“Live in Memphis,” the latest album by Dove award-winning gospel group Ernie Haase & Signature Sound, debuted on Oct. 4, 2024. The live album was filmed for the Memphis Quartet Show held at Tennessee’s Cannon Center. The record features timeless songs from America’s rich musical history, as well as originals written by Haase himself.
The quartet viewed recording the album as an opportunity to celebrate some of the country’s most important musical works.
Gifts of Music and Making People Happy
Haase has been performing music for over 35 years. At the age of 16, he began seriously gigging and heading up various bands, from a barbershop quartet to a 1950s style doowop group. He also found time to help his father with the family business: HVAC. In between shows, sports, and school, he bent sheet metal and applied insulation for his dad’s heating and air conditioning company.While he was happy to contribute to the family business, it was always about the music. In an interview with The Epoch Times, he said:
“I feel like God put that passion in my heart—to make music and to make people happy. That is my passion. ... My grandpa told me … ‘Find something you love to do, and you’ll never work a day in your life.’ ... I found that at 16.”
He continued, “I’m very fortunate. I’m not saying that there haven’t been tough times. There’ve been really hard, challenging times. But it goes back to that passion. … I feel like God gave me this gift to make music and make people happy.”
He toured with the Cathedrals Quartet from 1990 to 1999. Then he founded his own gospel group, Signature Sound, in 2002.
“The past always informs us, but it doesn’t dictate what has to be. The great [songs] hang around for a reason. The reasons would be great artistry, great poetry, great melody marrying with a great lyric. ... These songs became the soundtrack to people’s lives. You want to remember the good … and music helps you do that.”
‘Trusting the Divine Plan’
Recording a live album is far different than recording one in the studio. There’s no opportunity for multiple takes. There’s no stop button. In “Live in Memphis,” listeners have the opportunity to experience Ernie Haase & Signature Sound in their element. When asked why he chose to do a live recording for their latest album, instead of recording it in a studio, Haase stated that this was the record he always wanted to make. “The Signature Sound experience is a live experience. So that’s why I wanted to do this.”
There’s an age-old saying regarding all the uncontrollable elements that can affect live performances: The show must go on. Haase had one of these moments about a week before the “Live in Memphis” taping. He developed a case of bronchitis. Just days before the show, he could only whisper. Rather than cancel, he chose to lean on his faith, trusting it to help him get through the performance successfully.
When chatting about the tough decision to continue with the show as planned, he referenced an old Hebrew text and said the downtime he spent recovering was, “a chance for me to reconnect with my Creator and realize it’s not by might, not by power, but by spirit.”
A Night of Special Memories
“Live in Memphis” features classic songs from a few different genres, including spiritual standards, select compositions from the Great American Songbook, and southern gospel. One of Haase’s favorite songs from the track listing is, “Look for the Silver Lining,” a popular song written in 1919 and made famous by entertainers like Judy Garland.
Haase also included originals on the album. One of the songs he wrote, “He Made a Change,” was the Cathedrals’s last No. 1 hit.
When asked about the inspiration behind the track list, Haase took the conversation back in time to the earliest days of the Southern Gospel genre:
“I wondered what it would be like in 1956 ... to go to the original quartet show to see groups like The Statesmen, The Blackwood Brothers, The Dixie Hummingbirds. … Everything kinda started right there ... which is what we call now Southern Gospel quartet music. So, that was the inspiration. What I tried to do with the artwork, the song selection ... was to go back and to make it feel as though you had stepped back in time. ... It feels nostalgic, and hopefully, a whole new generation will fall in love with this style.”
Haase described just how emotional this moment was for everyone:
“He had just lost his spouse. His partner in The Oak Ridge Boys, Joe Bonsall, the tenor singer, just passed away. So he was really hurting that night. And then, on that night, I just asked people, if you’re comfortable, stretch your hand out towards Duane, and let’s pray for him. It was a special, sacred moment. … It was a great healing moment. … It’s for people who are walking through some tough times that when they hear this … that’ll grab them and be the gift that keeps on giving.”
He also said, “The timing is not lost on me. That was not human development. That was definitely a divine development because, he said that night after he sang, ‘I didn’t know how much I needed this night.’”
Another special moment from the night of filming happened as a result of what Haase’s mentors taught him years ago:
“My mentors taught me to leave it better than you found it. That applies to anything. The room you walk into, your bedroom, your hotel room, the bus, the dressing room.”
With this important lesson in mind, the band decided to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Hospital on the night they recorded their album:
“I want us to walk into Memphis and leave it better than we found it. I think over $6,000 came in that night, and that’s the gift that’ll keep on giving too, is if people listen to that, they’ll keep on leaving it better than they found it.”
‘The Beauty of Art’
When asked about what listeners can take away from “Live in Memphis,” in true artistic fashion, Haase felt compelled to leave it up to each listener. He said, “I hope, I pray that when people listen … that there’s enough spirit on this recording that the things I’ve said, or the things I haven’t said in this interview—whatever you need you’ll find. I think that’s the beauty of art.”
After the debut of “Live in Memphis” on Oct. 4, 2024, Haase and his group have no plans to slow things down. They’ll hit the road for a tour promoting the live album. In the winter, they have a string of shows lined up performing songs from their holiday-themed 2019 album release, “A Jazzy Little Christmas.” One of those shows happening on Dec. 2, 2024 takes place at Birdland, a jazz club in New York City.
Haase also has plans to collaborate with his good friend Duane Allen. Haase and his group will be adding Signature Sound stylings to The Oak Ridge Boys’s biggest hits.
When asked about what keeps him going after all these years, it’s not the Dove awards, or the Grammy nominations, or Signature Sound platinum-selling records. The fuel that keeps Haase making music can be found in a personal anecdote from the small town of Elyria, Kansas.
One day, Ernie received a message from an 8-year-old boy, Max, who had received a heart transplant. Medication he was taking wasn’t working as well as his family had hoped. When Max wrote Haase, he told him, ‘I just want to be normal, Ernie.’ Max’s mom told Haase, ‘The only time we can get him to calm down is when he hears your music.’ Max’s Christian school invited Signature Sound to do a concert for them, and Haase and his fellow band members jumped at the chance. Haase was filled with joy when Max’s mother contacted him to let him know she snapped a picture of Max smiling ear to ear in the front row of Signature Sound’s performance at his school.
Haase explained how much moments like this mean to him and his group:
“For me, my faith in God, that’s the prism, that’s the lens, that I try to see everything through.”
He continued, “A Dove award, a Grammy, all these things we talk about, wonderful, but, that’s the lens [faith in Jesus]. That’s the focus we gotta keep. Now, is that what everybody has to do? No. But for me, and my house, that’s what we’re gonna do.”
For Haase, experiences like the ones with Max further fuel his life’s purpose of sharing his gifts of music and making people happy. He said:
“It’s back to that passion. That fills me up. I can go another ten years.”
