Yes, yes, I know, everyone has a blog. Well, but that's not so in Christian music. Today I'm going to talk about some of my favorites, some of my least favorite, and everything in between. And yes, if you're offended, leave comments. ;-)
I'd have to say my absolute favorite is Shaun Groves' Shlog. No, wait, maybe it's his music blog. I mean, the man's such a prolific blogger he has to have mutliple blogs! Shaun posts a couple times a day on all kinds of topics, from Christian music industry to promoting yourself on the web to, of all things, his manager getting his teeth inspected by a promoter. Thanks to Google Reader as well for picking up his really good stuff that gets banned shortly after - I really enjoyed his "An Insider’s Look At Christian Radio Pt.8: Who Is Becky Really" post but now it seems to be missing just when I wanted to give him props. And, as far as similar independent artists, I also recommend Andrew Osenga and Jeremy Casella for good blogging as well.
Props to Jars of Clay for having a blog, but -2 eProps for giving us a whole lot of nothing. Sure, Shaun doesn't give us much free, new music (yet), but at least he tells us more than "We're making a Christmas album." We actually feel like we're involved. There's a discussion. We can post comments. Even if I can post comments on the JoC blog, all I can really say is, "That 25 seconds of nothing in the studio was kinda funny," but left me feeling like I was part of some sort of practical joke. Sure, your record label might get annoyed if you gave us a full song, but show us something! Tell us how the recording process is going. Stop making me feel like I'm across the street trying to peer through the blinds with my Polaroid camera and let me actually come in and look around for a couple minutes!
David Crowder is one artist that does a decent job of blogging on a major label. For his recent time in the studio, they set up webcams everywhere and he occasionally posted information about the goings-on. We were told immediately that the new album was called Remedy and given a secret site for pre-sale tickets for their club tour. (Alas, the tour is not coming to exciting clubs of Minneapolis, or I'd totally give my best internal organs to be there because, as everyone knows, the only thing better than seeing David Crowder open for Third Day is, well, seeing them in a much, much smaller venue.)
So there you have it, the state of the industry. Anyone have other favorite artist blogs?