AMA2008_goliday_log.doc Document type: interview log Interviewer: Camp Best Co-Workers: Cortez Castilla, Recording and Mary Warner, Fieldnotes Event: Interview with Mr. Eddie Goliday,II Date: May 20, 2008 Time: 4:40 PM until 5:40 PM Place: Clear Creek M. B. Church, 35 County Road 313, Oxford, MS 38655 The following is a catalog of a tape-recorded interview with 25 yr. old, Mr. Eddie Goliday, II at his church, Clear Creek M. B. Church eight miles west of Oxford, MS on Highway 6. The interview primarily concerns Goliday s role as a primary musician in the choir at Clear Creek Church, the role of the choir in the church and the role of the choir and the church in the community. Mr. Goliday s father, Eddie Goliday, Sr. is the pastor of Clear Creek M. B. Church. Full name: Eddie Dorl Goliday, II Born in Galveston, TX on June 10, 1982 Parents are Reverend and Mrs. Eddie D. Goliday, Sr has two sisters and two brothers His father was a musician, played the guitar and sang A lot of his cousins played in a band He always had an ear for music growing up When he was young, his cousins and he formed a makeshift band with sticks and drums They started imitating people in church He learned to play drums, base guitar, piano, organ, alto sax and violin His father was his primary musical influence growing up His father was a pastor His gives credit first and foremost to God for his musical talent and then to his father and his mother. His mother was his biggest critic in a positive way. He had some piano lessons as a child two or three weeks, but did not have to practice because he had an ear for music He can now read and sing music. Growing up it was always instilled in him to go to church His father became a minister when he was very young They moved around a good bit as his father moved from church to church His sister and he would work with the choirs.
Time elapsed: 10:56 They went to start churches in Walls, MS. The two churches in Walls were Walls Chapel and St. Paul. They also went to Nichols Chapel in Byhalia, MS. He became filled with the spirit and got happy recently in the church when he was touched by a particular song and had to leave the service. He was baptized at Jordan Chapel at College Hill, MS at a revival He was about eight or nine years old. The more recent experience that he had was in August of 2007, the spirit was high in the church and eventually the spirit came over him and he could not hold back anymore he was crying with joy and peace He thought back to the times that he should have died He was actually hit in the head with a bat in October of 2003 and should have been damaged permanently, but he was not. Things should have been a lot worse than they are. He talks about sharing his actual experience and the feelings that he has that can be transferred to others He has been reminded of what his purpose is in his ministry His main purpose is to bring people to Christ. Time elapsed: 19:15 He first became involved in the church choir at Clear Creek about six years ago. His title in the choir is Musician He helps motivate the choir and helps teach the choir in this role. He is also a confidante in the choir because he is a good listener. He considers Kenorus Wilson to be the Minister of Music at Clear Creek Church because he does a lot of the duties and he has a degree in music and is very proficient. Wilson is not the choir director because the choir director directs the different songs and works in coordination with the music minister The main choir director is Chris Yancy. There are actually three other assistant choir directors. He speaks about the value of having an MP3 player on his phone in listening to music most of the songs that they do he puts on his phone and listens to during the week. They have a children s choir and an inspirational choir at Clear Creek. For the inspirational choir they try to find a happy medium of the types of music that they perform, to please all ages.
Their inspirational choir is mostly female and ranges in age from 14 to 60. The children s choir goes from 5 or 6 up to about 12 or 13 years of age. The inspirational choir averages in size from about 30 to 50 members. Inspirational song and praise is the main kind of music performed by the choir. They want to get the congregation in the spirit-receiving mood. Traditional church music is the main influence on what they perform. The music has changed considerably since he was a child. Time elapsed: 30:14 Drums, horns, organs are new to church music since he was a child. He talks about the difficulty of learning to use the organ. He speaks about horns as really new and how they add a richness to the performance. He personally prefers the music that is up-tempo and has a groove to it. You follow the mood of the church in choosing music. It changes from week to week. He talks about New Age music, referring to newer people like J. Moss and Herb Franklin but the goal is always to bring people to Christ. They are basically trying to put music out there that gets their point across. The New Age music is doing just that with the younger generation. With J. Moss and Kirk (Herb?) Franklin they are able to bring a more upbeat tempo with gospel lyrics into church music. His biggest challenge as being a musician in the choir is keeping up with the new songs, constantly listening for new songs to perform The most rewarding part of being in the choir is the service on Sunday, because the music really heightens the service. They lead everyone into a receiving spirit to receive what the pastor is going to say. The role of the choir is to be helpers to the pastor in getting the message across and teaching people about Jesus. He says that most of the time that he is playing that he is nervous when he starts because he wants to do such a good job, but that eventually fades. When the choir starts singing song after song, people start getting into the music and the service. Everyone has a mission outside of the church to bring people to Christ, to help them seek Jesus. The choir can be very instrumental in getting people to church, because they have such a good reputation.
Time Elapsed: 43:07 The Clear Creek choir performs at many different churches around Oxford, Water Valley, Coffeeville, Grenada, Tupelo, Pontotoc, Memphis etc. They are often invited by other churches to perform or his father (Eddie Goliday, Sr.) is leading a revival at one of these churches. They have quite a good reputation around North Mississippi. They definitely recruit new members to the choir, especially when they join the church. They support their choir at Clear Creek with a choir fund and choir dues and they do have different fundraisers to support the choir. He personally loves gospel music, r & b, jazz, classical. just about everything, I ve even learned to like country music. He does not perform with any other groups, bands or choirs. He mentions a choir for Wal-Mart that he used to perform in. He does incorporate blues and jazz into his playing in church. It makes your music more full and fulfilling. He looks up to Kenorus Wilson, Herbert Bonner and Cassie(?) Bonner, one of the best musicians he has heard in his life... that man is an awesome musician. Cassie performs in Memphis. He also lists Lemont Wadlington (Second Baptist) as a major influence. On radio and television he listens to Ricky Dillon s (?) musicians and Jonathan Keys (?) musicians. Time Elapsed: 52:20 Questions from Mary Warner He states that he works at the Oxford School District his official job title is Cashier. Unofficially he is an assistant manager and helps out with inventory and everything that has to do with money. Playing music is one of my greatest loves He would certainly do it full time if he could and if it were possible. He would probably keep church choir music as his main thing since you are supposed to be in the world, but not of the world. Questions from Cortez Castilla Cortez gives categories of music and Goliday gives his favorite song back: Devotional Victory Hymn Ask me Not Wedding Wedding Vows Messaging Encourage Yourself
Praise It s Not About Us Alter Call Praise Him Goliday concludes the interview by expressing what makes a person a great musician is learning their craft and learning many styles He then discusses the Promise that he made. He started playing music seriously about six years ago. He prayed and asked God to give him the talent to perform and he promised that he would use it and give back. He says that God has definitely kept his promise and he is also keeping his part of the promise.