My introduction to Southern Gospel music was a pre-production copy of the Gold City Pillars of Faith video. It was given to me in 2003 by Darryl LaCroy who was SHOCKED that I had never heard “The Midnight Cry!” Based on that video, I began to seek out concerts to hear more of the music that really spoke to my soul.

At that time, the internet didn’t have nearly as much information about the artists and their schedules, but I kept searching and searching and I subscribed to Singing News. I was absolutely delighted when I found the MusicScribe site and began to absorb as much as possible to learn about the industry. I loved keeping up with the news about the groups and the information about their members and recordings (now listed in such great detail on the SGHistory site).

Since my children were grown and gone from home at that point, I started attending as many concerts as I could get to – which was quite a few since my base is in the Atlanta area near multiple interstate highways. Eventually I started writing concert reviews including videos on a site hosted by Daniel Mount, who was an incredible inspiration to me. Eventually, Daniel was going in a slightly different direction and offered to get me set up so I could continue to produce articles and reviews for this music that is so special to me.

After a few years, David Bruce Murray magnanimously offered to incorporate my writings into the MusicScribe site. I had the utmost admiration for all that David has done to promote and document this music and was absolutely thrilled to become a part of it. David had all the technical expertise that I lacked and he taught and guided me as I continued to write for several years.

I had to slow down considerably when my elderly parents came to live with me. My father has passed away, but I still have mom with me and I take her to concerts whenever she is able. After Covid hit, I started taking mom less and less and I basically retired from blogging on the site. I still read all the news and views on the site and I especially LOVE the Friday #NewsNuggets.

Congratulations, David, on your outstanding accomplishment of 20 great years of providing reviews, news, and views and for everything else you do to support and promote the people involved. You have been such a trusted source of information through the years with sensitive topics handled with care and unruly commenters handled with wisdom and grace. You’ve been hard-working, innovative, and steadfast in keeping the site relevant and timely. It has been such a pleasure to know you and to have been able to work with you on this as well as the SGHistory site.