Books! I get books!

B. J. Hoff's A Distant Music is in my hot little hand. Angela Hunt's Magdalene is on its way. I am a rich woman!

Our girl Paris Bennett has a Rockford connection!


OK, I'll admit, I'm a big fan of American Idol. I love it from the very beginning, when most of the singers are what Simon Cowell would say in his uppity posh British accent "ap-PAWL-ing," to the very end when the new winner is chosen.

So I was watching with great interest when 17-year-old Paris Bennett went before the judges and pretty much blew their socks off.

You see, Paris has a connection to my hometown. She is the great-granddaughter of local Reverend Perry Bennett, pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church in Rockford, and she is the daughter of Shayne Patterson of Rockford.

She also happens to be the granddaughter of granddaughter of Grammy Award-winning singer Ann Nesby-Lee (Sounds of Blackness, “The Fighting Temptations”).

Paris has a beautiful, unique voice. I look forward to hearing more from her as the competition rolls on.

Evie Revisited



One of the things that continues to amaze me is how much traffic is generated to this blog by people looking for information on Christian singer Evie Tornquist Karlsson.

The constant stream of Evie fans to this site (it really picks up momentum around Christmas) shows me that this woman's music has made a great impact on many people.

I did a radio interview with Evie in late 2004, in which she related that she would be releasing a new Christmas album. I never heard anything else about the album, though, and repeated attempts to contact Evie by e-mail were unsuccessful.

Still, my Evie-related posts on this blog continue to generate comments and e-mails. Some people apparently think I'm a clearinghouse on all things Evie, and ask me where to get her music, guitar chords, what have you. Unfortunately, I'm as clueless as the next person.

However, Kayla Wood comments on my blog that she got a "non-expensive CD copy" of "Come on Ring Those Bells at sweet-music.com. Click the link if you're interested.

A Gary Kemp recently commented on this blog: "Some 30 years ago, Evie and her music was an integral part of my early Christian walk. She walked away from her music at some point, and went into other ministry, which I can understand. I had 3 of her albums, 'Mirror' 'Never the Same' and 'Evie Again'. Alas, I gave all my old record albums to a missionary friend some 15 years ago; I was content that I could replace most of my record collection with the new CD medium.

"Guess what? No Evie CD's. What's that all about? But there is some good news. I had made copies of the 3 records onto cassettes, for travelling music in my car; all my old cassettes were in storage for over 10 years. So, I recently was digging through my old boxes, and there they were.

"I have now taken several hours of arduous pain to copy them from those cassettes, onto my computer "praise" collection, whereupon they will be transferred to my iPod for regular listening. Suprisingly, the fidelity was pretty good.

"So, what's my point? It is this. Evie's song were powerful, timely, and were greatly used to enhance the listener's Christian hope and development. Yea, I know, they are not "hip" by today's standards, but they are solid in the building of faith, and very, very refreshing.

"I submit: Evie's songs are not her own - - they belong to the Church of believers, young and old. She has the right to remain hidden, but her songs are too important to keep under wraps! I am not talking about Evie as an entertainer, but rather Evie as a servant (together with her husband and children...) of the risen Savior, with a needed resource for His kingdom. As such I call for Evie, or the Word record company, to remaster, and get the re-issued CD's available to the public. No one's going to get rich here, but many will be greatly blessed.

"For the record, I am again being greatly blessed by those great songs."

Amen, Gary! I couldnt's agree more. And Evie, if you're out there, please let us hear from you.

Good-bye, Daniel!

I recently blogged that I hoped the ap-PAWL-ing (to use one of Simon's terms again) TV show, "The Book of Daniel," would just go away. Looks like I got my wish. According to AP's "Religion Roundup": " N-B-C's drama about a pill-popping Episcopal priest who raps with Jesus about his wayward family and flock was shunned by advertisers, network affiliates and most viewers. So after only three weeks, N-B-C has pulled the plug."

See ya!

Related Tags: Fiction, Entertainment, Television, "American Idol", "The Book of Daniel", Evie Tornquist Karlsson