Though their last recording was a big seller for the Bishops, it didn’t yield any major hit songs, but their next recording, “You Can’t Ask Too Much of My God” would be a defining moment for the group, yielding the Bishops their third #1 song…AND a #2 song…AND a top 10 hit!!! Yes, 3 hit songs from one recording! After 10 years under the guidance of Eddie Crook, the Bishops began looking for a new place to call home, and they found that home at Homeland Records, which was led by Bill Traylor. Traylor has a long track record within the industry, joining the Benson Company in the late 1970’s as a radio promoter for Heartwarming Records, and moving up within the company, eventually producing records and working with such artists as the Speers, Gold City Quartet, Kingsmen and others. In 1983, he left Heartwarming to create his own label, Riversong Records, only to eventually join forces with the Benson Company again a couple of years later, when the Riversong label basically replaced the Heartwarming imprint. Traylor would eventually leave the Benson Company once again to create a new label called Homeland Records in late 1987, and eventually groups such as the Cathedrals, Speers and Hemphills would join his label. By the time the Bishops joined the label in 1996, their roster included such artists as the Hoppers, Florida Boys, Walt Mills, Pfeifers, John Hagee Family and Anthony Burger.

While they had creative freedom with Eddie Crook, I feel that the Bishops were at a point in their career where they wanted to expand their musical creativity, and I think that Homeland gave them the opportunity to try some new things they hadn’t thought of previously. With “You Can’t Ask Too Much of My God”, the group worked hard at maintaining the Bishops’ unique style, while enhancing that with some new, creative sounds.

Since 1989’s “Marching On” recording, Steve Mauldin has had a hand in the Bishops’ music, primarily handling all the orchestrations (though he did produce and arrange their “Chapter X Live” recording), but for the next few years, Mauldin would play a much bigger role in their music, as he would become their sole producer. Much like Eddie Crook, Mauldin brings a ton of experience to the table, but while Crook’s early experience came from years of playing piano on stage and in the studio, and handling the production work for many of the recordings coming out of Goodman Sound Studios, Mauldin grew up traveling with his brother (Russell) and parents (Horace and Joan) as the Mauldin Family Singers. In fact, Horace Mauldin was quite the songwriter, penning such classic tunes as “Victory Was Won at Calvary”, “Swing Wide the Gate” and “Payday Someday”. Eventually, Steve became a staff musician at Mark V Studios in Greenville, South Carolina, and after graduating from Furman University with a degree in Music Theory, he began taking on the role of arranger. While at Mark V, Steve began not only playing behind many gospel acts that recorded there, but also began working with artists from the country, rock, jazz and bluegrass genres, and pretty much anything else that walked through the doors at Mark V, including playing and arranging various jingles. By the late 1970’s, Steve was doing orchestrations for such groups as the Kingsmen and Happy Goodmans, before moving to Nashville, Tennessee in 1981. Over the years, Steve has worked with countless artists from across all musical fields including Pat Boone, Cathedrals, Floyd Cramer, Christ Church Choir, Phil Driscoll, Pfeifers, Hoppers, Shirley Caesar, Booth Brothers, Tanya Tucker, Truth, Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, Casting Crowns, Gold City, Willie Nelson and Gaither Vocal Band. Additionally, Steve has handled the orchestral scores for several movies including Hoodwinked, Ernest Goes to Jail, War Room, and Unsung Hero. Steve brings all these experiences and musical styles to the table, and the Bishops gleaned from that creativity, thus elevating their own music to even greater heights!

With Steve Mauldin at the helm as producer and arranger for this latest recording, we hear some new sounds by the Bishops, and “You Can’t Ask Too Much of My God” remains one of their most popular recordings in their discography. Mauldin was able to provide some unique elements to the Bishops’ sound that he wasn’t able to do previously, as being the orchestrator for those recordings with Eddie Crook, he would simply overlay his arrangements on top of what Crook was producing, whereas with Mauldin being the producer and arranger, he has more creative control (of course, with the Bishops’ input), over the entire process from beginning to end.

The recording kicks off with the title song, “You Can’t Ask Too Much of My God”, which was written by Mark, and was one that came pretty quickly for Mark while sitting out on the front porch swing at home. While the song is totally within the Bishops’ “sweet spot” with its warm, easy-going vibe and medium tempo, musically though, the song has a very unique feel to it. With its subtle use of strings, along with the use of the fretless bass guitar and nice guitar embellishments, it’s a stellar tune that stands out from all their other hit songs. Additionally, in a reversal from the normal vocal arrangement where Mark typically took the first verse and Kenny handled the second, instead, Kenny takes the first 2 verses, with Mark picking up the final verse, and it really worked well with this tune. Filled with many promises from the Bible, fans really took to the message of faith in the song, and it became an instant classic for the Bishops, going all the way to #1 in the February 1997 Singing News chart. After Mark embarked on his own solo ministry, he would eventually re-record an updated arrangement of the song on his 2005 solo recording, “There is Love…Then There is His Love”.

Slowing the tempo down, we come to the Dee and Danny Kramer penned tune, “He Will Never Forsake You”, which features an outstanding performance by Kenny. This rather unassuming stand out track was the third single release from this recording, peaking at #8 for March and April 1998. With its steel guitar highlights, I love the warm feel of the song, which ties in with the comforting message this tune conveys. I also want to call out the beautiful, vintage feel of the orchestrations in the song, as they are tastefully done and reminiscent of the orchestrations found on some of those old Rambo albums from the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.

As we pick up the tempo, the Bishops pay homage to the sounds and styles of their early days with the fun, bluegrass feel of the song, “You Never Know”, which is filled with lots of guitar, mandolin and fiddle highlights. Featuring Mark, the song was written by David Marshall (who has written several early Bishop tunes), who originally recorded the song on his solo album, “Rose of Sharon”. The Bishops didn’t stray too far from the original version and it’s an enjoyable inclusion for this release.

The musical highlight of the recording is the exciting tune, “When Jesus is All That I Have”, which was written by Mark. This was a big up-tempo song, filled with lots of strings and brass, and it was something totally different for the Bishops. I loved the song from the very first listen, and I knew it was going to be a big hit for the guys, and I was right, as it soared all the way to #2 for the months of September and October 1997. I always felt the song was a strong contender to be a #1 hit, but the Gaither Vocal Band’s song, “Yes I Know”, kept the Bishops out of the #1 spot for both months. Nonetheless, it’s one of my all-time favorite tunes by the group, and it was one of their most exciting single releases.

The more contemporary feel of the slower tempo, “Love Did”, features Mark and was written by Jeff Silvey and Michael Puryear. When the Bishops signed with Homeland, Bill Traylor specifically wanted Mauldin to take the Bishops in a new musical direction, and it seems that the record company had high hopes for this song. When they started working on the tunes for this release, they initially came to the studio to record 3 songs, which included this tune, along with 2 others, with “You Can’t Ask Too Much of My God” being one of them. The idea was to quickly get some songs recorded to get something out to radio before the recording was released, but once they laid down the three songs, everybody was sold on “You Can’t Ask Too Much of My God”, and that became their first single. Incidentally, they never did circle back and release “Love Did” to radio, but the song did get recorded the same year by Brian Free & Assurance on their “4 God So Loved” recording.

With it’s slight Caribbean vibe, “Entertaining Angels” was another song written by Dee and Danny Kramer (whose family group, the Encouragers, originally recorded on their 1992 recording, “Almost Home”), and was another song that was very different for the Bishops, before we move to the classic story-song, “Palms of Victory”. With its clean, acoustic feel, this tune was a hugely popular song for the Speer Family back in the mid to late 1960’s, as well as the Florida Boys and Sego Brothers & Naomi, but the Bishops adapted their version from bluegrass group, the Country Gentlemen from their 1978 album, “Calling My Children Home”. An early influence on the Bishops, the Country Gentlemen were a hugely popular bluegrass group, who regularly incorporated gospel music into their repertoire. A list of former members of the group reads like a “who’s who” of famous names including Ricky Skaggs, Doyle Lawson, Randall Hylton, Jerry Douglas, Glenn Duncan and Mike Aldridge.

With some nice organ highlights, “My God is Watching Over Me”, starts off slow, but quickly becomes a driving, upbeat tune with a bit of a soulful, jazzy feel. Written by and featuring Kenny, the song has a fun, popping brass section, and was a tune Kenny wrote specifically for himself to sing during revivals and evangelical meetings that he would hold apart from singing with the Bishops. Plus, the song was something that adapted well with local church choirs at the churches Kenny would preach in, and the song is an excellent inclusion for this recording.

Slowing the tempo down, Kenny is featured once again on the warm feel of, “It Takes the Blood”, which was a song Kenny wrote with a preacher friend of his named Clint Claypoole, before the recording winds down with the acapella, “Don’t You Know”. Written by Mark, this tune features everyone in the group, including Junior Williams, and it was likely the final song chosen for this recording, as they didn’t have an acapella song picked out yet, so naturally, Mark wrote one!

As they were changing record labels, the Bishops personnel was changing as well. Steve Perkins decided it was time to abandon life on the road, and he ended up leaving the group around the time they signed with Homeland, and after an 8-year absence, Junior Williams rejoined to play bass guitar. Steve still assisted the group from time to time with various business dealings and would also fill in on bass guitar whenever needed (Steve is also Mark’s neighbor, by the way!). Johnny Sansom would depart the group very soon thereafter, and he was replaced with Russ Funk on keyboards. Brian McGee was still playing drums for the group, but he eventually would leave as well. For the duration of the Bishops’ time on the road, Junior was the remaining constant figure playing behind the Bishops, as they seemed to go through a few different keyboard players including Chris Key, Michael Lee and others. With Brian’s departure, the group began relying more on tracks, with the keyboard and bass guitar being played live, with Junior also playing the guitar or mandolin on certain songs.

At the time of its release, “You Can’t Ask Too Much of My God” was probably the most unique sounding recording the Bishops had released so far in their career. With Steve Mauldin at the helm, he was able to infuse his own creativity, advancing the Bishops’ music to a greater audience, while also maintaining that unique sound that was distinctively “Bishops”. “You Can’t Ask Too Much of My God” is arguably the most popular recording by the group, and there is no denying the massive impact it played on their career. The Bishops recorded some phenomenal music prior to signing with Homeland, but this newest release was like a breath of fresh air for the Bishops, and that intense level of creativity would be taken to a whole ‘nother level with their next recording!

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