Clark, Higinbotham Depart Canaan Records

According to the latest press release from Canaan, Dave Clark and Emily Higinbotham have left Canaan Records and accepted positions at Lillenas.  From the press release:

In associated news, Lillenas Publishing Company announced today that Dave Clark is joining the company as Director of Creative Development, Publishing, and A&R (artist and repertoire).  In addition, Emily Higinbotham is joining Lillenas as Associate Director of Creative Development, Publishing, and A&R. Both Clark and Higinbotham reside in Nashville and will maintain their Nashville offices.

“We have appreciated Dave Clark’s leadership in re-establishing the Canaan Records imprint and helping to lay the foundation for the label’s future in the digital marketplace. We wish him the best of success in his new venture with Lillenas,” commented Rod Riley, COO of Word Entertainment.

Dave Clark added, “As I look back through the years, God has had the Church at the center of every major intersection on my life. My roots with Lillenas Publishing Company go very deep and I am so thankful for the rare opportunity to blend my love for the Church with my passion for music. I am thankful for the experience and friendships gained at my time with Canaan Records and look forward this new chapter with a great sense of optimism.”

As a songwriter, Clark’s songs have been recorded by many of today’s top Christian recording artists including Larnelle Harris, Philips Craig & Dean, CeCe Winans, and 4HIM. Along with authoring close to thirty musicals, Clark recently celebrated his 25^th Number One song, and was awarded the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’ (ASCAP) 2009 Living Legend Award.  He is also currently a student at Nazarene Bible College based in Colorado Springs, CO.

Emily Higinbotham has combined her extensive musical education with her natural musical ability to have a widespread impact on the Christian music industry. Emily most recently served as Project Coordinator and Marketing Manager for Canaan Records. She has also served as royalty administrator, administrative assistant, session contractor, and vocal producer for many recording sessions featuring some of Nashville’s top musicians. Featured among her recordings are a number of children’s musicals including the 2009 Dove-nominated children’s Christmas musical, Angels We Have Heard.

For more information on Canaan Records, visit www.canaanrecords.com.

Contact:  info@canaanrecords.com

Congratulations to both on their new positions, and best wishes for continued success. Emily Higinbotham has especially been very supportive of this blog, and always quick to answer any questions I’ve sent her way, and for that, Emily, I thank you. It will be interesting to see what unfolds in the coming weeks and months at Word/Canaan.

Nice Offer From Canaan Records

From their latest press release:

Canaan Records announces a limited time offer at www.canaanrecords.com/store.  The latest recordings from Canaan can be purchased with the addition of one complete Canaan Track for only $25.00.  Canaan Tracks are available for Kim Hopper’s I Just Wanted You To Know, Mike & Kelly Bowling’s Faith To Believe and The Mike LeFevre Quartet’s Nothin’ But Good.  These complete soundtracks include every song with lyrics from the original Canaan release and singers have the option of singing with or without background vocals on key songs. Also included in the deal is the Hoppers’ North America Live! Canaan Track.  This soundtrack features four songs from the release with and without background vocals.  The albums and soundtracks can be mixed and matched throughout the special.

This really is a nice deal, as most of the time the soundtracks themselves sell for anywhere between $20-$30. I also find it interesting that some songs will have background vocals. The question becomes are the BGVs by the original artist, or are they studio singers? Either way, that’s a nice bonus.

Mike Hopper Leads Online Digital Media Tutorial

One of my favorite SG related topics to blog about is SG’s embracing of digital media technologies.  (I’m an IT guy in real life, so big surprise, huh.)  In a case of an artist taking the lead in embracing digital media, Mike Hopper has recorded a tutorial in which he leads customers through downloading music and creating their own custom compilation CD.  This from Canaan’s latest press release:

Canaan Records has released an all inclusive video tutorial featuring how to purchase, download and burn to a CD your favorite Southern Gospel albums and songs.  The demonstration is hosted by Mike Hopper of the legendary Hoppers and examines the ins and outs of the downloading revolution.  Mike also explains how safe and cheap it is to own your favorite personal compilations.  The video tutorial can be found by clicking on www.canaanrecords.com. Fans can also see personal compilations from Connie Hopper, Kelly Bowling and Mike Hopper as well as post their own compilations by visiting http://www.facebook.com/pages/Canaan-Records/25884114199 .

It’s good to see an artist taking a lead role in helping the digital revolution along, and having a well known artist be the instructor for the tutorial will I think give more weight to the average SG fan.  Kudos to both Mike and Canaan for taking this step to help things along.

Hoppers Podcasts Available

Canaan has started a podcast series featuring the new Hoppers CD, North America Live!, and they are running a contest to go along with it.  Here’s the press release:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (1/20/09) – Canaan Records announced today that a brand new series of Canaan & Friends Podcasts will be released celebrating the latest Hopper project, North America Live!. The first of three podcasts, which is defined by Wikipedia.com as a digital-media file distributed over the internet for playback, are hosted by Les Butler of Singing News Magazine and Salem Radio Network and will be available Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at  www.canaanrecords.com for download and through MPE to radio stations and media worldwide.  Each Hoppers podcast will be released bi-weekly and are filled with exclusive personal interviews from various Hoppers members and favorite songs from the January 27^th Canaan Records’ release only found by listening to the podcast.  Each podcast can be downloaded to your computer or MP3 player, as well as being burned to a compact disc. A special contest will also be held in conjunction with the release of the new podcasts. By signing up to be a Friend of Canaan, fans will be sent questions about the Hoppers and North America Live! Upon sending in the correct answers, your name will be entered into a contest where prizes will be given away including your favorite Canaan product and memorabilia.  Every answer will be contained within the Hoppers podcasts.

North America Live! will hit bookstore shelves on January 27, 2009 and includes a special $5.00 off coupon for one of the latest Hoppers’ DVDs.  From Jackson, Tennessee to Bloomfield, Ontario Canada, Claude, Connie, Dean, Kim and Mike capture the heart of live audiences in a way that only America’s Favorite Family of Gospel Music can. Both old and new material is featured on the new project including great arrangements of the classics “Ten Thousand Years,” “Ready To Leave,” “Jerusalem” and the Connie Hopper classic, “Jesus Saves.” Whether you are a Hopper fan from way back or a new convert to this well-known family group, North America Live! gives every fan a little taste of what has made this family so special for over 50 years!  North America Live! is currently featured on the Singing News featured release player at www.singingnews.com, where a song from the release can also be downloaded for free.  Fans can pre-order a limited quantity of autographed copies of the project at www.canaanrecords.com for a special introductory price of $7.97 through release date.  The first single from North America Live!, “Blame It On Love,” will be shipped to radio stations world-wide on January 20th.  The Canaan Track will be available at www.canaanrecords.com/store soon!

Release Date Set For Hoppers North America Live

The Hoppers new CD, North America Live, will release on January 27th.  This is the album that was recorded at 6 different venues over the summer.  While many live albums are recorded over a range of dates and venues, I don’t know of one that was as spaced out time wise and location wise as this one.  Here’s the press release from Canaan:

NASHVILLE, Tenn (1/12/09) – Canaan Records is pleased to announce that the brand new Hopper’s release, North America Live!, will hit bookstore shelves on January 27, 2009.  From Jackson, Tennessee to Bloomfield, Ontario Canada, Claude, Connie, Dean, Kim and Mike capture the heart of live audiences in a way that only America’s Favorite Family of Gospel Music can. Both old and new material is featured on the new project including great arrangements of the classics “Ten Thousand Years,” “Ready To Leave,” “Jerusalem” and the Connie Hopper classic, “Jesus Saves.” Whether you are a Hopper fan from way back or a new convert to this well-known family group, North America Live! gives every fan a little taste of what has made this family so special for over 50 years!  North America Live! is currently featured on the Singing News featured release player at www.singingnews.com, where a song from the release can also be downloaded for free.  Fans can pre-order a limited quantity of autographed copies of the project at www.canaanrecords.com for a special introductory price of $7.97.  The first single from North America Live!, “Blame It On Love,” will be shipped to radio stations world-wide on January 15th.  The Canaan Track will be available at www.canaanrecords.com/store soon!

Canaan’s CD Sampler

I’ve been noticing on both this blog and on Daniel Mount’s blog that there have been reports of problems with downloading the Canaan sampler.  Daniel emailed Canaan about it, and the result is here.  For the record, I was able to successfully download the sampler CD, but I only requested the sampler, not the subscription to their email list, as I have been subscribed to it for quite a while now.  I think that is where the confusion came in, when people would sign up for both.  I also agree with Daniel, it’s well worth the effort for the download.

One interesting thing I noticed is that there is a cut of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” by the Cathedrals.  It was recorded by the Kirk Talley version of the Cats, and is almost note for note the same arrangement as the one on the Funderburk era A Cathedral Christmas, Acappella.  A major difference is that this version has instrumental accompaniment.  It’s a great listen, I’d never heard or known of this version of the song by this version of the Cats.

A Couple Of Interesting News Items

First, Canaan is offering a free sampler download.  Head over to their website and you will find a place to enter the code “FREEGIFT” to get the download.

Secondly, enLighten is rebroadcasting the SN fan awards a couple of times over the next few days.  The first will be Monday night at 8PM EST.  There will be an encore presentation on Thanksgiving Day at 6PM EST.  I’m sure this is a way to “break in” the new listeners on SIrius and Dish, and is a very good idea.

Upcoming Releases From The Canaan Records Vault

Those of us who are collectors of vintage recordings have now cautiously hit a jackpot.  As previously announced, Canaan Records has promised to open their vault and release completely remastered projects from the label’s long history.  Well, the first few of the projects have been announced.  In addition to the Canaan Christmas album, we can expect the following releases:

The Rex Nelon Singers – Expressions of Love – Nov 18th, 2008
The Cathedrals – Sunshine and Roses – Nov 18th, 2008
Wendy Bagwell – This, That and The Other - Coming soon

This is great news, and I’m very anxious to hear the newly remastered versions of these projects.  Keep your eyes peeled for more updates.

Interesting Problem With Mike Lefevre Quartet CD

I bought a copy of the Mike Lefevre Quartet CD Nothin’ But Good yesterday.  Great CD, probably the best I’ve heard yet this year, and I’ll do a review on it in the next few days or so, but I have one disappointing problem with the disc.  On the chorus to “You Thought Of Us”, there is some major distortion going on.  I heard it on my car stereo, and also on my headphones here at work.  I asked Nate, who recently ordered the CD from Canaan, and he checked his CD and hears the same distortion.  It almost sounds like the music is overdriving the speakers, like the CD was produced with the input levels turned up way too high.  I also hear the distortion on the songs “Take My Life” and “Didn’t It Rain”, but it isn’t quite as bad as what “You Thought Of Us” is distorted.  It’s a shame, because “You Thought” is a great song, one of my favorites on the disc, but the distortion lessens the experience.

I’m interested…do any of you readers have the CD, and do you hear the same thing?  If you have the digital version, are your mp3s distorted too?  It really is a shame, such a great CD, but is tempered by the poor audio quality on 3 of its strongest numbers.

Canaan Records Opens Their Vault

Via the SN forums, Canaan Records is promising to rerelease classic recordings in their vault via iTunes.  A Christmas album should be available as of yesterday with classic tunes, and via this website we are promised recordings by the Rex Nelon Singers, Blue Ridge, Cathedrals, and the like.  Time will tell if this comes to fruition, but let’s hope there winds up being more in this vault than there was in Al Capone’s.