JUNIOR BEN NEElY PLAYS ADRUM at the Oct. 28 practice of Belles and Beaux. "Beingin the group gives me away to express the wayIfeel about things - from th espiritual to the everyday;' Neely so id. ·R. KECK SOPHOMORE ANNIE CANTREll, senior Melissa Ward and junior Rachel Donaldwarm uptheir vocal chords in preillration fo raGood News Singm practice Oct. 28."Iwant to be good at it so that Imight actually touchsomeonewith my voice;'Donald soid. ·R.KECK OF SONG SJYLES as diverse as group, was prepared to perform for a ~~;i:~~t~:~~it~Aitra':ted, Ithe Good News Singers, an a during the Church of Christ Weekend City in Branson, Mo., Oct. 8-10. a different kind of crowd there because the brush stroke is broader," Chuck Hicks, assistant professor of music and director of Good News Singers, said. "Whatever you think of as a church age group, that' 5 our span. That's why we do so many different styles." Hicks said that the show was usually custom-designed to fit the audience. "I change songs in the middle of a show sometimes/' Hicks said. "You have to feel what your audience is needing and just go with it." Changing their musical style was not a problem for the Singers, Hick said. "We're flexible; we can adapt to changes," he said. "We'll get the people happy no matter how you look at it." Sophomore Armie Cantrell said she understood that she was not only a performer, but a minister as well. "\ am so blessed to have this opportunity," Cantrell said. "It's a really cool way to glorify God and use my voice in a way that I didn't really realize I could." Hicks said he believed that in order for the singers to minister to an audience, the audience had to be involved in the show. "I told them to get the audience really involved and said, as an example, to [senior] Andy [Robinson], 'You need to look out there in the audience and find some old lady out there with a big smile on her face and go down there and give her a hug,'" Hicks said. "I didn't think he would actually do it, but he did." Robinson said he took Hick's advice seriously. "I don't know if he was joking, but I was like, 'Sure, why not?'" Robinson said. "No one was smiling in this one section except for one old lady, so right after the song, I leaned down, gave her a hug and said, 'Thank you for smiling.'" Robinson said his action may have seemed a little out of the ordinary, but he knew that it made a difference. "She will remember that Church of Christ Weekend for the rest of her life," he said. Hicks said he liked to remind those in the group that no matter where the audience was from or how they outwardly responded to the performance, there was only one way to measure the true success of their shows. "You can't measure success with applause, you have to measure it with the stirring of hearts," he said. -STACEY CONDOlORA 203 - VOCAL MUSIC
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