(Reprint from the Daily Reflector, Greenville, NC, Tuesday, August 8, 2006)
'It's a fun, fun music to sing'
The Carlson Trio is doing its part to keep Southern Gospel music alive
Jason A. Frizzelle/The Daily ReflectorGlenn Hudson, left, Nathan Carlson, center, and
Kevin Pulley perform at Elm City Missionary Baptist Church.
Music with a message: The Carlson Trio's keeping Southern Gospel music alive
By Kim Grizzard
The Daily Reflector
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Since launching his own Southern Gospel music trio five years ago, Nathan Carlson is working on his fourth full-length CD and is booking 100 tour dates a year. But he's still not ready to quit his day job.
Especially since such a move would make him a high school drop-out.
Carlson, the founding member of The Carlson Trio, is a rising senior at D.H. Conley High School. Still, at 17, the Grimesland resident has nearly 10 years of experience in Southern Gospel music.
While many teens his age spend their weekends going to ball games or movies or hanging out with friends, Carlson is on the road. With fellow group members Glenn Hudson and Kevin Pulley, he travels aboard a Coachman Catalina RV (which Hudson says stands for "religious vehicle") to churches from the North Carolina mountains to Virginia to sing for Southern Gospel music fans.
Southern Gospel combines country, blues and gospel music. The style, which has roots in the Bible Belt, features lyrics that portray the gospel message.
Industry officials estimate there are more than 8,000 amateur and professional Southern Gospel groups singing throughout the United States. Historically, some of the best known are groups like The Statesmen Quartet, The Blackwood Brothers, The Happy Goodman Family and The Cathedrals.
"A lot of people, (when) they think Southern Gospel, they think four old men in black suits with their hair slicked back," Carlson said. "Seriously, that's what they think."
The Carlson Trio doesn't fit that mold. Hudson, the group's oldest member, is 30 (Pulley is 28). And while they do own suits, group members are quite comfortable performing without jackets and ties.
Even with the up-to-date look, the group maintains a distinctive Southern Gospel sound, singing three-part harmony to classics like "I'll Fly Away," "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder" and "Mansion Over the Hilltop." Such old-time favorites are popular with the audience, which is largely composed of senior adults.
"Most of the time it's the older crowd," Carlson said. "We don't have many people who are about my age that come."
Hudson joked: "They're hidden out there in the cotton field."
Pulley said The Carlson Trio and other young groups are trying to draw their peers to concerts by bringing in newer sounds and songs. They've been helped in recent years by the popularity of Southern Gospel groups like The Crabb Family.
"We don't want (Southern Gospel) to die," Pulley said. "We want to see young people get interested in it. It's a fun, fun music to sing."
Carlson, who started singing in local churches when he was 8, credits his stepfather, Jackie Harrington, with introducing him to the music genre.
"My stepdad, he had all kinds of gospel CDs he would play. ... I guess that's when it started," Carlson said. "I guess I kind of got into it before I got to the 'not cool' stage."
Harrington now runs the trio's sound and drives members to concerts with his wife Pat, who schedules bookings for her son's group. Jackie Harrington remembers the first time his stepson showed an interest in performing.
"When he was 9, he asked me to take him over to Williamston ... he said he wanted to go enter a contest," Harrington recalled. "He said he didn't care anything about winning, but he wanted to see what he needed to work on."
Harrington cautioned the boy that at the Dixie Melody Boys Homecoming Talent Search, he likely would have to compete against adults. But young Carlson went and won. That was August 2000. A month later, he was voted among the top 20 soloists at the National Quartet Convention Talent Search in Louisville, Ky.
"From then on," Harrington said, "the telephone started ringing."
Carlson started singing at area churches with his older brother Adam. In 2001, friend Brandon Smith joined the group, which took the name The Carlson Trio.
When both Adam and Brandon left the group to go away to college, Nathan, who was barely old enough to have gone through a voice change, began advertising for replacements. After another set of group members came and went, Carlson's search led him to Hudson, a former member of the Sounds of Glory, the Ambassadors Quartet and the Laymen Quartet.
Hudson, owner of 264 Tire Sales and Auto in Pactolus, was impressed with Carlson's potential after he'd seen him perform. But auditioning for an adolescent?
"It's a little bit weird," Hudson said, laughing. "He can hold his own, though."
Hudson had been sure of that since the first time he heard Carlson sing. It was at a concert at Washington High School in 1999.
"He had a pretty good voice for a little bitty 9- or 10-year-old," Hudson said.
Harrington has a slightly different memory of Hudson's first impression of Carlson.
"Glenn, the first time he heard him, said he was a freak of nature," Harrington said, laughing, "a man's voice coming out of a little boy."
Even today, that is not an uncommon reaction from people who hear Carlson's baritone voice.
"I just couldn't believe it, his voice," said Doris Webb, a member of Elm City Baptist Church, where The Carlson Trio performed a concert Saturday night.
Carlson's voice is not the only evidence that he is mature beyond his years. Audience members are impressed to see a teenager who displays such strong faith.
"That young guy, there's a lot of things he could be doing ," Elm City Baptist member Ruth Webb said, "and yet he's singing praises to the Lord."
Pulley said Carlson draws a lot of attention from the oldest to the youngest fans.
"He's at that age," he said, teasing Carlson as he introduced him to the audience Saturday. "Little old ladies walk up to him and say, 'He's so cute.'"
Pulley knows the feeling. He got his start in Southern Gospel when he was 9 years old, singing with his grandfather's group, The Proclaimers.
Pulley, The Carlson Trio's only instrumentalist, started playing bass guitar for The Whites when he was 13. At age 19, he went on the road full time with Heaven Bound.
David Bruce Murray, author of "Murray's Encyclopedia of Southern Gospel Music" and a former contributing writer for Southern Gospel News, said historically speaking, it's common for Southern Gospel performers to begin singing at a young age.
"There are numerous examples of teens who have performed at the professional level," he said. "However, it is uncommon for a 17-year-old to be the founder of a group with any significant quality. Nathan Carlson's roles as group manager and emcee are notable as well as his singing ability."
Pulley said Carlson's talent has taken years to develop. But because he started young, he is at 17 a veteran of the Southern Gospel music industry.
"He's very seasoned for his age," Pulley said. "People notice that about him. "If I had a voice like his when I was 17 years old, I would be singing in front of millions."
Murray said that while The Carlson Trio is a regional-level group, he believes Carlson "has the talent in place to build his trio into a nationally recognized group."
At least for now, the members of The Carlson Trio are not sure that's what they want. Pulley, who now owns his own trucking company, is enjoying singing as a ministry rather than a career.
"That's the reason I took off for three years," he said. "It was like a job to me."
Hudson, who was recently married, said more time on the road would be too much time away from his wife, Maecy. And Carlson is looking forward to college next year. Whether or not he will be able to continue performing with the group he founded remains to be seen.
"That's actually a really big decision I have to make," he said. "If I went close by ... I could probably still do it, but if I went somewhere out of state, it would be impossible."
Staying together as a weekend touring group would be ideal for the trio, which already has concerts booked through this time next year. Included in the schedule are two homecoming celebrations, the group's first, in April.
"We're really comfortable with where it is right now," Carlson said. "All we want to do is just sing on the weekends. I'm not trying to go out to California and sing.
"If you don't really have a passion for it, you can't really understand why we do it."
Contact features writer Kim Grizzard at 329-9578 or kgrizzard@coxnc.com
