One on one
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By Tiffany Jackson
For Dallas’s gospel sensation, Gaye Arbuckle, music is a necessity. Arbuckle thanks her mother for pushing her to become the national loved gospel artist she is today. DGC Managing Editor gets up close and personal with the star as she talks about her plans for 2008, the state of gospel music today and why she has remained in the business for over thirty years.
The woman with the big voice sits across from me with a gleam of excitement in her eye. You see, Arbuckle is happy to be home after traveling abroad to Ghana in her efforts to help build homes through Habitat for Humanity. It is hard to believe that the very mature and beautiful woman I see today was once a shy and scared young girl.
A MOTHER’S LOVE
DGC: How old were you when you first started singing?
Arbuckle: I was about six or seven and my mother was a musician at New Pilgrim Rest and she just use to take me up there in front of people and make me sing.
DGC: Wasn’t that a terrifying experience?
Arbuckle: Yes, as a child I was real shy, I am a little bit bubbler now but I can remember how she would push me out there to sing and I would hide and say mommy don’t do this. But when I look back she had to push me because I would not have done it on my own. There were different things going on in the city and she would put me in musicals or if we would go to churches she would send a note saying she knows a little girl that can sing and “ta da” it would be me.
DGC: (LOL) Was she one of those pageant moms?
Arbuckle: I use to do this song called, ‘Trees Don’t Won’t To Be Mountains’ and my mom would rehearse with me at home saying do it again, do it again, now move your hand, move your hand, now sing like this. I just use to think it was torture. Little did I know she was forming my personality. She stayed on me constantly. My mom taught me how to deliver the song, how to sing the song, how to stay on key and after a while I started liking it myself.
GETTING YOUR FEET WET
DGC: When were you first recognized as a gospel singer?
Arbuckle: We went to a workshop in New Orleans and it was a night where everyone could participate by signing up to be on stage. I went out there and did, ‘I Really Love The Lord’. I didn’t realize at the time but the guy that did the song had just passed a few weeks or months before I did the song and so that song just moved everybody. So when I go to get off the stage, James Cleveland said bring that little girl back. I came back out there and from then on things just moved along. You know once you see people feel like they enjoy or they have an expression of excitement on their face you feel like you done something. And being that young was like wow maybe I can do this.
DGC: How would you describe your sound?
Arbuckle: I think I am real versatile. I intend to be. I don’t want to sound like anybody else. For a while people said I had a little bit of Whitney Houston. But now, I think my sound is very different. I try not to emulate anybody, if anything I want to set the tone and make people follow me.
DGC: I am sure you listen to many of the gospel and R/B artists out there so what do you think about today’s music artists?
Arbuckle: I think sometimes when I hear music that it is so commercialized; I’m thinking there has to be better music, better people who are writing something with substance. It seems like a lot of the lyrics have no depth where it is encouraging and that’s where I think I get my pull from. I look at it as something that needs to be fixed and instead of me just saying something about it I say why don’t I do something about it.
DGC: Who are some of your influences?
Arbuckle: Thomas Whitfield, James Cleveland, Burner Summers, The Hawkins Singers, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, and Mahalia Jackson. The major person would be Thomas Whitfield. I loved his music. I think everybody loved him. He was a man that was really before his time.
DGC: Who or what is your motivation or your muse for writing songs.
Arbuckle: Sometimes when I write it has to do with my personal experiences, sometimes I get up and I am thinking about the blood of Jesus and I say ooh that will be a good song. Like I just wrote a song for communion and I have always wanted a song that was a little different where people can really visualize and paint the picture instead of singing the same songs. Sometimes it’s a cliché like I will watch TV and see like the Nike sign Just Do It and I may start singing, “Just Do It For Me.”
THE BUSINESS
DGC: When did you notice that you were not only reaching the local masses but that you were also receiving national recognition?
Arbuckle: When I got asked to be on certain projects like the Mississippi Mass Choir with James Moore. I was at the Gospel Music Workshop and I sung two times that year. You have people saying hey you are on the radio, and I am like for real and about time I turned it on they were saying, ‘Now that was Gaye Arbuckle’. And I am like ooh I missed it.
DGC: In what ways are you mentoring to others who are interested in entering into this business?
Arbuckle: Believe it or not, being here at Concord, I see me mentoring more so than being the minister of music. I didn’t realize I would be here doing that but it happened and it is really rewarding. I also started teaching voice lessons because I thought it was important. I even went back to school to get some voice lessons just to enhance what I already have and to be challenged.
DGC: Tell me what has been the most rewarding about this business.
Arbuckle: Sometimes just the testimonies I get where maybe something was said, not me just the Lord that works through me. It is great when people come up to me and say I heard the song or you said something before you ministered and it really touched my heart. That clarifies why you do what you do then you understand that this is my purpose. It’s not about my voice but it is about the people who heart you touch. When you see someone with a smile on their face or you see someone having fun while you are singing and even lifting up their hands crying because something happened or shedding tears of joy you know you are doing your part. I just say thank you Lord. If it is just one or two you feel like you have accomplished something.
DGC: What has been the most challenging in your career?
Arbuckle: In the gospel arena, sometimes you are up and sometimes you are down and when it gets to that point, you struggle with giving up. There were many times I wanted to give up because it looked like things weren’t kicking off like I wanted them to or the calls weren’t rolling in like they were supposed to. Sometimes that can be a little depressing and you feel like man I have being doing this for 20, 30 years and all of sudden something happens that take you back 20 more steps; you think you have a grasp on it then the disappointment comes when you are trying to move your music to a level where your ministry can grow to a certain plateau.
DGC: What advice would you give to up-in-coming gospel artists?
Arbuckle: I have grown a lot. As you grow older you realize that this ministry is not only about singing, not just about making people feel good, you are touching lives so you have to be careful with your walk with the Lord. You have to make sure that even if no one is watching and you are in the store you need to take the time out to minister there. It’s not just about being on a platform, it’s a lifestyle and sometimes you feel like it and sometimes you don’t but once you find out that is not about you, you go and you press on.”
Gaye Arbuckle is the minister of music at Concord Baptist Church and she currently re-packaged and re-released her album “Miracles & Blessings. In addition, Arbuckle, travels all over the world to perform and minister to God’s children. She can be reached at www.gayearbuckle.com
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