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Saturday, October 28, 2006

MUSIC! Ernie Haas and Signature Sound

The Gospel Music Association in Nashville, Tennessee selects artists from various sectors of Christian music to receive their 'Dove Awards.' One of the artists nominated this year for the 'new artist of the year' award is a group called 'Ernie Haas and Signature Sound.'

This group has the distinction of achieving gold and platinum status on Billboard Magazine's top-sellers list for their DVDs and CDs...a benchmark that very few Christian artists attain. The group's summer tour this year drew sell-out crowds in a majority of the 21 venues in which it appeared.

Ernie Haas and Signature Sound tours regularly with Gospel Music icon Bill Gaither, appearing on all of Gaither's Homecoming concerts around the world.

When one listens to this energetic group, it is easy to see why audiences are thrilled with their music.

The manager/tenor vocalist of this dynamic quartet is Ernie Haas, who sang with the world-renown Cathedral Quartet from 1990 until 1999 when the group retired. For a brief period of time afterward, Haas traveled as a soloist. Then, in 2001 or so, he joined a friend in forming Signature Sound. It has been only recently, however, that the group gained the attention of a large, national audience when they joined Bill Gaither's family of artists. They record on Gaither's label and are promoted by the Gaither organization.

In taking the group to the top level in Christian music, Haas' goal was to shape a quartet that was fully 21st century, complete with the looks, the style, and the staging that modern audiences have come to expect. A Signature Sound concert will feature super-charged energy, a slick, choreographed stage presentation, fun-filled banter between the group members, and a sound that is tight, balanced, and professional.

The thing that separates this group from other more traditional Gospel Quartets is the dance moves Haas and the other members incorporate into their presentations. This has gained for the group a rather large younger audience, which has brought some new fans into the family of Southern Gospel music. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the members of Signature Sound are young men, most of whom are in their 20s and early 30s. Haas is the oldest in the group, and he is under 40.

An interesting note of interest is that many of the fans of this group may not even know that Signature Sound is a Southern Gospel Quartet, adhering to a basic tradition of four-part male harmony that was born, bred, and perfected in the South. They do not look and act like a traditional male quartet. Their arrangements are thoroughly modern. But underlying it all is an adherence to and appreciation for the great quartet tradition that the Southern Gospel Music pioneers created.

It really doesn't matter, though, that many of their young fans know nothing about all of this. All that matters is that they like what they hear and see.

And that goes for many of the older generation as well!

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