Watching Ernie and SSQ

Maybe I AM officially an "old fogey" now.

I had a rare opportunity to watch a Bill Gaither TV program tonight at work...it was a concert where the Gaither Vocal Band teamed up with Bill's newest "star" attraction, Ernie Haase and Signature Sound.

Now I realize that EHSSQ have been stars well before they joined forces with Bill and his troupe, but these days Bill has used them as one of his main attractions...and commercially, it makes sense, as Bill's GVB and SSQ are arguably the biggest draws on the southern gospel circuit these days.

I also know that Ernie consciously markets his quartet to a younger audience, what with their appearance and stage demeanor, and his group does do a good job in attracting and holding that audience, particularly when one considers that musically, they're basically a straight, modern gospel quartet, with relatively few concessions to current Christian pop stylists. And they make their audiences happy, which could be argued is the bottom line.

With all that, then, why do I feel uncomfortable watching EHSSQ on TV?

I suspect that if I were only listening to them, I wouldn't feel uncomfortable in the least, being that I'm about as dyed-in-the-wool a quartet fan as one could imagine, but that's the trouble when they're on TV. I'm NOT just listening to them...I'm seeing them as well...and I confess, watching SSQ in action is a little unsettling for me.

I've long since gotten used to the trendy haircuts and the short ties...and I'm used to hearing more voices than I see when I watch the group.

So what's your problem, John? Why are you unsettled?

In answering that question, let me just say that I can understand why more traditional(read "older")quartet fans have a hard time watching SSQ...their entire stage presentation is an exercise in "glitz"...from their mannered vocals, to their requisite "sincere" looks on their faces when they sing songs with "deep" lyrics, to Ernie's mike antics, to bass Tim Duncan's borrowed stage theatrics when singing.

In other words, they look like a professional pop act that could be onstage in Las Vegas as much as they could be in a church in rural Ohio. Not that there's anything wrong at all with looking as polished as possible...a little polish has always been a welcome diversion in gospel music to this observer.

But that sort of impression can bother those fans of gospel music who fear their music can appear too "worldly", i.e., too much like a top secular act that could care less about devotion to the Savior they hapen to be singing about.

Again, I don't feel EHSSQ is insincere in the least...they just might look that way to some people because of their appearance and their obvious staged "choreography". I put the word in quotes because to me, it looks incredibly hokey and contrived.

Now people may have thought the same thing in the 1950s when they saw the Statesmen Quartet. I understand that.

Maybe it's just my age and orientation, but there's a big difference in the moves of the Statesmen onstage and those of SSQ. To me, the Statesmen appeared to be far more spontaneous in their onstage persona, while SSQ appears more contrived...as if they're trying to recapture the appeal to the Statesmen by aping their moves, rather than studying and applying the whole picture, i.e., the song presentation as well as the onstage moves.

SSQ's well-known version of the Statesmen show stopper "O What A Savior" embodies what I'm trying to describe. Ernie Haase seems to be more interested in making a show of the song rather than just sing it as well as he can, as Rosie Rozell did in the day. Such an approach empties the song of its' content and uncomfortably tries to fit it into a "show" context. And as hard as Ernie tries, he's not the showman that ANY of the Statesmen were, or even the Blackwood Brothers. Even Glen Payne and George Younce were dynamic, unpretentious stage presences compared to what Ernie Haase seems to be.

Now, granted, this is just an impression based on this TV show...but I've seen EHSSQ in person a number of times apart from that, and my general impression of them remains the same, they're so into the "show" that they seem to overlook their songs and what they're singing about.

SSQ'a encore was their new version of "Get Away Jordan", and it underlined all I said above. SSQ's version had a lot of physical movement, but it lacked the flair, style, commitment, and overall energy of the Statesmen's famous version.

I've heard a rumor that McCray Dove was not very fond of SSQ doing "Get Away Jordan", especially after his Dove Brothers made a successful cover of the old classic....based on this performance, I can see why, if that is true.

Make no mistake. EHSSQ is a good quartet, and their sound is NOT too wild or too "contemporary" or irreligious. But onstage, they're still a little unsettling to this long time quartet fan. I remain to be convinced I'm wrong about them.

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