10 FEB 08: THE BROOKLYN SONGBIRD

"You may look around and say we've got a lot of empty seats." So said the emcee, at the start of a Columbus concert Saturday night. From what I've heard, those words could have been said at a lot of Columbus concerts in recent years - and to make matters worse, this one had free admission.

But if you missed the concert I attended, you missed something special. As we mentioned in a "Best Bet" Friday, Evangel Temple presented a concert by Christian singer Damaris Carbaugh. And yes, it was free -- with everyone simply asked to give a "love offering," which sounds like something Christian single guys might use as an opening line.

Perhaps Evangel Temple only had about 100 people because Columbus Christian radio stations don't play Damaris Carbaugh songs very much. In fact, the two non-commercial stations most likely to play her music don't identify the artists at all anymore. The stations complain the music is hard to find - yet they don't tell who's singing, so I can encourage them to make some more.

I was familiar with Damaris Carbaugh's music from listening to the "Moody Radio" Christian station in Atlanta. But I didn't know until Saturday night that she tried to be a secular music star for 17 years -- and wound up repenting of the desire to be "rich and famous." Some TV preachers who promise big blessings for $1,000 "seed offerings" still might need to do that....

Damaris Carbaugh has a powerful voice which could be quite at home on an opera stage, but she says she's focused on Christian music in recent years. And she learned how to enunciate her words from doing commercial jingles. Carbaugh explained advertisers are very picky about the words in jingles - so you don't think KFC does "chicken rice."

But Damaris Carbaugh is clearly a native New Yorker - as her grandfather was a Pastor in the South Bronx, and her background is with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. She said she revised her final song a bit because the original performer was on the "folky side. I'm a Puerto Rican from New York - that's not folky."

(But Damaris Carbaugh didn't rub in that New York frame of mind on a Columbus audience. She didn't mention last weekend's Super Bowl even once.)

As you might have figured out by now, Damaris Carbaugh has a good sense of humor to go with her outstanding voice. So I'll defer to her, for a few notes about her life and experiences:

+ Carbaugh's mother, who calls her "my songbird," has Alzheimer's Disease. But the mother tells Carbuagh: "Don't be afraid to tell me a story twice. I'll enjoy it all over again."

+ She was such a church child that "my first playpen was a pew."

+ To the spiritually lethargic, she declared: "Maybe I came to remind you that you're dead."

+ But Carbaugh also realized her own battle against sinfulness, saying: "If I was God, I would have killed me a long time ago."

+ Carbaugh admitted she cries often, as she sings songs of praise. "I wish you could lose weight and cry."

+ She gave up secular singing after her last album failed to sell: "I think I sold six copies, and I bought all six." Really now -- do you want MY album to suffer the same fate?

But if you're planning to hop in the car and hear Damaris Carbaugh sing at Evangel Temple today - sorry, you missed her. She and her husband/sound operator have a 6:15 a.m. flight back to New York, as she strives to teach Sunday School at her home church every week. Apparently there are still some places where dropping in a video isn't good enough....

Saturday night's concert marked my first time inside the Evangel Temple sanctuary, and something struck me as unusual. The kneeling rails at the altar have tissue boxes on them. Either the ministers expect people to repent in tears - or they serve sticky bread during communion.

BLOG UPDATE: Speaking of religion - uh-oh, me and my big blog mouth. I didn't realize until Saturday that the Seventh-Day Adventists were trying to keep their involvement with those creation/evolution meetings a secret. But then again, the host Pastor admittedly didn't realize it's illegal to post yard signs about the meetings along Columbus streets.

A couple of yard signs for the series, "Did Darwin Murder God?" were planted on Second Avenue, in front of Greater Shady Grove Baptist Church. What do you think that church's members will think, when they see those signs today? Will they think their Pastor is pulling a surprise, and planning to file some kind of civil suit?

Guest preacher Hiram Rester explained Saturday that the literature for the creation/evolution series at Columbus State University is kept vague on purpose - because some people want nothing to do with Seventh-Day Adventists, thinking they're something like Jehovah's Witnesses. Trust me, this is NOT true. The Adventists are too busy in church on Saturday mornings to knock on your door offering literature.

Hiram Rester also noted some "ministerial alliances" have hurredly organized events to counter Seventh-Day Adventist campaigns. That's why the fliers for the series beginning tonight didn't reach mailboxes until Wednesday. Truly United Methodist Bishop James Swanson was right when he said years ago at the Three Arts Theatre: "Ministry can be a very competitive business."

So why didn't a flier for this creation/evolution series land in my mailbox? The host Pastor believes the bulk mailing intentionally left out a couple of zip codes in Columbus South. The lawyers in the Historic District must be holier than I thought....

We'll see how the meetings go, and bring you updates as warranted. Now let's see what else has our attention this weekend:

+ WLTZ visited Rutledge State Prison, where inmates are taking classes in Latin and Greek. That may seem odd, but look on the bright side - if they were learning Italian, they might leave prison and join the Mafia.

+ The Junior League of Columbus staged its "Follies" production for the first time in four years. Truly times have changed for me. When I was a boy, some of the young women in Junior League productions looked attractive - and nowadays if I asked any of them for a date, I'd be accused of cradle-robbing.

+ Instant Message to the Troy University athletic department: I guess they makes sense. I mean, your billboards already mentioning next September's football schedule -- they make a lot more sense than those signs asking me to order tickets to watch college baseball in Troy.

COMING THIS WEEK: A local elected official offers a challenge to all blog readers....

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