Tony Cummings quizzed Texas-born singing star DAVID PHELPS

Widely described as the "greatest voice in Christian music", lyric tenor David Phelps has come a long, long way since he first recorded independent album 'Journey To Grace' in 1994. The Texas-born singer became a firm favourite with the Southern gospel constituency when he joined the Gaither Vocal Band in 1997 while his solo albums for Word and the Gaither Music Group have been highly successful. His latest project, 'Classic', puts his rich vocal tones across elegant orchestral accompaniments. He took time off from his busy schedule to be quizzed by Cross Rhythms.

Tony: Would you say you're still embracing new styles?

David: Yes. I've always been known for being eclectic. I consider myself more like a stylist, and I have a classic type of voice. That fits who I am and who I am as an artist, but for the song selection of 'Classic', we really wanted to fill it with songs that on some level felt familiar, like a warm blanket. We were able to compile a few traditional pop things like "What A Wonderful World", and then some sacred things as well like the "Lord's Prayer" and "Ave Maria"; some inspiration things, "You'll Never Walk Alone", which is Broadway; and a couple of arias that are so deeply ingrained in our consciousness we can sing along with them.

Tony: One of my favourite songs was "The Dream", and you wrote that yourself.

David: This project was probably about a year and a half in the making. The song selection part of it, we look our time - about a year. It was four years since my last studio project, so we really didn't want to miss-step on having any songs out of the scope of what we were trying to do. I wanted it to feel like it was almost established. When I started working on "The Dream", I took my lead from a 200 year old violin piece that's a standard lots of violin players know, "La Folía". It's a chord progression classical musicians use in lots of different pieces. I went from there and worked to try to create this piece that ebbed and flowed: you felt like you were moving toward the end and all of a sudden it backed up, takes the listener by surprise a bit. To my friends I call it my opus. It's been pretty amazing, every night I perform it, the response that comes.

Tony: Were the recording sessions done over a long period of time?

David: Once we got to recording it moved pretty quickly. I had already done arrangements for the songs, I had done some of the orchestrating on the songs as well. When we got moving ahead, going into the studio, I had laid out a lot of the direction. From that point on it was hiring the right musicians, getting the right sounds, the right studio; I brought in a couple of other orchestrators who I believed could lend themselves to this project very well. Once that ball started rolling, because there was a lot of pre-work done, it happened pretty quickly.

Tony: Have you ever strayed from the Christian path?

David: Have I ever. I was raised in a Christian home; I was also raised in a thinking home, and we were always discussing and debating things about our faith. Sometimes it didn't agree with what the pastor had preached on Sunday morning. I've grown to appreciate that as an adult. I've had to define my living faith from day-to-day. There are days that I go through the motions, and it seems like it's easy; there are days that it's not easy to live like I know that I should. I know that I have forgiveness for those things. I try to daily pick myself up and get back on the right path.

Tony: Would you call yourself a minister of the Gospel?

David: I'm definitely a lay person when it comes to being a minister, but we all, as believers, fall under that category: none of us are called to believe in secrecy, or to believe on Sunday and live like something else the rest of the week. We're all called to live out the message of Jesus on a daily basis - in front of our peers and those who need to hear it. In that sense, I am very much that. What I believe that I've been called to do is simply lift up the name of Jesus. That happens whether I'm at the grocery store, or at the bank, or on stage singing my music - even if it's not a Gospel lyric. I sing a real mixture of things from opera to Broadway pieces to full-out Gospel and sacred things, and I've always felt it's my calling to lift up the name of Jesus, but I try to give people hope, to inspire them on a journey through this life that can get hard.

Tony: Aren't a lot of Christians hung up with trying to classify music into two types, Christian and secular?

David: I grew up in that atmosphere, and it's not one that I felt comfortable with. As I began to expand in my art, it quickly became a shoe that fit too tightly. That was the metaphor I used as I began to talk about who I am as a believer, who I am as an artist, and who I am as a family man - a husband and a father. I don't think our world is like that at all; I don't think any of us do that very well even if we tried. Art should reflect that we all have times when we feel lost. Shouldn't art be reflective of that lonely feeling of not having an answer to a problem? We are people of faith, and in the end we can find hope through that. Also, we have relationships that we feel deeply for and passionate for the ones we love. Songs about that are part of the human experience as well. I'm so glad you asked, because that has been a really big theme on my journey through who I am as an artist. I talked to an older fellow once about this - it was when I was making my project 'Life Is A Church' - and he said, "The older I get, the more the line is blurred between my secular and spiritual experiences". I thought, Boy, that is really the truth. If you have your eyes open, you'll see that many of the spiritual experiences that we are a part of can seem very secular, and vice versa: many of the secular experiences can bring a spiritual truth.

Tony: Someone said to me you'd be great in Les Misérables. Has musical theatre ever interested you?

David: I've always been a little interested - I mean very interested - in that. That's such a great compliment. I took my family to see Les Mis at the movies.

Tony: I thought it was wonderful, didn't you?

David: Yes, fantastic. I have recorded "Bring Him Home", the tenor piece; that's on this project, 'Classic'. I've sung it for years. My wife has always said that sees me venturing into that. She's right about most things: she's sitting here, so I have to say that.

Tony: Do your daughters enjoy your music or are they more into Lady Gaga?

David: They are very eclectic listeners; they both like a lot of different things. They'll listen to the latest Lady Gaga hit, or whoever it is. I remember they went through a Jonas Brothers phase. But they also love Adele, and they have their classical pieces they love as well. My youngest daughter Maggie Beth is extremely into Broadway and probably knows the part she would love to sing in just about every musical; it's pretty impressive. She plays it so much that my two sons know most of it too by osmosis.

Tony: Why would anyone want to buy your version of "Nessun Dorma" when they've got Pavarotti's to buy?

David: [Laughs] That is good! But it's not a hard one for me to answer. Before Pavarotti there were voices that people absolutely loved. At this stage in the game for me, I am grateful to be considered a voice of any stature in this generation. I really am grateful to be able to record and sing and keep doing it. I talked to my voice teacher from college - she came to one of my concerts; she makes it out wherever I'm close - and I told her I was going to be recording "Nessun Dorma". She said, "Great!" She had been pushing me into classical music. I said, "I'm not going to try to compete with Pavarotti. I'm not going to do it that way. I have to do it my way." She said, "Don't worry, you just sing it like you believe that you should." So that gave me some permission. I have a great love for classical music, but I also am surrounded by people, and have an audience, who haven't necessarily appreciated classical music. So I wanted to do this song in a way that it didn't necessarily feel like it was part of a greater piece, like an opera. I wanted to do this song tipping my hat to the classical side of it, but seeing it as an individual love song. I've been amazed at the response. Honestly, it's been a pivotal moment in my career.

Tony: Did you ever dream of entering opera or classical?

David: There was a side of me that really loved that. I went to school and I studied classical music, and I even auditioned for the Met when I was in college - got to the finals in that. But what really interested me about Southern gospel music at the time was the self-expression, while opera and classical music you are replicating an art form - it's more about the art of playing it in the style it was originally intended. In pop or gospel, the music of the day, there is a lot more room for self-expression. To me, not only that, but there was the chance to communicate more direct themes to an audience. I was really pulled in that direction, and still am: that's what feeds me, the night-to-night live performance, looking someone in the eye and being able to both create art and also say some things through that art.

Tony: Is Southern gospel old men singing in badly-fitting wigs?

David: I don't mind that question at all. There is a side of my audience that would tend to say, "My favourite thing is Southern gospel". But because of the eclecticism of my voice, and my music, I have people who would consider themselves contemporary Christian music fans, and people who just are coming to hear the music in general. The people that come to my event is a really eclectic mix of an audience; I've always been so grateful for that. Speaking to the Southern gospel style itself, I would have to disagree with you. We meet kids there, we meet elderly people there, and it really is a music style of joy. It has its roots in country music.

Tony: Hasn't it diversified now so that it isn't a single musical style?

David: I'm amazed at some of the songs of mine that the Southern gospel audience has latched onto and they'll call Southern gospel. One of my songs on one of my first records was "End Of The Beginning" and it's a rock opera song. Because of the way the lyrical content is very upfront and straightforward about the Gospel of Jesus, they absolutely love it. The thing is, what defines gospel music is not a style: what defines gospel music is a message. Southern gospel music is a division - it's a stylistic division of gospel music - and it's truly based on the way the lyric is presented. If a lyric is presented very clearly and straightforward, the Southern gospel genre will latch onto it and will absolutely love it. The thing I love about the Southern gospel audience is that they are very loyal, like a country audience. It is not a fickle audience. When Kenny Rogers started his career he was in a rock band; he came over to visit his future wife in Nashville, went to Fanfare and saw this audience absolutely go wild for a country music star that had been around for 50 years. In his mind he said, "This is where I want to be. I don't want to be with this audience who is here today and gone tomorrow." He made the switch over into country music. The gospel music industry is very much like that as well. It has a fanbase that sticks with its artists, and really supports them and calls them their own.

Tony: Hopes and plans for the future?

David: This 'Classic' project is new right now. We're putting together a tour this year that I'm going to be touring overseas. This summer we're doing 12 dates in Europe, including London, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Amsterdam. Later on we'll be heading over a little further east into Romania and possibly Beirut and Singapore. 

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.