World Courant
Brian Quincy Newcomb, a music journalist and pastor who was well-known within the Christian rock group for many years as a key tastemaker within the various scene, died in Centreville, Ohio on April 15 at age 67. He had been receiving hospice care at dwelling after a recurrence of the most cancers he had battled for almost a decade.
Newcomb’s title was identified to nearly anybody following Christian rock carefully within the Eighties and ’90s. He based and edited the month-to-month publication Harvest Rock Syndicate, which was thought-about pivotal in shaping tastes for the Christian various subgenre on the time. However his higher renown got here as probably the most acknowledged (and typically most controversial) byline in CCM journal, the so-called bible of the style. He wrote near 500 options or evaluations for CCM over a 23-year interval between 1985 and 2008, when the shiny’s month-to-month print version shut down.
Steve Taylor, who was arguably crucial determine doing various rock for Christian labels as a solo artist within the Eighties and ’90s, tells Selection: “Brian was the primary author within the style who referred to as ’em like he heard ’em, making him each liked and feared. I feel the dread of getting a foul overview from BQN really helped us all intention increased.”
Exterior of his specialty in writing about Christian music, Newcomb additionally had as avid an curiosity in mainstream and various rock as any music journalist, and his work appeared in Billboard and Paste, together with newspapers just like the St. Louis Dispatch and the Riverfront Occasions in his dwelling metropolis in Missouri earlier than decamping for a brand new pastorate in Ohio.
“Decamping for a pastorate” just isn’t a phrase that normally happens in obituaries for music journalists, however Newcomb had been an ordained minister with the United Church of Christ for simply over 40 years. In that progressive denomination, he dedicated to preaching a message of affection and inclusion, with theologically liberal views that typically led to full of life debates on social media with readers who had grown up studying his evaluations in CCM however adhered to extra conservative viewpoints.
That message he preached from the pulpit did not at all times imply his precise music evaluations have been solely about love and inclusion. Newcomb was referred to as a critic for valuing artistry and adventurousness and never taking it simple on artists he did not assume have been dwelling as much as a normal, which wasn’t essentially the usual for different writers who may’ve been inclined to provide a go to everybody within the Christian rock scene of the time.
One in all Newcomb’s favourite bands was the Choir, a gaggle that has been releasing data revered in that group for near 40 years now. Steve HIndalong, the drummer, co-producer and principal lyricist for the Choir, tells Selection how perceptive he discovered Newcomb.
“I keep in mind a time once I postponed any press interviews for a brand new album launched by the Choir till I used to be in a position to learn Quincy’s overview,” Hindalong says. “As a result of then I might understand what the lyrics meant and what our album was about!”
Harvest Rock Syndicate, which solely existed from 1987-91 however had an outsized affect on the CCM style, has some illustrious alumni moreover Newcomb, who based it with Melinda Newman, now the chief editor for the west coast and Nashville at Billboard. One of many publication’s writers was Brian Mansfield, who went on to turn into USA Right now’s Nashville music author for a few years and is now the managing editor of Nation Insider.
Says Mansfield, “Good editors and pastors have so much in frequent. Quincy served in each roles for many people who needed to sharpen our views on the locations the place music and religion intersect. Lengthy after he stopped being our editor, we nonetheless appeared to him as a pastor determine.”
Chris Hauser is a 45-year-plus trade veteran whose run as one of many high promo executives in Christian music started at about the identical time Harvest Rock Syndicate did. He recollects Newcomb’s affect throughout a pivotal period that some nonetheless keep in mind as a high-water mark for rock being launched on Christian labels, and an irascibility that made him stand out.
Says Hauser, “Brian completely represented a time in our trade (the ’80s and ’90s) when the pen was undoubtedly mightier than the sword. I have been in radio promotion since 1987, and grew up on his writing. A optimistic overview or favorable article about one in every of our artists was far more vital than a No. 1 tune then. Brian was prickly (at occasions), not struggling fools (of whom I used to be chief) and one of the opinionated individuals I ever knew. However he at all times fought for (and raised) a greater approach to talk about religion via music. We might put away a few of our aggressive variations within the final 10-15 years and have become a lot nearer. He was and at all times will likely be a drive of nature.”
Because the twentieth century light into the twenty first, Newcomb held much less of an curiosity within the Christian music scene, as he felt theologically and politically distanced from the evangelical subculture that fostered it, and he targeted on writing about secular artists, though at all times with an curiosity in those that explored religion or non secular considerations in tune, like one in every of his favorites, Bruce Cockburn. Among the many favourite latest artists he was mentioned to have been listening to in his closing hours was Allison Russell, the spiritually attuned however not particularly Christian singer-songwriter. (Discover his overview of her most up-to-date album right here.)
Just lately he had been writing evaluations for the online publication the Hearth Notice, and his final contributions earlier this yr have been his assessments of a collection of Ryan Adams albums and Sarah Jarosz’s newest.
The congregants he pastored in Ohio have been typically amused to see photographs of their minister at rock reveals, or often having an image posted that confirmed him in a Flaming Lips, Elvis Costello or Steve Earle T-shirt as a substitute of his ministerial robes, though he did ‘t exit of his approach to flaunt an id as a rock ‘n’ roll pastor.
His official obituary acknowledged: “Brian’s life work was preaching the ‘one sermon,’ repackaged every week, that’s at all times about Love. He was buddy to the stranger, ally to the weak, foe to the abuser, fast with a smile, deep along with his laughter, and an enormous fan of the St. Louis Cardinals. … Brian was a client and admirer of all issues lovely to behold; collector of significant experiences and interpreter of cultural conscience.”
Amongst his survivors are his spouse of 37 years, Susan Newcomb; three youngsters, Jacob (Krista Isaacs) Quincy, Carly (Andrew) Hansen and Jon (Brynna) Newlie; and three grandchildren, Clayton, Bennett and Olivia.
A memorial service will likely be held Might 8 at David’s United Church of Christ in Kettering, Ohio, the church he pastored for the final 15 years (extra particulars on his obituary web page right here). In lieu of flowers, the household asks that donations be made in his honor to the United Church of Christ’s Be part of the Motion marketing campaign to provoke anti-racism work within the UCC.
Author, Christian Rock Tastemaker Was 67
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