For the pass year I have been thinking about something that I am sure many of you have talked about or you have thought about it from time to time. Does our style of music have a place for young people! Now before you get started on me think about this. Lets say a young man or woman can play a guitar or the drums or lets say the keyboard. How many groups need one. I remember the days when you would see a few teenagers standing on the wings waiting to see the drummer or the steel and guitar picker for The Oaks, The Kingsmen, The Thrashers, The Goodmans, The Nelons, The Dixie Melody Boys ! But now because of the TRACK MACHINE, Most groups don't even have a KEYBOARD player! Unless you can sing, Southern Gospel doesn't have a place for your TALENT! Look I know what it cost to keep a group on the road but we have got to find a way to keep are music growing. I'm not talking about our fan base I am talking about bring up new artist and giving them a chance to play. I have never had a young kid ask me who was playing guitar or the drums on our tracks. When I was singing with the Dixie Melody Boys we had a keyboard player a bass player and Larry Delawder on the harmonica all of our music was LIVE and we had a lot of kids and young folks just wanting to be a harmonica player or wanting to be a keyboard player. Now we have a few wanting to play the keyboard like Jerry Kelso but nobody hanging around after the concert wanting to talk about our tracks. I feel that we have got to find a way to make a place for them. If we don't the praise bands and  CCM will have them.


                                            McCray

Well  I guess you thought I had quit writing! But the Dove Brothers have been busy. Between singing and trying to keep up with my twin boys my plate has been full. I Can Pray has been the biggest song we have ever recorded and has really change things for the group. The new cd LIFE is the best singing we have done on a recording so if you haven't hear the new project check it out and buy a copy today. We are working hard on our download store and we hope you have checked it out and download something that you didn't know we had. I would like to thank all of our friends and fans for your support and prayers. Without you we couldn't make it! I don't know when I will have the time to write again because there is a lot going on. But I will be back. We will soon be recording vocals for our 10th year celebration so be looking for that cd soon. Hope to see you soon

                                                               McCray 

I know there will be a lot of posts and articles about this but I wanted to just write a few things about Jim. Big Jim Hamill was a friend of mine from the first day I met him. He took the time to show me a lot things about how to run a stage. Even though some things only he could get away with. Jim never really like those big and wide tones that I would use but still he loved me and I loved him and I still do. There will never be another Big Jim Hamill. We had a lot of fun trying to make it hard for one another to follow each other back during the days when I was with Dixie Melody Boys. I never did beat him playing golf and when I would walk off the stage and he was standing at the side waiting to walk out with the Mighty Kingsmen, he would always look at me and say " The worse I have ever Heard" I am going to miss him. I will miss talking to him on the phone. I will miss hearing  him sing Love Lifted Me and many others. I just wonder if the lord is telling Big Jim to get ready to lead the greatest choir we have ever seen!!!!!!

                                                                                  McCray

I have been on the road for twenty years now. I have yet to hear  someone who bought a ticket say, Man I sure did enjoyed those screens and pictures, that made the concert. Now I am sure they enjoyed the screens and the lights the sound but you don't hear them talk about it. But I do hear them talk about the song the artist and what they felt. Listen the Dove Brothers have been on the programs with all the smoke and mirrors and some of the concerts had big crowds and some didn't. WE have been on programs without all that stuff and have had big crowds and some places we didn't. I don't have anything against lights and screens. If you remember the Dove Brothers did a show called Quartet Legacy Tour. We had screens, lights and we even had different suits and clothing for the show. Some places were sale outs and some places were not. I just don't think all of that stuff is the answer.
 
Do I have the answer I don't know. I have my opinons like everybody else. But I will save them for later. I know the first thing I will hear is well what about Gaither what about ESS? Well its just like the rest, you tell about the big crowds and don't about the small ones. Am I saying they are not sucessful? NO I am not !  I don't know of a group or tour that has been as Succesful in Gospel Music. But they do have there great crowds, good crowds and there bad crowds. all I know is that I just don't hear folks talking about how the much they enjoyed the screens the lights and the smoke. But then again I might be talking to the wrong people.

                                           McCray

I have felt this time and time again. Many times singing the song and many times listing to someone else. It still blows my mind when it happens. After many years on the road and singing night after night you would think that it would just be old hat to me. But it is just as fresh as the first time. I have been singing along or just enjoying a concert when all of a sudden it comes into the room. what is it? Well, It's a feeling that I really can't explain. All I know is, when it comes into the room things change. I'm not talking about hype. I have felt this feeling on a song that is soft and slow with just keyboard I have felt it without music. Something that you know is real. Not something that has been worked up or set up to make you feel a certain way.  The real thing! Now some may call it a moment but I just call it the the spirt of the Lord! You just can beat the feeling!

                                                                                     McCray

I have been debating should I write about this or not. But the more I thought about it the more I feel I should write something. Not only for you but for the Dove Brothers . First I want to write to our friends and fans about bloggers who write and share thoughts about the Dove Brothers or about any artist. You may not like it, but they have the right. I have had many friends and fans who love the Dove Brothers ask me how do I feel about the comments made about our singing. Well when the comments are about how great the Dove Brothers are you feel pretty good. When the comments are made about how bad we are or they really don’t care about our singing and how the Dove Brothers perform on stage, well nobody really likes that. But they have the right to there opinion. When I read negative comments or someone tells me about it I just tell them this. If they voted then at least they voted.

Look, everybody is not going to like DBQ! Do we try to please everyone? Sure we do but artist must realize that they will never be every fan of Southern Gospel music favorite group. You must be who you are and do what you feel is right for you. Now if you have more who love you than don’t, you are doing just fine. If your date book is full with good dates and your songs are touching the heart and you feel that you are growing one song at a time and you are happy, what more could you ask for. Now you always want to do better be the best you can be. So don’t get upset with the blogger because that is what some of them wants you to do. They need feed back. Nothing can really move without a negative and a positive. I will get some negative feed back from this post and that is fine, at least you read it. It might not be the best writing in the world but you did read it.

When you realize that Gospel music is not based on talent alone then you will understand the reason why some groups are able to have success that you just can’t explain. Except, that GOD has his hand on them! But what music really is based on talent alone. There are Artist in different kinds of music that I think can’t sing but they have a few dollars in the bank that said they can. Some of the biggest movies or albums have been put down and have been given a low rating. But when the numbers are put together it has sold millions and no one can really explain it. Now I didn’t say we have sold millions. I'm just saying it was somebodies opinion that at the end of the day didn’t mean anything except to those who agree with them. Do I believe that you can learn from opinions? Why sure you can, you are never to old to learn something from someone. Even from that dreaded negative comment. But the saying is true if you go to find something wrong, you will. But if you go to find something good you will find it or may I say you can find a blessing!

That brings me to my final thought. There are those who love the sound and harmonies. There are those who love a show. But there are those who love what they feel from the words of the song. They go to the concert for a blessing. There is nothing like the feeling you get when you are blessed from a Gospel song! In other words, when the real thing comes in the room it doesn’t matter how good you think you are or how bad someone thinks you are. When the Master walks by it feels like Heaven and no opinion can take that away from you or me! Now what may touch me may not do the same for you. People are blessed in different ways. Now do I feel that blogs are a bad thing? No I don’t. I enjoy reading them and I enjoy writing one too. I know , I still have a lot to learn about writing a blog and I am trying very hard to learn. So for those who love the Dove Brothers let me tell you from all of us thank you. To those who don’t like the Dove Brothers singing well, we will keep on working and maybe one day you will say. You know I am beginning to like those boys!

                                                                                         McCray

If you read the Singingnews website you will find a poll question on the home page every week. Then on the following monday they give the results. But the one thing they don't give is how many voted! I would love to know how many votes have been made then you could really get a feel on how important the poll is to the industry.

                                                          McCray

Well it has been weeks since my last post. I have been wide open since July 18th but I have been on vacation since Aug 20th but will start back the 28th. The Twins Andrew and Matthew have been growing leaps and bounds and they are into everything and Kalea and David are in school and doing well. It gives Yvonne a break. The song I can Pray is stronger than ever before. The song is still touching the hearts of people and opening doors for the Dove Brothers praise be to God for it all. For those who listen to Southern Gospel Radio I hope you like our new single I’m Going To Make It. I know that it is a little different but folks are really loving the song when we sing it in concert.

I have had folks ask me will we stop singing the classic gospel songs that we are known for from the beginning? The answer is NO! We will always sing and try to bring back some of the classics but we are also wanting to find great new songs that will help carry on our music into the future. So we are very excited about what the Lord is doing with the Dove Brothers. We are going in the studio in Oct and Nov to record a new project and I believe we are going to have some songs that will open more doors for us. I hope you are planning to be at NQC. We will be there all week so I’ll see you there. 

                                                                                                  McCray

I am always reading or hearing people talk about what is wrong with Southern Gospel Music! Well I want to talk about what is right about the music and the industry. First I want to talk about the music. To me Southern Gospel Music is the greatest music in the world. The message is still the one thing that makes our music different than all the rest. The music still makes me feel good and the harmonies no matter if it is with a male quartet or a mix quartet I still love it. I love to hear trios like the Booth Brothers and many others. Sure, the music has change down through the years but we still have the foundation in place. Do I like everything I hear concerning the music? No but the message is the same.

We have some of the greatest singers you will hear and some of the greatest performers you will see. I love the industry. The industry welcomed a seventeen year old boy with open arms over twenty years ago and the industry has never let me down since. I don’t know of any other kind of genre of music that will do that like the southern gospel music family. Family is the word I think of when I want to describe our industry. I love our music industry, does the industry need to change some things? I am sure it does. You see even with all of our false we still have something no one can take away and that is the words and what these words do for the fans and friends that love the music.


                                                   McCray