Latest / The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine / Who are the Best CCM Artists?

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Who are the Best CCM Artists? · The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine

0:16
Welcome to the Decent Christian music Talk. I'm Eric mcclenahan. With me today
0:21
is Colin Savage, who is co hosting with me for this series and still
0:26
haven't gotten rid of me. Does everything to make the show looking sound good
0:34
because I am computer illiterate for the most part. Then I got the hosts
0:41
of the Black Sheet Podcast, Mason Minega and Colon Mack with me today.
0:46
Thank you all for coming on. Heck yeah, super excited, long time
0:50
he see. Yeah, good to see you guys. So the day I
0:57
think that me and Mason were talking about He's like, you still want to
1:00
have us on? I was like, well yeah, and uh that night
1:03
I had a dream that people would not be judged by the contents of their
1:11
skin, but for the color of their skin, but as opposed to skill
1:17
it who who I saw today is now Mason's favorite band. So that's right,
1:25
about three and a half more hours for them to be So I guess
1:30
most people watch the probably know Mason has a pretty big Twitter slash x following,
1:37
and in my dream, apparently those were real life people who just follow
1:42
him around everywhere like his groupies. So uh, for some reason, I
1:49
think I think we were supposed to be recording like a podcast like this,
1:53
but but we were hanging out that day and for some reason I decided to
1:57
take you to my old fund Mentalist Baptist church. And your groupies were so
2:04
mad that I would have the dumption to take you there. But they went
2:08
in anyways, and they all stormed out halfway through, and they were just
2:12
disgusted with me that I would bring somebody like Mason to that, to that
2:16
church. Were there were there twelve of those followers that were a little closer
2:21
than the others, you know, I think I think there probably were.
2:27
But anyway, so I thought that was funny. Well just wait three more
2:30
years and see what happens to me. I know, me and Mason have
2:36
been friends on Twitter for what probably like seven or eight years now probably yeah,
2:42
me me not quite that long. Yeah, I was, I like
2:45
for Twitter eight years ago. For me was still like just college friends in
2:49
high school friends, I do. Uh yeah, And Colin Colin was one
2:53
of those people that was probably my first follower. Maybe yeah, I think
2:57
I created I helped you create your account, didn't I? Or that was
2:59
fake? Probably certainly my Facebook. But but yeah, I would say at
3:04
least, like, yeah, five or six years, we've been connected just
3:07
because we both like a lot of the you know, grew up with a
3:09
lot of the same music. So we're like, that's you seem like a
3:12
cool person to know. How many other people know cool relationships? So that's
3:16
true. How many other people know any Floodgate artists? So I'm like,
3:21
this seems to know a couple. I remember your profile picture when we were
3:27
first following each other on there. You looked like a high schooler at the
3:30
time, so you couldn't have been you couldn't have been too much older than
3:34
that. I was like, how did this guy like Life in Your Way
3:36
when he was like eight? That's because Life Life in Your Way was probably
3:40
my first CD I ever owned, nice probably my favorite hardcore type band too.
3:50
So I guess I'll start off Colon if you just want to kind of
3:54
give us your history and background with Christian music. Oh yeah, yeah,
4:00
Well, uh, for me, it it goes back to uh man,
4:08
I suppose I suppose it goes back to a TV show called Steel Roots and
4:15
uh yeah it was on. It was they had a show called Mayhem and
4:19
uh the dude from Pillar Rob. I believe is his name was the host,
4:25
and I was like, hey, this music is pretty cool. I
4:30
think I think I want to like it. Actually, you know where it
4:31
really starts is from Skillet. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your personal leanings.
4:38
I guess I had seen Skillet back when I was in elementary school when
4:43
they were on the Alien Youth Tour and they played at our high school and
4:47
uh, our local high school, and I went with my sister and I
4:51
had a blast, and then uh yeah. And then then it was the
4:56
Old Mayhem Show on Steel Roots that's showing all these great Christian music videos and
5:02
stuff like that. So you had like your blind sides, your your normal
5:06
genes of the world, more more of the alternative side, I would say,
5:11
And of course, the the more Christian contemporary music was always uh,
5:17
you know, always there on the side. Those are the ones that youth
5:19
group pastors were trying to get you to listen to and all that stuff.
5:23
And you know, I dabbled here and there on some of it and enjoyed
5:28
a lot of it and rejected most of it, I would say, honesty.
5:33
So yeah, that's that's that's where it is for me. I think
5:35
Mason has a pretty similar situation growing up. Yeah, well, Christian music
5:43
started for me when I was you know, just an infant, before I
5:46
even really formed any memories. But what I do know was that my my
5:51
first encounter of Christian music was bum bum bum boom bum bum bump bump,
5:59
bump bump. That was my very first Uh, that's my favorite. So
6:08
I can just imagine that alien youth haircut. Well did you listen to the
6:16
Veggie Rock CD? Of course, Man, yes, I think I don't
6:20
think it's Bob with the mohawk. I think Larry maybe Skillett was on there.
6:26
They did stand up. Yeah, it was a great song. Uh
6:30
that was like when Skillett would have been in like the Clyde era, so
6:33
it was actually like really good skill it. Yeah, that's their best album.
6:38
Yeah. Yeah. The song I think Stilltt ever made was a Veggie
6:42
tailsper tracks tracks. But anyway, that's where my journey with Christian music started
6:51
was when I was just a wee little lad. And uh yeah, I
6:56
mean I grew up with you know, Christian parents, mean the whole like
7:00
church kind of culture stuff. So yeah, a lot of I kind of
7:03
came up during when Chris Tomlin was starting to get really big in those like
7:09
early two thousands with a lot of his worships music. Trying to think of
7:13
some of the other like worship music that was really big in the early two
7:15
David. Yeah, that felt a little bit more middle school. I think
7:19
when David crowdit, we was starting to become big. I mean maybe he
7:21
was bigger even as big when I was younger, but I like started remembering
7:28
hearing about like David Crowded when I was probably more like in middle school.
7:30
But yeah, that was like two and four. Yeah, that's kind of
7:34
when, yeah, I would yeah, and that's probably when like Chris Tomlin
7:38
was starting to come onto the scene. So yeah, I remember, you
7:40
know, just a lot of that worship music. But yeah, around the
7:44
same kind of time as Cullen. I remember, you know, you would
7:47
go to church and you'd listen to like VeggieTales, uh, you know when
7:51
you were like on a road trip or go to church and listen to something
7:55
like Newsboys or or Casting Crowns or Christal and you know, I just remember
8:01
like that was my experience of music for a while. And but knowing that
8:07
there was like other stuff on the radio. You know, you go to
8:09
the mall or whatever, and you'd hear like, I don't remember who was
8:11
big at the time, probably like Blink Win eighty two or something, right,
8:13
and I was just like, well, that sounds way different and that's
8:16
kind of more what I'm into, but I'm not allowed to listen to that
8:18
music. And I still remember the first time I ever knew, oh,
8:24
you could be a Christian and make interesting music, not just like veggietails music
8:31
or worship music. And I was going into fourth grade, and I think
8:35
it was my first summer where I was allowed to stay at home. But
8:39
I had like a babysitter that came and watched me, so I wasn't like
8:43
home alone, but I was able to like stay at home for the summer.
8:46
And she was this girl from my church. And so I was again
8:48
like probably like ten, maybe almost ten years old, and I remember,
8:54
you know, watching like for you know, because she was like a teenager.
8:58
She would always have MTV on, and so all this pop punk at
9:01
the time was really big and and all of this like other stuff that was
9:05
really big at the time, And at one point, after really getting into
9:09
like Yellow Card and Blinkwin eighty two and Lincoln Park and all those kind of
9:13
bands. There was this this song called Meant to Live that kept playing on
9:20
MTV, and even at that point, I'm like, this sound this is
9:24
just like the lyrics seemed different with this song than any other song that I'm
9:28
listening from, like Blinkwin eighty two or Yellow Card or whatever, and so
9:31
I thought that. I remember like mentioning that to my babysitter. I'm like,
9:35
why, why does this switch foot band kind of seem different than the
9:37
other bands? And she was like, Oh, they're a Christian band,
9:39
and I'm like, what does that even mean. She was like, well,
9:41
there there are bands like they're like a band full of Christians and that
9:45
like matters to them and they play this music. And I'm like, oh,
9:48
you can actually be like a Christian band and make good music, like
9:52
it doesn't have to just be worship music or kids music. And so that
9:56
was like the first time I realized, oh, there was like a there's
9:58
like bands out there like this. So that's when I also found out about
10:03
Reliant K. My next door neighbor was a few years older than me,
10:05
and so I would go over to his house and he was probably getting close
10:09
to like middle school or was in middle school at the time, and so
10:11
he would like show me like all of these like reliant k songs and like,
10:15
oh my gosh, Like I had no idea that any kind of Christian
10:18
music sounded like this. So that was like my first introduction. And then
10:20
that's when I found out about like Tooth and Nail Records and Solid State Records
10:24
and all the other Christian labels at the time, and that's when I dove
10:28
into all of that, and then Culin and I became best friends because of
10:31
like our connection to this. So even though we grew up in like a
10:33
really conservative part of South Dakota where everybody was sort of at least like culturally
10:37
a Christian, there weren't too many people that were like actually into all of
10:41
this Christian music that Colin and I were into. And I still remember Colin's
10:46
a couple of years older than me, but we were on a trip to
10:50
the diet version of Acquire the Fire called there to share. It was like
10:54
if you were like the poor youth group, or you know, you grew
10:56
up in a youth group in South Dakota where you didn't have have like mega
11:00
church money, you could go to Dare to Share instead. So I remember
11:03
Colin and I were going down to Lincoln, Nebraska to Dare to Share.
11:07
And I knew who Colin was. We grew up in a small town where
11:11
you kind of just know who everybody is. But because he was two years
11:13
older than me and he was I think in high school at the time,
11:16
I was like way too scared to ever talk to him. And so I
11:20
was like sitting alone on my for some reason, none of my other friends
11:24
like went on that trip for whatever reason. So I was alone on this
11:26
bus. And at one point we stopped to get dinner and I like grabbed
11:31
like a sub from subway or whatever, and I come back to the bus
11:35
and Colin like bumps into me or something, and my like sub flew in
11:39
the air and I like quickly catch it with one arm or one hand.
11:41
And he was like that it was the coolest sketch I've ever seen something along
11:46
those lines. And he was like, are you sitting alone up front of
11:50
the bus. And I'm like, yeah, like none of my friends came
11:52
for some reason. He's like, dude, just like come back with me
11:54
and like hang out with me. I was like, I feel like royalty
11:58
right now in the back of the bus with people who are two years older
12:01
than me. And so I was sitting next to him and he pulls out
12:05
his iPod and I could see that he was listening to Blindside. And again,
12:09
like, even though we're on this like youth group trip, unless it
12:13
was like a super super popular like worship band or whatever, like, nobody
12:16
else really listened to Christian music even on that bus. None of those worst
12:20
youth group kids did. And so the fact that he was listening to Blindside,
12:24
I'm like, oh my god, Like I've never met another in real
12:28
life person who also likes Blindside, And so I'm like, dude, you
12:33
listen to Blindside? And he was like yeah, And that's how Colin and
12:35
I became best friends. That is awesome, beautiful, no story for the
12:41
ages, I think, so, I think. So, So what led
12:45
to you all hosted in the Black Sheep podcast that's a HM magazine? Is
12:48
kind of are they like the I guess founders of that or whatever? You'd
12:54
say, Well, we're the founders of the Black Sheet podcast. But we
12:58
decided to hit our wagonto HM because you know, we always liked HM growing
13:03
up, and you know, it's it's much more marketed towards that that,
13:07
uh, that whole alternative Christian scene, of which Mason and I feel the
13:13
most at home, I think. Uh. And so Mason reached out to
13:16
them and they're like, yeah, if you guys want to do a podcast,
13:20
go right ahead. We'll we'll help help in whatever way possible. So
13:24
they, you know, let us slap their name on on our podcast,
13:28
you know as well. And uh uh they they kind of just let us
13:31
go free rain and do whatever we want. And we really appreciate that from
13:35
them. So it works out pretty well that way. That's awesome. It's
13:39
a it's a great podcast. I don't listen to a whole lot of music
13:41
podcasts, but I listened to Church Dams Now and I listened to Black Sheep
13:46
podcast j f H. You know, there's a few I don't. I
13:50
don't listen to any music podcasts. I don't know why I feel like that
13:54
should be all I listen to, but I think there is there's a there
13:58
is a thing though, like when you're immersed in it all the time,
14:01
you kind of feel like you don't have the bandwidth for it. And I
14:07
also think that if you are if you are listening to music podcasts and you're
14:11
you know, really into music, or you're doing your own music podcast,
14:16
you know, sometimes the things you hear on other podcasts end up in your
14:20
own podcasts and then you're basically just making a replica. So it's actually works
14:22
out to not listen to other music podcasts too often. Yeah, that's a
14:28
really great justification for why you haven't listened to Church Jams Now. Colin.
14:33
I appreciate you, I appreciate James. Actually, no, Church Jams Now
14:37
is actually one of those that I do listen to every once in a while,
14:39
especially like if it's an artist that I know that we're probably not gonna
14:43
have on, great it's listen. So this is really funny. I was
14:46
talking to Josh Olsen from Church Gams Now, uh, and we were talking
14:52
about how we're gonna have y'all on this show today and Josh said, if
15:01
it comes up, you can blame me for not scheduling Colin yet on Church
15:05
James Now, And I said, oh, I was planning to. So
15:09
you heard it hear first, folks. It's Josh Olson's fault that Colin has
15:13
not yet been on Church Jams Now. But it's gonna happen this year,
15:16
twenty twenty four. I'll patiently wait. It's happening. It's going to happen.
15:22
Yeah, I would like to I would like to do a duo I
15:26
know me too, like a collaboration podcast sometimes with them. So we'll we'll
15:30
get some set up sooner or later. But Eric the matchmaker, right,
15:37
bringing everybody together, that that's the thing that Eric does. I mean,
15:39
you did this, Eric with the with the CCM tournament last year too.
15:45
I feel like I feel like you brought in all these sort of fringe factions
15:50
of people on Twitter and stuff that were into different types of Christian music,
15:56
and you kind of brought us all together into like a little unity. I
16:00
just I just had to appreciate that. I appreciate that. It's the Miami
16:07
the Miami Dolphins fandom. You have to constantly be looking for friends. That's
16:14
true. Especially in Kentucky. There's not there's not many Dolphins fans here.
16:19
There's not too many dolphins either. No, no, not many dolphins.
16:26
All right, I guess we'll well, well, will we will? You
16:32
can edit that, Kylin it I got you. We will go through the
16:38
results of the last round real quick. You guys can let me know if
16:41
anything is extremely surprising to you. In the seventies and eighties, region Amy
16:49
Grant beat Carmen pretty good. I think some people thought that would be a
16:52
lot closer. Keith Green put a pretty big win against Andre Crouch, Ridge,
17:02
Mullens beat Stripper, Petra over Whitehart. All those were pretty much blowout.
17:07
All made sense. Yeah, yeah, anything stick out to you,
17:12
Mason or Pullen there in terms of the wins or in terms of where it
17:17
should go. What are you asking in terms of of who did win?
17:22
Did you expect a different result in any of them? No, that's that
17:26
seems too. That seems to track. I am, I am a little
17:30
I imagine that Striper was gonna do a little bit better than Yeah, then
17:34
maybe they did. But rich Rich Mullens did so good last I think I
17:45
think there's some like residual from last year too, that's probably true. Yeah,
17:52
other than Striper not doing quite as well as I would have thought.
17:56
Yeah, this all seems also. I think Carmen would have put up a
18:00
little bit bigger a fight. But I'm a little surprised by that one.
18:03
But yeah, those are the only two I would have expected Amy Grant and
18:07
uh and Richard Mullins to win, But yeah, I thought maybe those you
18:12
know, Striper and Carmen would have put up a little bit better of a
18:15
fight. Am I the only one that just every time I hear Carmen,
18:19
I have to chuckle a little bit. No, No, it's it just
18:23
it's like the whole thing. It doesn't matter if we've been talking about it
18:27
for an hour. I don't know who's talking about Carmen for an hour,
18:30
but if you were, I would still chuckle every single time Carmen's brought up.
18:36
We We've talked about this on another episode, but last year, when
18:41
Josh Baylog and I were kind of put together the tournament, we both totally
18:45
forgot about Carmen. Everybody's like, where's Carmen. We're like, he's already
18:48
the champion. Thankfully we had a good answer for but neither of us were
18:56
ever big Carmen fans. I don't think so. Moving on to the nineties
19:02
sixpence beating MxPx, that blows my mind. Yeah, that's pretty yeah because
19:07
MxPx went what like at least Elite eight last year, right, Final four,
19:12
Final four, that's a big upset. Then yeah, I don't know
19:18
if like they were getting a lot of residual votes from five Ron Frenzy fans
19:22
who have been absent this year or what the deal was there. Well,
19:29
I think sixpence has kind of made a little bit of a runback here recently,
19:33
or not comeback, I should say. I think they've had like some
19:37
some TikTok influence all of a sudden this last year, in like the last
19:41
like four or five months, so much so that you know, I have
19:45
a guitar in my classroom. I'm a teacher by day, and I was
19:48
playing a little bit of sixpence none the Richer and just just like the riff
19:53
or whatever, and the kids knew what I was playing, which I never
19:59
in a million years would have thought that they would have known that. So
20:02
you know, there's, yeah, they've got some of that like crossover success
20:10
that I think MxPx would do really well if the fan base mobilized. But
20:18
Sixpence, like anybody that's on Twitter that if they're not super involved in the
20:26
like CCM Twitter community, would probably just come across that and be like,
20:32
oh, I know sixpence and on the richer and probably just like type that
20:36
in you know, right, yep, and Kiss Me has I think over
20:40
seven hundred million Spotify plays now, which is like, you know, so
20:45
I think it's twenty five years later. I think it's proving that it's going
20:48
to be kind of one of the que essential nineties hop rock songs. So
20:56
hopefully people will discover the rest of their catalog. That's also pretty excellence.
21:02
Jars of Clay Beat Newsboys sixty one to thirty nine. I thought this one
21:07
was really close. Yeah, yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking.
21:11
Too happy makes it makes me feel like there's there's hope for the world.
21:18
Same. I wonder if if Tate earon Newsboys had never happened, if
21:25
that actually would have swung the other way? Yeah, Amazon, what do
21:26
you think about that? And like Peter would have just remained on for like
21:33
I mean, or that they would have quit like at you know, two
21:37
thousand and eight or whenever that was, they would established a legend. I'd
21:41
say if they quit around that time, yeah, I think they would have
21:45
had the same mistique that Jars has probably, Yeah, I agree. Yeah,
21:51
I think that was the kind of big thing because I recognize that,
21:56
like when the voting first started, people were asking, like what era of
22:00
newsboys are we voting for? And I do think that the new era,
22:07
the Tait era of Newsboys is kind of like tainting that legacy a little bit,
22:14
whereas Jars of Clay is like it's it's pretty clean, right, like
22:18
like you have this and you have the nostalgia for it for like this block
22:22
of records. Yeah, Eric, when you were when you were you know,
22:27
dialing this thing up, did you did you have some qualms about whether
22:33
or not like Jars of Clay, for instance, should be in the nineties
22:36
or in the two thousands based off of or are you just going from like
22:41
when they started or like their biggest album or house No. I My main
22:47
concern was to get the artists in a in a decade that they were,
22:53
you know, a power player in and keep the first round matchups from being
23:00
a disaster. So that's kind of how like like Andrew Peterson could have win
23:03
in the nineties, two thousands or tens and twenties. I decided to put
23:08
him in the tens and twenties just because there's not a lot of artists like
23:12
him in that in the modern era. So there were little, you know,
23:18
little things that kind of factored in really and just trying to make each
23:23
region interesting and not too too crowded in the first round with you know,
23:33
good bands getting taken out. Yeah makes Yeah. Uh DC Talk beat the
23:40
super Tones sixty eight thirty two. I thought that might have been closer,
23:42
considering Supertones made it to the championship of the Tooth and Nail tournament that I
23:48
did. Yeah. Yeah, they seem to own everything on anything you do,
23:52
so I'm a little surprised to see them finally ousted. Yeah, I'm
23:56
talk every time I speak. Yeah, even like slightly ill of the uh,
24:03
the SKA community, I get. I get oh buddies, I am.
24:08
I am a resident SKA miser online, so I get it. Man.
24:18
Yeah, I'm I'm not really actually surprised that d C talk won by
24:22
that much. I mean, yeah, the SKA community does come out in
24:26
droves. There certainly is that cult following still, but it's hard to overtake
24:30
like how important d C Talk was for so many people, and by far
24:36
way more people are into d C Talk, then probably we're into all of
24:38
SKA entirely, right. I Mean, if the oc Supertones came out with
24:44
a with a book in the nineties, they might have been able to match
24:51
up against d C Talk. But like, we all read Jesus Freak,
24:52
right, I mean that was like the most important cultural I learned to read
24:59
besides the Bye Boy. And then I wasn't it wasn't allowed to read Jesus
25:02
Freak because my mom said that freak was a it was a naughty word.
25:06
Uh So she gave me the Prayer of Jay Bez instead. Colin, have
25:10
we talked about this? My mom wouldn't let me buy the Jesus Freak CD
25:14
single because she thought that it was, you know, calling Jesus a freak.
25:21
I guess that's pretty close to what my mind. Yeah, except I
25:26
think she thought freak meant, you know, maybe something a little more so.
25:32
Uh. Not long ago, I found that Jesus Freak single for like
25:36
twenty five cents and about it and I was like, take that, mom.
25:44
Also speaking of SKA, Also another music podcast I've been listening too lately
25:48
is Calob the Spies album's anniversary podcast. I wanted to shout that out because
25:53
that's that's also a really good music podcast, pandering I get it now.
26:02
Caleb actually kind of encouraged me to start doing something like this, So I
26:07
really yeah, oh a lot to him, Stephen Hurst Chapman and pf R
26:12
seventy to thirty in favorites of Stephen Kirst Chapman. Yeah, easy. Yeah,
26:18
he needs to bring that mullet back. Yep. He uh. He
26:25
hasn't engaged as much with the tournament this year. Maybe he's saving all his
26:27
energy for the for the for the election, bigger rounds. That's funny,
26:37
all right. I think we talked about pretty much every matchup there the two
26:44
thousands, Skillet and under Oath. That one was that was like way closer
26:51
than it should have been, right, Like, this is the big talking
26:53
point of this episode, right with the people that we have on like how
26:57
insanely close this was. Yeah, but I mean you have to think about
27:04
there's two different kinds of people out there, people who are gonna listen to
27:07
Skillet and people who are gonna listen to under Oath. That's true, and
27:11
so like, I mean, these are two very very large camps. It
27:17
makes sense to me that under Oath wins. But I also would have been
27:19
surprised if Skillett would have won, right, Yeah, Skillett has like over
27:25
eight times more monthly listeners on Spotify nearly nine more nine times more. So
27:30
there is a massive fan base for Skillet, So but I still it was
27:34
like, I I think I quote tweeted like when it was still like fifty
27:37
to fifty, and I quote tweeted him like, there's no way we can
27:41
let skill it win against under oath, and I tweeted it and we ended
27:47
up getting it to sixty forty, which I feel way more. Yeah,
27:52
that was a gamble, Mason, because you very much were like baiting a
27:59
very specific thik subsect of people on Twitter to come try to screw you over
28:04
right because didn't get right. Like you said you would delete your Twitter account
28:08
if they won. Did you say that. I guess we'll not. I
28:12
guess we'll never find out. Yeah, you could have got all your all
28:18
your enemies on that one, and that could have that could have went could
28:22
have went wrong. Yeah, it sucks to be them. It happened.
28:27
Uh, it was. It was fun to watch that how that played out.
28:33
Uh Po d E pod beat casting Crowns seventy to thirty. No surprise
28:38
there. I was a little surprised that reliant kBT that was foot Crutch eighty
28:45
two to eighteen that I was surprised by that too, and I'm I feel
28:51
so much better about that. Yeah, yeah, you know, I you
28:55
know, it's funny and that Mason says that because I remember a time where
28:57
I think Mason would have been a bigger thousand foot Crutch fan than he would
29:02
have been K fan. Yeah, there was a time. There was a
29:04
time when you threw up your rock fist. I used to have a strong
29:10
ass rock fist. I definitely remember going to my first life Light Music Festival,
29:17
which for those that don't know, was a massive free Christian music festival
29:21
in to Fall, South Dakota. Like they would get like two hundred and
29:22
fifty thousand people. I remember my first year that I went, TFK was
29:26
there and that was the only band I wanted to go see. I was
29:32
Set it Off era. I was a big fan of TFK. When when
29:36
that album came out, I was I was definitely in my new metal face
29:41
at that time. Dude, we've we've so we covered phenomenon on church jams
29:47
now and that record did not connect with me. But Set It Off is
29:51
my big TFK its ascentially a decent album, Well, it was like it
29:57
it was like some of the only new metal that I was like into and
30:02
like white guy rapping I was into, but it also had some real emo
30:06
stuff yea for it, and it was like it was it was like middle
30:11
schooler writing in their bedroom kind of. That's like Trevor's like whole thing.
30:17
Like yeah, he has like cornered the market on that, man. Yeah,
30:19
one of Like, I'm glad that you that you also agree with that
30:25
for sure. Yeah, Eric, I don't think you were the person that
30:29
pointed this out, but like maybe a year or so ago, somebody posted
30:32
on the labeled Facebook group that like, out of the ten most stream songs
30:37
on Spotify by an artist that was a part of Tooth and Nail, Trevor
30:42
mccannon mcannon is how you say it was last name he has, Like yeah,
30:48
he has eight, like something like eight or seven of the top ten
30:52
most streamed Tooth and Nail songs on Spotify, or at least he's been a
30:56
part of seven of the ten, whether it's like a TFK song or an
31:02
FM static song or some other song that he was featured on. But that
31:04
dude, at least in the Tooth and Nail world is it's weird because like
31:08
I wouldn't assume that he's like when you think of like tooth and nail artists.
31:11
I don't think most people think of like TFK or Trevor, but he,
31:17
at least in terms of tooth and nail artists, is certainly one of
31:19
the most streamed artists. Yeah, and like for a new metal band,
31:26
you know, who's a lot of new metal stuff hasn't aged real well,
31:30
Like, I think there's a pretty solid band for that. I know.
31:33
Well, he's he's really good. He's got a real like pop sensibility.
31:37
Yeah, I could see him kind of crossing over into like, you know,
31:42
tween pop in a really big way if he ever like wanted to.
31:48
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I could have saw that going like seventy thirty
31:53
two eighteen's kind of that's that was uh, switch footing Me Without You.
32:00
That was a rough matchup for a lot of people, switch foot one sixty
32:04
eight to thirty two. Yeah, not surprised by that outcome, but yeah,
32:09
still disappointed. Disappointed. Yeah, yeah, just disappointed. Yeah,
32:15
like that should have been the skillet under Oath, right, Like that should
32:19
have been a lot closer. Yeah, I agree, I predicted kind of
32:24
listeners I think for those bands. Yeah, no, you're good. Uh.
32:29
I predicted that switch Foot would would win the whole thing, so I'm
32:31
not surprised that they won. But like you guys said, like I'm I
32:36
saw like multiple you know, hosts by in the Met Without You fan group
32:42
on Facebook and some of their fan Twitter accounts, Like I mean, they
32:46
were they were doing the work to get those extra votes, but I guess
32:51
switch Foot was just a little too much. Yeah, all right, we'll
32:55
go on to the tens and twenties. N F and Chris Tomlin was a
33:00
lot closer than I because I found NF wood that dominates. Yeah, I
33:08
want to see an actual, like fistfight between those two. I bet it's
33:13
a lot closer than you for sure. For sure. Well, so,
33:17
Chris Tomlin is actually from my wife's hometown, Grand Selene, Texas, and
33:24
I can guarantee you, out of everyone else that I've ever met from grand
33:29
Selene, Texas, I can almost guarantee you that Chris Tomlin can throw down.
33:36
Does your wife have any dirt on Chris Tomlin? No, she doesn't.
33:39
She doesn't her her I know, I know, but it's so funny
33:44
every time we go we drive in to see her mom, it's like it's
33:47
one of those towns. There's nothing there, right, there's like two stop
33:51
lights. There used to be a Morton salt mine there, so there's a
33:58
salt museum. And right across the street from the salt museum there's a big
34:02
billboard that says home of Chris Tomlin, which always cracks me up every time
34:07
we go to see her mom. That's like this. The city right next
34:13
to ours is John Michael Montgomery's hometown. There's a big sign when you drive
34:17
in home of John Michael Montgomery, which when I was in sixth grade and
34:22
really in my country phase, we drove by John Michael Montgomery's house all the
34:24
time. I don't know, cool, just to be close to country music
34:30
greatness, I guess. I don't know the Caylin what was the what was
34:34
the name of that time? Again? Grand Saline, Texas. So do
34:37
you think that people from Grand Saline, Texas, like, like do you
34:39
think on the like on their sign like their motto is like we're salt of
34:43
the earth kind of people or something. Oh for sure, for sure,
34:46
I don't know exactly, but dude, there they're straight up there there's a
34:50
giant mound of salt at the Salt Museum that my wife told me multiple stories
34:55
of, like they would go on field trips and people would just lick the
35:00
salt rock. That's just like what they did, which in like like post
35:04
COVID America seems absolutely insane that just everyone just licked this giant mound of salt.
35:13
But it's just what everyone did. And then Chris Tomlin wrote like everlasting
35:16
Love there. I don't know, like do you think he do you think
35:19
he was actually writing it to the salt? I hope. So that's all.
35:28
I guess we'll move on to predictions. Uh, we'll stay in the
35:31
tens and twenties. Oh yeah, Toby Mac, Toby Mac and La Craye.
35:38
I think, Uh, I think La Craye wins, but I think
35:45
it's gonna be narrow. I think so I can see Toby Mack pulling it
35:49
out. Yeah, I think I go ahead. I think Toby Max is
35:54
gonna win. Uh, Like, La Crae only barely beat Andrew Peterson unless
36:00
unless there is Andrew Peterson fans out there that I am totally unaware of.
36:05
That just like completely made that a really close one. I really think that
36:10
Toby Mack's got more steam power right now than than La Craze, So I'm
36:15
going with Toby Mack. There actually were a lot of people pushing for Andrew
36:20
Peterson votes, but yeah, I think Toby mackel will win too, but
36:24
I think it'll be pretty close. N F and Need to Breathe any prediction,
36:32
Kala, I have no idea. I have no clue. Need to
36:38
Breathe has just been kind of like they're one of those bands that have always
36:43
been like kind of under the radar for me, Like like I know they're
36:47
a big deal, but they're like when I was in college, it was
36:54
like every girl that I knew, Need to Breathe was like their favorite band,
37:00
And I don't know many people that like still talk about them, but
37:04
they were like, weirdly like really big on streaming. So I don't know.
37:08
I don't know because NF got really far last year, but the NF
37:14
versus Chris Tomlin was a lot closer than I anticipated, so Need to Breathe
37:19
coulde weirdly pull this out. Never discount the Live Laugh Love Court. Yeah,
37:27
exactly exactly. N F one of the bigger NF fan accounts on Twitter,
37:32
was retweeting multiple times trying to rally votes, and it was still that
37:37
close. So last year they got pretty far based on the legions of Twitter
37:44
users who well, he also current album last year, right, Yes,
37:49
that was the thing. It was like the CCM tournament, I feel like
37:52
coincided with one of his like album releases. Yeah, it was pretty close.
37:58
I think that helped a lot. Yeah, I don't know if that.
38:01
I've never heard an NF song in my life, so oh, I
38:06
bet you have. I probably have, probably unintentionally. If you watch any
38:10
football, you've heard at least I don't flip of his song. I don't
38:15
say if you if you watch if you watch Sunday night football especially. No,
38:21
I live in this weird basement in Arkansas where I have a bunch of
38:24
VHS tapes. I'm not super familiar with NF. No, I'm just busy.
38:32
I get, you get. I also can't believe that n F.
38:37
You know, he's number one uh in his in his region, and I
38:42
like, I know that obviously he's got like I think he even has a
38:45
song that has like a billion plays on Spotify. He's number one in the
38:47
whole tournament. Yeah, number one in the whole tournament, and that like
38:51
blows my mind because still when I think of Christian hip hop, especially post
38:57
two thousands, I think of La Craze. But crazy is what seeded tenth
39:01
or seated number ten, And so I mean NF clearly is like way bigger
39:06
than La Crae now. And I guess I just have been so far removed
39:09
from that world for so long that I have like such warped understanding because at
39:15
one point, La Craye was probably the most popular Christian hip hop artist,
39:19
and so my mind is like so warped about like who's big in Christian hip
39:22
hop? Now? Wasn't there like a big, a big falling out that
39:27
La Craye had with the Christian community though this last year, especially maybe his
39:31
last two years I remember, But it's with like the like the reformed John
39:37
Piper crowd. I think they didn't they didn't see I on the Black Lives
39:43
Matter things, I think, and he wasn't happy with the support that that
39:49
that crowd was was given to the movement. I think is kind of what
39:52
it boiled down to. There was there was that one and then there was
39:54
another one. I think it had something to do with like like like recognizing
40:06
that there are more than more than just like the like the commonly accepted sexualities.
40:12
I think that was another. Yeah, yeah, so he's just alienating
40:15
everybody these yeah, how dare he? How dare be a human being that
40:22
makes up It's interesting to me that three of the four in the tens and
40:27
twenties region that are left or hip hop artists that yeah, okay, And
40:30
this happened like like literally, I think what like an hour before this round
40:36
closed, I was like, man, it's just does not seem to be
40:38
the year for hip hop, and then all of the tens and twenties is
40:43
like, no, we're doing hip hop, and then these strange you know
40:46
what. What else is interesting about that is it kind of like shows how
40:51
uh maybe Christian Christian contemporary music, Christian music in general is is slightly behind
40:58
the times because if you look at the Billboard charts and everything like that,
41:01
hip hop is definitely on the down, like they are. Hip hop artists
41:07
are struggling much much more than they ever have to to crack that top top
41:12
twenty, right, So it is kind of a strange thing in fact that
41:16
everyone's kind of predicting that they're going to kind of go the way of rock
41:20
here within the next five years or so, all of a sudden it just
41:22
disappears. So what's gonna hurt Christian music in that regard is that they're not
41:29
like I think kind of what seems to be taking its place is like the
41:32
Olivia Rutter Goes and the ultrap you know. Yeah, and I can't think
41:37
of any current Christians to be the closest. But that's way more like pop
41:43
oriented than it is like guitar driven music. Yeah, I think like there
41:47
were some artists in the Christian scene in like the mid two thousands that would
41:51
have probably fared pretty well right now Barlow Girl and super Chick and Spamyers.
41:58
I don't know if you'll remember her, but so I don't know if you
42:02
know, I don't know if the Machine is just going to focus on worship
42:07
music or if they'll try and find some people to fit that mold. Yeah,
42:10
why was it Kanye in this list? I put it to I put
42:15
it to a vote because his album has been number one on the Christian in
42:21
the Charge for three weeks. I know you're so mad about it. It's
42:27
it's I mean, it's kind of frustrating, it's technically shouldn't be. Yeah,
42:30
exactly, Yeah, all right, we'll move on to the two thousands
42:36
under Oath and Pod. What do you guys think there? Uh, man,
42:40
go go under Oath. But I think is gonna pull this one out.
42:45
It's gonna be pretty close, though, I feel like I think so
42:47
too. Yeah, I'm gonna vote under Oath, but I think POD probably
42:53
will win. I wouldn't be surprised if under Oath wins. But yeah,
42:57
I think Peod is gonna pull this one out. But I'm definitely can obviously
43:00
vote for under Oath. So if you put out a tweet pool in for
43:04
under Oath, that might that might change, that might help I give him
43:07
a chance. The thing is, I feel like, regardless of who wins
43:12
the Reliant K switch Foot matchup, p o D is going to get demolished.
43:17
But under Oath, if it can pull out from po D, the
43:23
Reliant K or switch Foot whatever that matchup is, is going to be like
43:28
really close. I feel like, yeah, what do you all think will
43:32
happen with Reliant K and switch Foot? Oh? This is I mean,
43:37
this is the question, that's this, This is the hardest I think of
43:42
this. You know they didn't. Did they go up against each other last
43:46
year? Bill, Like, I feel like you didn't on purpose? Right,
43:52
I thought that we had a conversation about Yeah, a Reliant K went
43:58
up against. It was I think it was five on Frenzy that they went
44:01
up against, and uh, people weren't real happy that they met in the
44:06
second round. I think, yeah, I don't. I don't think they
44:09
met last year. I think if if Reliant Case somehow in the next like
44:17
week or so announces like a new album or a tour or something, they
44:23
could pull it out. But otherwise I think it's going to be switch Foot.
44:29
Yeah. Yeah, I think you're probably right, although if they're a
44:34
real Christian, right, Mason, But it's damn right they follow you?
44:40
So wait, Mason, reliank K follows you on Twitter? Yeah, didn't
44:45
you know I'm a Christian. That's the only way that I knew. I'm
44:52
not sure if I'm a Christian or not, because only one member of Reliant
44:55
K follows me on Twitter. So you're you're a quarters you go to purgatory,
45:00
that's what that means. Okay, Okay, here's what I will say
45:05
about here. We are in the Sweet sixteen right now, so we've got
45:07
sixteen artists still remaining. It feels like every one of these artists could actually
45:13
win it. Like each one of these feel like such heavy hitters in the
45:17
CCM world. It's kind of unbelievable that there's six there's still like that many
45:22
sixteen, and each one of them feels like they could maybe go on to
45:25
eventually win. Yeah, and I think any if any artist gets involved that
45:32
that could totally you know, flip flip flip any of these really which Reliant
45:38
K and switch Foot We're both somewhat distantly involved last year, so it'll be
45:44
interesting. I think Reliant K or switch Foot jumped in the day after the
45:50
tournament ended. Oh sorry, we missed this after they lost a five Fire
45:53
and Frenzy in the championship. Very political, Yeah, okay, we'll go
46:00
over to the seventies and eighties. We got Amy Grant and Keith Green.
46:07
Amy Grant, go Keith Green. I think the praises of Green if they
46:15
if you know, if the Amy Grant voters decide to just type her name
46:20
instead of clicking in the poll again, then Keith Green could But I'm hoping
46:24
they're more I'm hoping they figured it out. What does that tell you about
46:31
the voting demographic? That's true? Oh it was amazing. Did they have
46:38
to like click on the link from Facebook to get to the Twitter poll?
46:43
Is that like how I think? I think that's what happened. And they
46:47
were not regular Twitter users, possibly made an account just so they could vote
46:52
in it, and multiple people probably they all people just voting for Amy about
47:00
typing underneath the toys. They all made an account last year, and they've
47:04
had a year to experience, like to have the US like to understand the
47:09
user experience of Twitter here, probably all of the people who made an account
47:15
when Eli Musk took control of the true I think it's people that constantly reply
47:23
to me saying nudes and bio. Is that the Yeah, yeah, it's
47:29
the Amy Grant bots. I think it's gonna be Immigrant and Rich Mullins.
47:35
Petro doesn't stand a chance, right, No, Petro doesn't stand a chance,
47:37
I don't think. So they're out, they're done. Apparently. I
47:40
found out today that Petra has their own tournament going on in their Facebook groups,
47:45
so they may actually be like, yeah, it's all their albums in
47:52
a in a tournament. Yeah, all right, so they're just doing their
47:55
own thing. That's fine. Forward. They got the n I T going
48:00
on over there all right, nineties sixpence against Stars of Clay, Yeah,
48:09
that could be pretty Yeah, I think pulls it out. They've got I
48:13
feel like they've got a much stronger Twitter following. Yeah, he might be
48:17
right about that. Yeah, but sixpence beat mx PX, which m x
48:22
p X went super far last year, so that's true. And sixpence are
48:28
they've just announced, you know, they're reuniting and going to record new music
48:31
and stuff, so that I may actually have some people excited about them who
48:36
otherwise may not have. We can weirdly see sixpence just like casually winning this
48:42
whole thing. Wow, just just walking on through. Interesting. We'll see
48:50
DC talks Steve Kurst Chapman. I Talk is gonna win pretty handedly, ye,
48:55
I think so unless Steven gets involved. Steven, this is your chance,
49:00
and so he got involved last year, and this is your chance.
49:02
We're calling you out. You got to mobilize. Talk is going to win.
49:07
He's aware it's going on. He's been liking, liking the tweets and
49:10
things with his name in them. Well, now's the time. Now,
49:15
now's the time to really get involved. He needs to say something like he'll
49:19
bring back the mullet if he wins, and oh this entire yeah, and
49:23
if that happens for true, true, just to reach out to Toby Mac
49:28
and be like, hey, you're in You're in the sweet sixteen and two
49:30
different to how you just like, you know, throw your name do Yeah,
49:36
you're good to go? Yeah? True? How crazy would be if
49:39
it was if it was DC Talk versus Toby Mac. I think yeah,
49:44
we did. Yeah. Some people have mentioned it and they act like they
49:49
would be pretty confused about what to do. But I mean, I just
49:52
vote for whether you like the music under the name DC Talk or the music
49:55
under the name Toby Mac. I hope it doesn't come down to that.
50:00
Uh yeah, I didn't think it would. But Tobby Max actually doing pretty
50:05
well. So we'll see. And with the n f under kind of underperforming
50:09
compared to last year, we'll see. Who did you predict Colin would win
50:15
last week? I have no recollection. Uh, so I'm gonna have you
50:22
picked either. I don't remember anything that I ever say on a microphone thirty
50:28
seconds after it happens. Uh, I could see switch Foot coming out on
50:31
top switch Foot or Amy Grant. I don't know. That's the that's the
50:36
wildest prediction I've ever made, but I'm gonna I'm gonna stick with it,
50:40
all right. Do you think I see switch Foot versus Emmy Grant is probably
50:45
a very likely possibility? Uh maybe relying Kane Amy Grant. But I do
50:52
think at the end of the day, I think it's probably gonna end up
50:54
being switch Foot versus Amy Grant. Who wins between that, I definitely will
50:59
be voting for switch But if that's the case, but I don't know that
51:04
that might be like a triple overtime kind of win for either one of them
51:08
if that happens. Olden, how do you think I'm gonna I'm gonna go
51:15
left field. I'm gonna say Jars Clay here. I think Clay has the
51:17
has the steam, Okay, And I think they're gonna I think they're gonna
51:22
fire in all cylinders here in the end. All right, Well, it's
51:29
gonna be interesting. Hopefully if rich Mullins gets too trending again like you did
51:34
last year, then that could be a battle for Amy Grant in the seventies
51:37
and eighties. That's true kind of something I'm looking out for, all right.
51:44
I think that'll about do it for this. Mason, do you want
51:49
to tell people where to find you online if they haven't already. Yeah,
51:53
you can find me pretty much at all of the socials on Twitter, on
51:59
Instagram, I've got a YouTube channel, uh, just Mason Menega on all
52:04
of those things. I am one of two Mason Menica's in the world.
52:07
The other one has like a Facebook account, I think. And that's it.
52:10
So if you see a Mason Menica out there, it's ninety nine point
52:15
nine percent me. All right, Cole, I don't know if you want
52:20
to be found on the line or not, but if you do, where
52:22
would you like to be found? Ikeep A pretty low profile personally, but
52:27
what's the only fans? I keep that to myself. You're the Please please
52:36
go check out the Black Sheet podcast presented by HM Magazine. That's the podcast
52:39
that Mason and I do together. We have a lot of a lot of
52:45
fun guests on. We just had Kevin Max of DC Talks of DC Talk
52:50
on and uh and it was a good time and I think it was very
52:52
an insight very insightful time. So yeah, more more alternative kind of music.
52:59
But uh, sometimes we have the CCM artists on as well, so
53:04
but you can find that anywhere. Just Blacksheet podcast presented by HM Magazine,
53:09
always a good listen, Colin, Can you tell people a get where to
53:14
find you? Yeah, just check out Church Champs Now, the We're Church
53:20
Champs now and all the socials and if you if you listen to this show
53:24
and then you listen to Black Sheep and you're like, Okay, there's still
53:28
like a little bit more. Maybe I want to hear someone talk about the
53:30
movie Extreme Days for an hour and a half. Then you come find us
53:36
all right at church Jams Now. You can find me at an everglow on
53:40
Twitter. Thanks to you guys for joining me and we'll talk to you later.
53:46
Heck yeah,