was interesting how this is our twentieth year as Tribute Quartet and how that kind of sort of wordplay, with the music – the music always lasts. Good songs always last. And we’ve been very blessed with good songs. So you had that element, you know, to the title to add to that.
But it really was one of those “aha!” moments, you know.
Daniel Mount
Neat.
All right, I would love to ask about a couple of specific songs. And I think I’ll start with “And Then” – mainly because that’s the first song you released as a single prior to the album being out.
When you put it out as a single, the day it came out, I sent it to several family members and I was like, “This song is amazing. You have to listen to this song.”
And one of my sisters said, “Do you know who wrote it?” And I said, “It looks like the YouTube video doesn’t have songwriter credits, so I don’t know who wrote it. But if I had to guess, it sounds like a Lee Black song to me.”
Josh Singletary
Wonder what came that-a-way?
Daniel Mount
There’s just a certain way he crafts melodies and lyrics. And then when the [credits] came out, I was like, yeah, it was Lee. But not just Lee. Josh is writing now! So I would love to hear what prompted the idea for this song.
Josh Singletary
So I did a podcast every year. Dusty Wells and Dave Clark have me on.
Daniel Mount
And let’s shout out the name of their podcast, I Love to Tell the Story. It’s a wonderful podcast. Check it out. Yes.
Josh Singletary
Fabulous podcast. Fabulous.
So Dave always has me on the annual anniversary podcast every year. So that being said, admittedly, I don’t listen to podcasts much. If I’m listening to anything, it’s generally to a book or the Word. If, you know, if my life is just so hectic, I at least put on the Word, you know, audibly.
Daniel Mount
Mm-hmm. That’s good.
Josh Singletary
When we first discussed doing this, I said, “I assume we’re gonna talk about the guests over the last year?” And he said, “Yeah, some of your favorite moments.” And I went, “Uh-huh, okay.”
Two or three days prior, I binged because I wanted it to be fresh. I binge-listened at 2x speed, which took all of about five minutes to get used to. And then I was good to go, all of the podcasts.
And one of the guests was Geron Davis, who’s a prolific songwriter. And for those who don’t know, he wrote “Holy Ground” and “In the Presence of Jehovah.” “I’m Gonna Make It.” Beautiful song.
Daniel Mount
Yes, what a writer!
Josh Singletary
And so I don’t exactly remember wholly the context of the statement. I just know he said, “It’s all about the and then.” Meaning, essentially, life, and especially life as a Christian, is about, it’s all about, even unto death, it’s about the victory of God coming through the faithfulness of God. It’s always about the and then.
Everything can be just so bad, and you look in the Word, people died and then they got up. Right?
So I wrote it down, and I knew I had songwriting sessions with a couple different people coming up, and I had no ideas. And so I wrote that one down. I said, “And then.”
So I had one with Lee Black, and we had to do something. So I looked at him and I said, okay. I told him the story. He goes, “We can do that.” And he immediately started on the laptop.
Now, what I love about Lee Black, for those who don’t know him, he is this brilliant, brilliant songwriter, brilliant lyricist, brilliant melody writer.
And so, you know, a lot of this, you don’t know. Songwriters have different personalities, and it’s just that. So what one of the things that calmed me, because this is a new venture for me, you know; I’ve always given ideas, but I’ve never really put in the work to chip away at it. And Lee’s a friend. There’s no reason for me to be intimidated. But at this point, I’m in the room with the Lee Black, Songwriter. Right?
Daniel Mount
Mm-hmm. We can say for context, fans of the group will know a song he wrote for you that’s one of the biggest songs you’ve ever had, which is “When the Prodigal Comes Home.” Just as an example of his songwriting.
Josh Singletary
Yeah, “When the Prodigal Comes Home.”
So, so I’m sitting there and he’s scribbling, and then he’s questioning everything. And I’m like, “You’re Lee Black. Why are you asking me? Yeah, that works great. Yeah, it’s fine.”
And I began to realize this is inside just how, how much like me in that sense that he actually is, even though he’s been doing this forever. There’s still that.
Anytime I think creators create something, you’re still questioning, and I think that’s part of the process. I think part of the process is it should be bad, and then you figure out why it’s bad, then you fix it and you make it good, you know. Anyway, I digress.
So he began to write and he goes, “Hey, how do you feel about a part of a Bible story and the end of that line rhyme with ‘and then,’ and every other line is ‘and then’?” And I went, “That’s a great idea.”
And he said, “How do you feel about it being chronological?” I said, “I love that.”
And so he starts working out the first verse, of course. And he’s right. And then he’s writing the second verse and he’s like, “What if we did Old Testament first verse, New Testament second verse?” I went, “Yeah, I’d love that.” And then bridge would be application.
So I’m hearing in my head, I’m hearing Karen Peck sing this song. If Tribute Quartet had not recorded it, I was going to pitch it to Karen. It just sounds like a Karen Peck type song.
Daniel Mount
Okay. That makes sense. Yeah.
Josh Singletary
[Singing “And Then.”] Yeah, I hear it. Hear it.
So I sat down at the piano, and I’m like, “Man, this thing needs to build.”
So I began to work out the chordage. Lots of times when you’re working out the chords and the structure, the skeleton of it, the melody kind of just starts in there somewhere, and you’re like, “Okay, that’s great.” And then we finished this song.
For those who don’t know the process, when you record an album, lots of times one of two processes happen. Artists write based on a specific thing that God’s working in them. So they write songs based on that, and that’s the album. All right.
The other process is what a lot of us in gospel music do, and in other genres, country, rock, it doesn’t matter, where you get submissions. And we get about 500 or so a year, and Gary [Casto] sifts through a lot of that.
And then we sit down with the record company and everybody that’s involved in that process, and we begin a listening session.
I played the song for Gus before. And I only had a work tape. Again, for those who don’t know, you listen to demos. Sometimes they’re big productions, sometimes they’re just a skeleton vocal and piano or vocal and guitar, and that’s it. But before they’re a demo, an official demo, which is polished and clean and nice, the songwriters will do a work tape.
All I had was the work tape at my 1925 green Baldwin downstairs on my phone. And so Gus goes, “Hey Josh, play that song.” I said, “Okay.” So we played it and everyone loved it and we decided on it. And I was thrilled because Tribute Quartet had never written a song. But that’s kind of the behind the scenes of that song.
Now I will say, I will say if you talk to Ian Owens, our bass vocalist, he’ll tell you the first… have you heard the story?
Daniel Mount
No, I haven’t.
Josh Singletary
Okay. All right.
So everybody in the room was in favor. Now, Ian admits he can’t hear past the demo. In other words, for those who need to know what that means, he can’t imagine where it’s going to go. He only hears the front, that’s it.
Daniel Mount
What’s there? Yeah.
Josh Singletary
So we got in the studio and Wayne Haun, our producer, recorded the track. And Ian goes, “My goodness, this is really…”
He said, “I have to admit, man. When I heard this song, I called my wife and she asked how it went. And I said, ‘We picked some great songs, but there’s this one song that is just terrible. I don’t get it.'”
He said, “That proves why I keep my mouth shut and I should always keep my mouth shut because everyone in the room apparently knows what they’re talking about and I don’t.”
So anyway, we recorded that song.
But Daniel, every night, I can’t tell you, people coming up with tears in their eyes, I just want you to know my family’s going through this, we’re going through that, this biggest song of hope that I’ve heard in a long time. It’s amazing to see what God will use, especially how quickly this album came together.
Matter of fact, I texted Lee after the track was done and the vocals had been put on and it wasn’t polished yet. And I sent it to him. He goes, “It’s apparent I don’t know my head from a hole in the ground where good songs are concerned, because I never dreamt of that.” And I’m going, “Yeah, yeah, it’s great. Wayne did a fantastic job.”
So that’s kind of the basis behind it. He went with a straight-on biblical storyline to each thing, which I think doesn’t happen a lot. It happens some.
And I know that good Christian songs and good gospel songs and good hymns, the ones that really last and who that really make an impact on a lot of people are biblically sound in their concepts. But it’s been a long time since I’ve heard a song take actual stories. Boom, boom. Here’s your proof. You want proof that God will come through? Here you go. And then He did this, and then He did this, and then He did this, you know.
Daniel Mount
Mm-hmm.
I think that’s where a lot of the power comes from. There are plenty of Gospel songs that reference one Bible story, but this just goes through the whole Bible and it shows you there’s a pattern here.
Josh Singletary
Yes. You need proof? There you go.
Daniel Mount
Exactly.
I did have one question about the arrangement as well. Between the energy of the song and the minor key, but especially the orchestral swells at the beginning, it reminds me a little bit of another really good song y’all have done, “Good News From Jerusalem,” another song I love.
And I’m just curious, was there anything in that arrangement that was like a tip of the cap to “Good News,” or was that just, it just happened that way?
Josh Singletary
No, just happened. Roger Talley produced “Good News From Jerusalem.” Then Milton Smith did the orchestra. My humble opinion is that track is some of Milton’s finest work, is that track, hands down.
But no, Wayne just took it and went with it. He only orchestrated, if you remember, he only orchestrated three songs off that album, and that was the biggest one. He really wanted it to have that storytelling quality to it, and man, he did it. He nailed it, knocked it out the park.
Daniel Mount
Different producer, nothing intentional.
Definitely, the song’s amazing.
And you weren’t the only group member to co-write a song on this album. Because Gus co-wrote “It’s Time To Sing” with Joel Lindsey and David Staton. Has he told you about what inspired that, and did he write it intentionally as a bass song for Ian?
Josh Singletary
I don’t think he wrote it intentionally as a bass song. I think it kind of fell that way because, as you know, he recorded it when he was with the LaFevre Quartet as well.
Daniel Mount
I had forgotten that. Now you say that, yes.
Josh Singletary
Yeah, and it was a bass vocal then as well. And I think that was something that just kind of fell there, if I’m not mistaken. But him and David Staton just had this idea for song. They just had, “it’s time to sing.”
And so they get into a session with Joel Lindsey, and they were just really having some trouble on these verses. And they asked Joel, “We’re just struggling with this. What do you have?”
And, for those who don’t know, Joel Lindsey, another prolific songwriter, just leans down and he starts scribbling. He said, “Well, how is this?”
So he just starts reading off these lyrics, and Gus and David both go, “Yeah, that’ll work!” That was the first draft. It’s there.
And that’s what’s so interesting. A lot of songwriters become machines, and it’s their strong point and it’s their weak point. They’ll tell you it’s the strong point and the weak point all at the same time because they can just put them out. If you’re looking for a song, man, they know how to write them well. But at the same time, they put out a whole bunch, and that’s what they’ll tell you.
But it’s interesting how some of these wordsmiths are able to craft a thought.
If you’ve ever heard an interview with me and I’m trying to get into a deep topic, I’m really being careful at the words I use. And they’re just, “How’s this?” Yes.
And that was the great thing with Lee. Man, it took us two sessions to finish it because of just time.
So “It’s Time To Sing,” that’s how that one came together. And so he kind of was hearing the same sort of thing because the LeFevres don’t sing that one anymore. It was years ago. So we just kind of stuck with the same arrangement.
Daniel Mount
Neat.
All right, another song that you have been staging a fair amount is “Heaven.” And when I first heard that, I think I heard it on Singing News TV, Singing at Sea.You did it there. And I was like, that song sounds vaguely familiar, but I can’t quite place it.
And if you’re looking for a song called “Good News From Jerusalem” on Spotify or YouTube, you’re gonna find it. If you’re looking for another rendition of a song called “Heaven”… [both laugh]
So I was like, where have I heard this song before?
And so for context, I didn’t grow up around Southern Gospel. I discovered it in 2003 when I borrowed a Cathedrals CD from the library kind of on a whim. But for about four years before that, preceding four years, ’99 through 2003, I listened to the local CCM radio station, and that’s kind of all I knew.
And Bob Carlisle co-wrote the song with Randy Thomas and released it in 2000. So I think I actually heard it on CCM radio in that four-year period when that was what I listened to. And I hadn’t heard that song in 25, 26 years. I’m curious where you came across it.
Josh Singletary
Yeah.
So Gus has always been a fan of many, for lack of better words, obscure artists that either aren’t around anymore or a lot of people just never heard, but who were just brilliant. You know, sitting with Gus listening to music is always an interesting and intriguing time. He analyzes constantly.
So he has these collections of songs and artists that I’ve never heard of. The only time I ever heard Bob Carlisle was “Butterfly Kisses.” That’s the only thing I ever heard of Bob Carlisle.
I wasn’t raised with a whole lot of, say, Christian music. I mean, I was Southern Baptist Church, was singin’ hymns, I knew all that. Until I was 16, I only thought the Kingsmen were the only group that did that kind of thing. I never knew there was a genre of this. And I knew of Carman and Petra and that was about it. I don’t know any of these people.
So this had always been one of Gus’s favorites by Allies when Bob Carlisle was there. And it was a song that’s always stuck with him and he’s always thought it would be fun to record.
And so he played it for Gary. Not thinking that, well, if you play Gary a song with a progressive tilt to it, it could take him a little bit. You mentioned Bob Carlisle in your original question. He’ll go, “Well, did he sing with the Cathedrals?”
So Gus plays Gary this song, and Gary goes, “We need to record that.” And Gus goes, “Really?” He said, “Yeah. Present that at the listening session. We need to record that.”
And so that song has just always been embedded in him.
He went to church with Allies’ drummer. He met him at church and they began talking. And he didn’t realize who he was talking to, who he was.
And if anyone meets Gus, he can become friends with the doorknob. I mean, I’ve never seen anything like it.
And so, so he’s just talking, “Played with a little Christian band, blah, blah, blah.”
He said, “Who, if you don’t mind me asking?”
He said, a band called Allies. And Gus starts naming off the songs, all the songs. And the guy goes, “You’re a fan of Allies. He said, are you kidding me?”
So Gus presented it and we recorded it.
And that’s another one every night. I’m telling you, Daniel, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve seen an album touch so many hotspots, for lack of better terms, touch so many hotspots with people.
Especially when an album comes together as quickly as this one came together. The object is to get it done. You get focused in the work. Let’s get this done. It has to get done. We’ve got to get this out.
Yes, okay, we did the prayerful work. What songs do we want to do? But now we’ve got to get the job done. And so you’re just so focused on that.
And so sometimes an album that you think the anointing is on, and it may be\. But for some reason, for some people, it just doesn’t click with.
And this one, you could knock us over with a feather with how well this thing is being received. And I don’t necessarily know why, other than the hand of God on it.
But to sit and analyze it from a secular perspective or from a mindset of communication, yeah, these songs speak about certain things, but I didn’t realize it was hitting people as hard as it’s hitting them. And I’m thankful for that because that means it’s making a difference somewhere.
Daniel Mount
Yeah.
In Southern Gospel, it all starts with a song. The arrangements matter a lot. The performance matters a lot. The way the singers conduct themselves with people matters a lot in how well people receive it. But it all starts with the song.
And when you have a collection of really strong songs, it’s positioned well to go places.
Speaking of the songs being really strong: A lot of good preachers have said, “Be careful about all that secular media says about following your heart. It’s like the Disney thing, ‘follow your heart.'” No. Follow the Word of God, because our heart is sinful and desperately wicked and it’ll lead us astray.
I love how “Heaven,” the end of that second verse, spins that around the other direction. It says, “I’ll be following my heart… to Heaven.” Just given the prevalence of that phrase in our society, I love how that spins it around and points it toward heaven.
Josh Singletary
You know as well as I do, we as Christians, we have a tendency to speak a lot of churchese and Christianese.
And I think when things are put in a way that is palatable to a secular mindset… and a lot of preachers these days, really good preachers, have a real gift at just talking plainly and speaking clearly. I think that’s one of the strong points of that song.
It’s not so, you know, thus and thou and brother and sister, the things that we do.
Daniel Mount
Yeah.
“It Was Him” is such a strong song from Ian. There’s the bass songs that have the rhythmic thing going like his other song on this album, and there’s big songs, big ballads you hear.
It’s not that common, I think, for a bass singer to just have a tender soft ballad, which is what this one is. And so I’d love to hear how you came across this song and how you were like, “Let’s have our bass singer give this one a try.”
Josh Singletary
So, the very reason why you said what you said about bass-featured songs is the reason why Ian Owens went on a hunt for this song.
His heart – he has fun doing the bass thing, but he has this ability to communicate concepts to people well. As a matter of fact, he’ll tell you admittedly that he’s a grammar nazi. And so he’s very particular about what is said, meaning what you say and saying what you mean.
Me? I, in general conversation, I’m a generalist lots of times because I get where you’re going. Okay, I gotta go. My brain is constantly going: Yeah, yeah, I get the idea. All right, go.
You know, there needs to be detail, right, where he’s concerned.
And so that I think really played into this hunt for this song because he really wanted to say something. He really wanted to, on the artist side, really croon a song. He really wanted to make it pretty. Didn’t want the hokey, which he has fun with and it’s great, wonderful. But he wanted something that sang well, and that sang well for him, but also said something and showed his heart.
And so he approached, he called Joseph Habedank, and him and Phil Cross and Rodney Griffin. No small hitters there.
I think it was Phil who had the idea for the song. Ian tells the story that he asked Phil about it. What happened was Phil was at something with Billy Graham, and he asked Billy Graham, “Don’t you think it would be, it’s going to be amazing when you get there?”
It’s going to be something to have people walk up and all the people that say, kind of the Rodney Griffin “Faces” concept, people say I came to the Lord because of you.
And Billy Graham looked at Phil and said, “That’s nice and that’s sweet and that’s kind and that’s a nice thought.” But he said, “I don’t think it’s gonna be that way at all.”
He said, “Everybody up there is going to go, ‘no, it was Him. It wasn’t anything I did. It was nothing that I did. It was all the Son.'” He just was the willing mouthpiece, the obedient mouthpiece.
And so that’s what led to the writing of that song.
Man, every night Ian delivers that song so well. And it’s communicated well. I think there’s a difference between delivering and communicating.
You know, an opera singer will deliver a story, great, but to communicate a concept that has some meat and that actually means something and has value, I think that’s completely different. And he really does communicate that song amazingly.
Daniel Mount
I would not have guessed that it came from a conversation with Billy Graham just because it’s been enough years that Billy’s been in glory now that you just wouldn’t expect that. That’s really cool.
And I also like how this song brings out somewhat of each of the personalities of the three co-writers because it feels like a very Phil Cross song in a lot of ways. I can see how Ian would gravitate toward it because Phil is precision. He is a craftsman. Every syllable is where it should be. That’s a Phil Cross song. And then the testimony component, that’s where you hear Rodney. And then I kind of feel like Joseph had a hand in the bridge. That just feels like a Joseph bridge.
Josh Singletary
100%. Every night we sing it, I go, this has got Joseph’s hands all over it. And I think that’s exactly what it needed. I mean, he brought out each of those in that bridge, each of those characters, characteristics, because that’s who’s going to be there.
Daniel Mount
Mm-hmm.
All right, the last specific song I’d like to ask you about, and then I’ll have just a general open-ended at the end. But the last specific one is “Grace When I Fall.”
And I have some guesses, but I’d love to hear from you first rather than putting words in your mouth. What caught your attention about this one and maybe you to be like, you know, this one’s going to be my other solo? You’re singing your song; that makes perfect sense. What drew you to this one?
Josh Singletary
Okay, so actually, it wasn’t planned for me to sing this one.
Matter of fact, we had 10 songs already chosen, and so we had to throw…
Here’s another neat thing for people who don’t know how this process goes. Lots of times, and this is a fantastic problem, but it’s a problem nonetheless, we had a whole second album on the floor. I mean, we had so many good songs.
And this is a prime example of that. “Grace When I Fall” came to us last minute, that we scratched one off of the album to add this one to it. It affected us so prolifically just because of how raw the topic is.
The topic is such a, yeah, raw is the only word, is such a transparent thing to admit about yourself. And so, matter of fact, to communicate that song, every night when I get to “God gives mercy for failures,” I point to myself. “God gives mercy for failures and grace when I fall.”
Because all of us are. Listen. In Jesus, we’re not. In flesh we are. We’re failures in flesh.
Oh, but he’s made billions of dollars and he’s a… if you don’t have the Lord, friend, you’re a failure. Period.
Daniel Mount
Mm-hmm. That’s well said.
Josh Singletary
And so I think that’s just so important. And I think it’s important for people to hear.
So Gus goes, “Josh, how you feel about singing this song?” And I think Gary did as well. “How do you feel about singing this song? I think you should sing this.” I said okay.
And so it wasn’t until I agreed that I really dug into the lyrics to go, “oh, man.”
Oh, no. I tell you what it was. They said, “Do you want this one or this? You want ‘Last One Worthy’ or you want ‘Grace When I Fall?'” And when I read the lyrics, really read them, man, it just slapped me in the face.
And I have this tendency to, if a song slaps me in a corrective or if it’s like a mirror, right, if a song is like a mirror, I will tend to lean to them. I don’t know if that’s a self-deprecating thing. I don’t know what that is other than, you know, I need to be reminded.
You know, I kept an email from… this is an aside for those who may not know my personality. Doesn’t do it for some people, and every once in a square blue moon, I’ll receive an email about how my personality is just too much for some people.
And so I got this scathing email years ago and I’ve kept it. And I kept it for the reason why Mark Lowry kept a letter that he got years ago. And he said, “I kept it and framed it because if I ever get too big for my britches, I need to be reminded that not everybody likes me.”
And I feel like that this song really reminds me that no matter how nice people say that I am, how good that people say that I am, outside of the blood of Jesus, I’m zilch. I’m nothing. Zero.
And so that song, man, that really stuck in me. And so when I felt that, I went, “Yeah, I’m going to record this one.”
And Terry Franklin wrote a song on one of our former albums, Journey Of Hope, called “In the Valley, I can hear His voice.” It’s sort of written similar; structure is a little similar.
And that song is one of my all time favorite songs that we ever did. So when this one, he wrote a killer song. He really did.
Daniel Mount
Yeah. He doesn’t write a lot of songs, but when he does, they’re [really strong.] Southern Gospel fans will know Brian Free’s, probably his signature song still to this day, “For God So Loved,” was a Terry and Barbi Franklin song.
But I love how this song is so scriptural, there’s so much Bible in it. And as you say, there’s the conviction, but there’s the hope. It doesn’t leave you there. Just straight word-for-word from James – I think it’s verse two where it says, mercy triumphs over judgment. And I don’t know if I’ve ever heard that referenced word-for-word in a song before. And I was like, okay, this song is something special.
Josh Singletary
It is! And Terry’s good about his writing being very biblical. I love that. I love that about his writing.
But my favorite line is, “Heaven would be empty if God gave justice to me and you.” “Mercy still triumphs over judgment, it’s true, but heaven would be so empty if God gave justice to me and you.”
I mean, He made us to fellowship with us. And if He just gave justice to us all, we wouldn’t even be where He is. Like, that’s just mind-boggling when you think of it that way.
I mean, what ultimately was Lucifer stealing from Him with the fall ultimately became this reason why we’re gonna be able to be with Him.
You know, it’s interesting how God turns everything for good.
Daniel Mount
Amen.
All right. So there are a lot of amazing songs on this project. Those were just some songs that had specific questions on.
Just moving toward wrapping up, anything else from the album song-wise, arrangement-wise, anything else you’d like to mention before we conclude?
Josh Singletary
Yeah, “Somebody Who Prays.”
So that song really struck a key with Gary and I. Gary’s a prayer. People call him all hours of the night just to pray. And he’ll be the first to tell you it’s hard for him to have faith for himself, but he can have faith for other people. I think that’s true with a lot of us. It’s hard for us to have faith for ourselves. We can pray for people and believe for people all day long, but then when we’re the ones suffering with the pain or the mental fight, that’s what has us distracted. And so sometimes it’s harder.
There was a lady who passed away about two years ago at age 84 who was like a grandmother to me and to Gary. Gary more so and longer than me. For about like a grandmother to Gary for 40 years. Me, for my entire career in gospel music, which now is 25 years. So at the time about 22, 23 years. And because I met her through him.
She was one of these people that water fasted every Wednesday. And every year she chose one ministry and she did a 40-day fast for that ministry, water fast for that ministry every year.
Whenever she prayed, she prayed loud. You could hear the enemy, you could be in McDonald’s and you could hear the enemy go, “Her again.” Because he had to go. Enemy had to go. Whenever she prayed, enemy had to leave. Couldn’t stand it.
She was also one of those people that if you didn’t talk to her in a month or two, she’d call you, read your mail, and be dead on. She was one of those people who prayed.
God would put people’s faces in front of her face, two, three, four o’clock in the morning. She would lots of times, you know, tell the Lord, okay, but I really need to sleep. But I mean, I’ll get up. And she would get up and pray. And she’d go, can I sleep now, please? Can I just sleep?
And so He would remind her, no, you asked to be someone who prayed and praying makes the difference.
And so, you know, so she did. She was obedient like that. And she had many stories, all kinds of stories of things that happened.
So this song really struck that chord of all of us in the group. And I think those who have had a relationship with the Lord for any significant amount of time understand the importance of prayer. Not just, “Now I lay me down and sleep,” but actual just beating on the office door of the Lord and saying, you know, and laboring over those prayers.
And so that song really struck a note there.
I really think arrangement-wise, I love the fact that Wayne brought in Jim Hammerly. There’s a distinct gospel Jim Hammerly style that you hear. And since I heard the name Jim Hammerly and started listening to his playing back when I was a teenager, I emulated and learned a lot just from listening to him.
There’s a nostalgia to the sound of that song for me. But outside of that, the message is just: I want to be somebody who prays. I want to, when I pray, I want it to matter and not be a waste of my time and the Lord’s time.
You know, I mean, even if it takes years, even if it takes years, what, 25 years for Abram when he found out that he was going to father a nation before they actually had a baby.
You know, the prayers mattered. The relationship mattered. The prayer was consistent. The relationship was consistent.
And I want to be that. And I think that’s what that song really just hits home. You know, I want my time with the Lord to matter. I want my words not to go… I don’t want it to go just to the ceiling.
You know, I want to affect the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. I want it to affect the kingdom. I want it to affect the earth. I want it to affect the situations that I know for certain the enemy has his hands on. I want it to affect the nation. I want it to affect those things, not to my will but to what’s going to grow the kingdom.
And I think that song, man, is just a solid reminder. I wanna be somebody who prays, you know?
Great song. Great song.
Daniel Mount
It is a great song.
Well, thank you so much for taking the time to come on and talk about this. This conversation has been rich and deep.
Josh Singletary
Man, Daniel, thank you for letting me do it. This is, I love this kind of stuff.
Daniel Mount
Me too. Me too. I’ve loved this. So thank you for your time.
How can, just in closing, how can people keep up with Tribute Quartet?
Josh Singletary
The easiest way, I tell people all the time, is search in your favorite search engine, Tribute Quartet. Everything pops up. Just search it.
Daniel Mount
Thank you.
And to the listener, thank you for listening to Southern Gospel Journal. You can keep up with the latest episodes on YouTube, Facebook, your favorite podcast platform, or on southerngospeljournal.com. Thanks for listening.