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issue 36 working_Layout 1 10/2/2013 10:46 PM Page 37
CIDER MAGAZINE
ISSUE 36
sung at prisons, legislatures, and
bank meetings, all kinds of places.
Still the same old songs and people love it. It’s a healing type thing.
It’s hard to understand if you
haven’t experienced it.
GKW: Do you ever reflect on it all,
how popular the group became?
MC: We were able to get some
great recordings, on Canaan
Records, back in the 1960s. We
sold a million copies. They were
selling our records in Hong Kong,
Germany, all around the world. I’m
in the Gospel Hall of Fame and
Piano Hall of Fame, too. I remember when we’d go on the Gospel
Singing Jubilee, we’d come on as
a guest. Did it for 12 years. You
could see it anywhere in the country, from Philadelphia to Seattle.
Four million people would see us
on Sunday morning. In 1970, we
PG 37
got on 60 Minutes on CBS, which
made all the difference.
GKW: Why do you like putting on
the festival?
MC: We’ve been doing the festival
since 1974. I enjoy seeing the people. They come from all over the
U.S. Seeing these people come in,
telling me how they live, what
they’ve been doing, what they
enjoy doing, and their enjoyment of
the place here. You’ll hear “Amazing Grace” echo off these hills as
you’ve never heard it in your life
here.
GKW: What’s it like for you when
you’re performing onstage?
MC: It’s all about the song and the
people. It’s impossible to out sing
the people. How they enjoy it controls how you do. It’s a two-way
street. So many people enjoy it that
it makes you want to do better.
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