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Isn't it a hoot that I first got hooked on collecting LARRY NORMAN's music not only because he was pretty awesome, but because a friend had mistakenly told me he was from Wisconsin (yes, I know he was born in Texas and moved to California as a kid) at the time I was amassing music from my home state?
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Am I the only one disappointed that NATASHA BEDINGFIELD would get all yoga/Hindu toward the end of her  vid' for "Pocketful of Sunshine," even if her midriff-exposing top exposes her cute innie navel (which she didn't have to get all yoga/Hindu in order to show)?
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Though I don't know how Christian they are, didn't country duo SUGARLAND have the right idea by releasing the deluxe edition of their latest album ahead of its less decked out standard version? Might Christian market acts learn from that example?
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Apart from the issues of fallenness, rebellion and bad influence on youth  her current success raises, isn't it odd that KATY PERRY's rise to stardom brings up the idea of what "gospel" music is? I don't know about you, but to me gospel connotes at least as many musical identifiers (in more than one style, certainly) as it does textual ones. I'd still call the style in which the gal once known as KATIE HUDSON recorded as contemporary Christian pop-rock. Wordier, yes, but more accurate, right?
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Do the people responsible for bootlegging mega-collectible psychedelic Jesus hippie rock albums onto CD, such as one I was hep to reviewing in my column for another freelance venue of mine (until I found out it's a bootleg I wanted to cover) have any idea how ironic it is to steal from the acts whose music they're pilfering, considering the subject matter of the songs?
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Considering I just attended my  latest, do attendees of class reunions from Christian high schools dance to CCM from the vintage of their matriculation? And how could anyone dance to much of it prior to, say, the late '70s?!
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How much money do BILL AND GLORIA GAITHER net every time that instrumental version of their "Oh, How He Loves You And Me" plays on JOHN MACARTHUR's Grace To You? And isn't it a tad surprising that MacArthur likes Southern gospel enough to have that number play as his theme five days a week?
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About time for extensive CD reissues of the works of BREAKFAST WITH AMY and THE BLIND TEETH VICTORY BAND, isn't it? Ditto for THE WARNING,
but I've mentioned them in this column already, haven't I?
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How unfair is it that the sonically adventurous TYE TRIBBETT  and his choir haven't experienced nearly the general market crossover success that KIRK FRANKLIN has? Having said that, I wish both of them, and many of their soul gospel compatriots, would show much greater discernment in the preachers with whom they choose to be identified.
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Tangentially from the last item, perhaps, what's become of TONEX's move into non-gospel R&B? And does he still believe that one must speak in tongues in order to be saved (don't take my word for it;he says so on his live album)?
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How crazy is it that old PUBLIC ENEMY publicist/apologist HARRY ALLEN would make sense for me of former BARACK OBAMA pastor JEREMIAH WRIGHT and his (Wright's) anti-America tirades? Allen has publicly confessed Christ, too, but in retrospect of my personal encounters with him, I'd
argue that his hermeneutic for scripture seems to coincide with Wright's erroneous black liberation theology. Unfortunate as that is, I'll stand by the the visceral inventiveness of PE's music, regardless of its regrettable racial(ist?) politics.
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Though I have little use for MAROON 5, how is it that THE JONAS BROTHERS can sound like they're channeling ADAM LEVINE's band on "Burnin' Up," and I simply love it?
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Is anybody out there with my in wishing LIFEHOUSE were at least just a touch more exciting? If there are non-singles cuts from their last  couple albums you think may change my opinion for the better, feel free to suggest them.
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With FRANCESCA BATTISTELLI, doesn't it sound like Christendom has its own SARAH BAREILLES? That didn't take long, did it?
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How odd is it that in a certain city around me I'm more apt than not to hear PLUMB's "In My Arms" when I'm at a restaurant or charity thrift shop?
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How soon will it be before my church starts singing at least one song from the new CHRIS TOMLIN album? better him than some other praise&worship folks, I say.

Jamie Lee Rake