It wasn’t until I quit school at age 14, that I got back into music. I got a job working in my father’s furniture plant for $50 a week which did not seem like much, but it did provide me with the money to buy my first electric guitar. I found it at a pawn shop across the street from my father’s plant for $30. I was really proud of that guitar. That’s when I got serious about music, but the truth is, I was no good. I could not figure it out. Around the same time, I was really into movies about music; La bamba was one of my favorite. I saw the movie Crossroads a few weeks later, which was about a Mississippi blues man who sold his soul to the devil to play the blues. Now being a struggling musician to be, I was a little curious about this, rather or not it was true, could you really do that?
I was born on June 27, 1974 in Holy Springs, MS to Buddy and Pauline Gordon. I was raised in Pontotoc, MS until my parents divorced in the early 80’s. I always knew deep down inside that I would be called to the ministry. I think I even knew that I would be a singer and musician. I got my first guitar for my 8th birthday. I beat around on it for a short time but then I lost interest. As time went on I was trying to find myself, trying to find out what I was good for, so to speak.
Then one Sunday morning at church during the altar call, I decided that I was not interested in making a deal with the devil. I knelt down at an old fashion altar and told God that if he would give me the gift of music, that is to play the guitar, that I would play only for him. Now I know some people don’t believe in this sort of thing and that’s ok with me. When I got up from that altar I was a changed man, I had already been saved for a few years, but from then on I don’t remember ever having a problem learning anything on the guitar. I was on the platform of that same small Pentecostal church playing every week in no time. The ironic thing is the name of the church was Crossroads.
It wasn’t long after that till I was singing too. While God gets all the glory for my music I must say that if it wasn’t for people like the pastor of that church Bro. David Bishop, many young people like me would never make it anywhere in gospel music. So I think it goes without saying that him and men of God like him should never have to wonder if they are appreciated for all their work for the Lord. So I say to you Bro. David Bishop thanks for everything.
After a while of playing gospel music, I backslid and ended up playing in a heavy metal band with people who did not even believe in God. So much for promises to God…..Yea I did just what I said I would never do, I went back on my promise to the Lord. All the time I was convicted in my heart but I had no idea how far away I was getting from God. Even though I had turned my back on God, he never turned his back on me. Little did I know as I was playing heavy metal, God was working for me even when I did not know. He sent a man into my life by the name of Joe Snider who befriended me and got me a position as a lead guitarist for a local southern gospel group. It was no time till I was back in church going stronger then ever before.
That brings us to about age 19; at this point I got marred and moved to Kansas for a short spell. When we moved back to Mississippi I resaved the call to preach. It started out just every now and then but before long it was every week. It was a great time in my life to say the least. After I had been preaching for a few years we started a family group called The Gordon’s 2nd Generation. Now there is an old saying that what goes around comes around and I guess it is true because when we started the group we needed a bass player and who was the first person that came to mind, none other than the man who God had used just a few years before to pull me from the devil’s snare when he got me a position as lead guitarist for the group he played for, Joe Snider. As it turned out when we called on him to play bass it helped to pull him back in the right direction in his walk with God, Just like back when God used him to pull me back.
Our group went for about 5 are 6 years playing pretty regular across the south. It was somewhere in the 4th year of the group being together that I took a small country church to pastor. For a year or so, I pastored the church and continued to travel around singing too. As far as I was concerned my life was right on track. I had finally felt for the first time in my life like I was in God perfect will. But little did I know that my life was fixing to get turned upside . I was outside cutting the grass one day and God gave me the words to a song (Through it all). A few days later God began to talk to me and tell me that I was fixing to go through the biggest trial in my life. That was what the song was for, to let me know that he would be with me through it all. Well within a few months the group had broken up, I lost the church I was pastoring, my wife left me and in that time I had a huge fall from grace myself. After it was all said and done I felt dead inside. In a two year span my life went from its highest point to its lowest. And just like God promised he was there with me through the whole thing. During this time I got so cold in the Lord that whenever I would try to pray, all I could say was I need your mercy, I need your grace. I never did backslide but I got real close to it. One day while I was praying my new found mercy and grace prayer, I picked up my guitar and started to sing the prayer kind of like David would do in the Bible.
Now here is how God works, in my hardest times God gave me my two most meaningful songs. Through It All and I Need Your Grace. Well one thing I forgot to mention is that I had a lot of stuff in my head that I was taught about God and church through out my life, dogmatic stuff like how mean and angry God was and every time you messed up you was no longer saved. Now right before my wife left I had prayed for God to clean me of those things. Well now here I was so cold in the Lord that I wasn’t even sure if God was real are not. This scared me to death until one day I mustard enough faith to get more then two words out of a prayer. I asked God what was going on with me, and he let me know that what was happening was my prayer was being answered. That he was cleaning me of all those things I had asked him to. So the next thing I know, I woke up and everything I felt like I had lost in my spirit had returned, only the junk that was holding me back, the dogmatic stuff didn’t make it back. I tell you I felt just like Job in the Bible. I had lost a lot, but even though the group did not get back together, the wife did not come back, and I did not get my church back I got something even more wonderful, a relationship with God that no man can put asunder. You see in the past my relationship with God depended on what I was taught by man, but now it’s all about God and me.
Ok so let us skip a few years now. 2003 I started writing songs for my first solo album (Out Of The Valley) this album would be produced and recorded by God and myself. Now I know that sounds a little corny but that is just the way it is. I wanted it to come from the heart so I did not want anyone messing it up as I was really disappointed with the group album we had done a few years before. Plus this way if anything was messed up I could blame no one but me. I recorded the album on the computer using studio software and completed it in 2005. This album opened up a lot of doors for me. I even had a few radio stations from around the country ask for cd’s to play. One of the songs to be on the album was I Need Your Grace. In 2007 I was put in touch with producer Randy Stalls in North Carolina. He wanted me to come up and record it again. I almost did not record it because I could not afford it. After praying about it, God made a way for me and my brother Jackie to go recorded and in a couple days had it done. This became my first song to actually be released to national radio. It amazed me how well it done on the charts despite the fact that a lot of stations said it was to long to be radio friendly it made it in the top 40 on several southern gospel, Christian country and contemporary Christian charts. It even earned a coveted number 2 spot on the CMP Christian Country chart. In 2008 I recorded another independent CD entitled Acoustic Influence, it was an acoustic journey through the different styles and kinds of music that helped to shape and mould me as a musician over the years. I did not release a ny of the songs off this album to radio. All the while I had been working on a new album that I ended up calling Faith, Grace and Joy. I Need Your Grace the new version would be on it, along with one of the acoustic songs and 8 more. Now 3 of the songs I produced myself, but the other 5 I knew I needed help with. So I called on Randal Wilds & Jeff Treece, two men that I had come to know while I spent some time in Englewood TN in 2006. Jeff Treece, not only produced the other five songs but he gave the new arrangements and his band the Jeff Treece Band played them. My wife Cindy, my back up singer Brenda and myself went up on a Sunday to Knoxville where his studio is. That Monday we had the tracks laid and on Tuesday we laid vocals and he mixed it. So boom finally after three years this album is finally done. Thank God for that.
It wasn’t long after that till I was singing too. While God gets all the glory for my music I must say that if it wasn’t for people like the pastor of that church Bro. David Bishop, many young people like me would never make it anywhere in gospel music. So I think it goes without saying that him and men of God like him should never have to wonder if they are appreciated for all their work for the Lord. So I say to you Bro. David Bishop thanks for everything.
After a while of playing gospel music, I backslid and ended up playing in a heavy metal band with people who did not even believe in God. So much for promises to God…..Yea I did just what I said I would never do, I went back on my promise to the Lord. All the time I was convicted in my heart but I had no idea how far away I was getting from God. Even though I had turned my back on God, he never turned his back on me. Little did I know as I was playing heavy metal, God was working for me even when I did not know. He sent a man into my life by the name of Joe Snider who befriended me and got me a position as a lead guitarist for a local southern gospel group. It was no time till I was back in church going stronger then ever before.
That brings us to about age 19; at this point I got marred and moved to Kansas for a short spell. When we moved back to Mississippi I resaved the call to preach. It started out just every now and then but before long it was every week. It was a great time in my life to say the least. After I had been preaching for a few years we started a family group called The Gordon’s 2nd Generation. Now there is an old saying that what goes around comes around and I guess it is true because when we started the group we needed a bass player and who was the first person that came to mind, none other than the man who God had used just a few years before to pull me from the devil’s snare when he got me a position as lead guitarist for the group he played for, Joe Snider. As it turned out when we called on him to play bass it helped to pull him back in the right direction in his walk with God, Just like back when God used him to pull me back.
Our group went for about 5 are 6 years playing pretty regular across the south. It was somewhere in the 4th year of the group being together that I took a small country church to pastor. For a year or so, I pastored the church and continued to travel around singing too. As far as I was concerned my life was right on track. I had finally felt for the first time in my life like I was in God perfect will. But little did I know that my life was fixing to get turned upside . I was outside cutting the grass one day and God gave me the words to a song (Through it all). A few days later God began to talk to me and tell me that I was fixing to go through the biggest trial in my life. That was what the song was for, to let me know that he would be with me through it all. Well within a few months the group had broken up, I lost the church I was pastoring, my wife left me and in that time I had a huge fall from grace myself. After it was all said and done I felt dead inside. In a two year span my life went from its highest point to its lowest. And just like God promised he was there with me through the whole thing. During this time I got so cold in the Lord that whenever I would try to pray, all I could say was I need your mercy, I need your grace. I never did backslide but I got real close to it. One day while I was praying my new found mercy and grace prayer, I picked up my guitar and started to sing the prayer kind of like David would do in the Bible.
Now here is how God works, in my hardest times God gave me my two most meaningful songs. Through It All and I Need Your Grace. Well one thing I forgot to mention is that I had a lot of stuff in my head that I was taught about God and church through out my life, dogmatic stuff like how mean and angry God was and every time you messed up you was no longer saved. Now right before my wife left I had prayed for God to clean me of those things. Well now here I was so cold in the Lord that I wasn’t even sure if God was real are not. This scared me to death until one day I mustard enough faith to get more then two words out of a prayer. I asked God what was going on with me, and he let me know that what was happening was my prayer was being answered. That he was cleaning me of all those things I had asked him to. So the next thing I know, I woke up and everything I felt like I had lost in my spirit had returned, only the junk that was holding me back, the dogmatic stuff didn’t make it back. I tell you I felt just like Job in the Bible. I had lost a lot, but even though the group did not get back together, the wife did not come back, and I did not get my church back I got something even more wonderful, a relationship with God that no man can put asunder. You see in the past my relationship with God depended on what I was taught by man, but now it’s all about God and me.
Ok so let us skip a few years now. 2003 I started writing songs for my first solo album (Out Of The Valley) this album would be produced and recorded by God and myself. Now I know that sounds a little corny but that is just the way it is. I wanted it to come from the heart so I did not want anyone messing it up as I was really disappointed with the group album we had done a few years before. Plus this way if anything was messed up I could blame no one but me. I recorded the album on the computer using studio software and completed it in 2005. This album opened up a lot of doors for me. I even had a few radio stations from around the country ask for cd’s to play. One of the songs to be on the album was I Need Your Grace. In 2007 I was put in touch with producer Randy Stalls in North Carolina. He wanted me to come up and record it again. I almost did not record it because I could not afford it. After praying about it, God made a way for me and my brother Jackie to go recorded and in a couple days had it done. This became my first song to actually be released to national radio. It amazed me how well it done on the charts despite the fact that a lot of stations said it was to long to be radio friendly it made it in the top 40 on several southern gospel, Christian country and contemporary Christian charts. It even earned a coveted number 2 spot on the CMP Christian Country chart. In 2008 I recorded another independent CD entitled Acoustic Influence, it was an acoustic journey through the different styles and kinds of music that helped to shape and mould me as a musician over the years. I did not release a ny of the songs off this album to radio. All the while I had been working on a new album that I ended up calling Faith, Grace and Joy. I Need Your Grace the new version would be on it, along with one of the acoustic songs and 8 more. Now 3 of the songs I produced myself, but the other 5 I knew I needed help with. So I called on Randal Wilds & Jeff Treece, two men that I had come to know while I spent some time in Englewood TN in 2006. Jeff Treece, not only produced the other five songs but he gave the new arrangements and his band the Jeff Treece Band played them. My wife Cindy, my back up singer Brenda and myself went up on a Sunday to Knoxville where his studio is. That Monday we had the tracks laid and on Tuesday we laid vocals and he mixed it. So boom finally after three years this album is finally done. Thank God for that.