More Cowbell Please: CCM Stories

Around 2019, Dolly Parton instructed her management
to actively pursue faith-based collaborations.

For King & Country. Zach Williams. Blessing Offor.

These weren't random. They weren't accidents.
They were chosen — by a woman in her 70s who decided
the time had come to say the quiet part out loud.

Her Christian faith wasn't something she discovered
late in life. It was always there — rooted in a
one-room cabin in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, in a
Pentecostal grandfather who pastored a church called
the House of Prayer, in a theology she carried for
80 years without ever needing to announce it.

She just decided it was time to let it speak.

In this tribute essay, More Cowbell Please host
Ainslie Grosser — a Grammy-winning mix engineer
with 30 years inside the Nashville CCM industry —
explores Dolly's extraordinary Christian music legacy.

You'll hear about:
— The Grammy she won with For King & Country
— The CMA performance with Zach Williams
— Her Gospel Music Hall of Fame induction
— Her performances at the GMA Dove Awards
— The Elvis story nobody tells right
— The House That Whitney Built
— The Imagination Library — and why her father
couldn't read
— The CMA soundcheck story Luke Smallbone told
on radio the week she died

All of it in Dolly's own words. From the interviews,
the documentaries, the podcasts — the primary sources
most people never found.

"I don't practice it. I live it." — Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton passed away August 25, 2026.
She was 80 years old.

There's always more to the story.

————————————————————————
More Cowbell Please is a narrative documentary
podcast exploring the untold stories of faith,
hope, and love woven through Christian music history.

Host: Ainslie Grosser
Grammy credits include Holy Water (We The Kingdom)

Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
YouTube: @MoreCowbellPleasePodcast

She became the most successful Christian artist of her generation. A Guinness World Record. Two Grammys. The Super Bowl. But the story of how Lauren Daigle actually got there — from a sick room in Lafayette, Louisiana to the biggest stage in American sport — has never been told properly.
Until now.
This is Part 1: The Making.
Ainslie Grosser is a Grammy-credited mix engineer with 30 years in the Contemporary Christian Music industry. In this episode he tells Lauren Daigle's origin story using primary sources nobody else has accessed — including exclusive on-camera interviews with the A&R person who signed her, the manager who made the phone call that changed everything, and the producer who found the song on a shelf.
What you'll hear in this episode:
The promise a 15-year-old made to God in a sick room in Lafayette
Why Lauren Daigle scrubbed a choir director's toilets to learn how to sing
The ruptured appendix that started her entire career
How "How Can It Be" almost didn't make the EP — and the phone call that saved it
The dark night of the soul nobody knew about
The 2am moment someone said "we're not going to make any money on this one"
How a girl from Louisiana ended up in the Guinness World Records book
Part 2 — The Fire — covers the Ellen controversy, the mayor who tried to cancel her, the pandemic collapse, and the Super Bowl vindication. Coming soon.
More Cowbell Please — the stories behind the Christian music you love.
There's always more to the story.

For 20 years, fans have been asking what happened to
Stacie Orrico.

In 2003 she was on the Billboard Hot 100 twice, touring
with Destiny's Child, selling 3.5 million albums worldwide.
She was Christian music's biggest crossover moment since
Amy Grant. And then — before her 21st birthday — she
was gone.

In January 2026, she filed a lawsuit and issued a
statement that finally answered the question.

Host Ainslie Grosser — Grammy-credited mix engineer and
30-year CCM insider — tells the full story. The music,
the industry, the lawsuit, the systemic failures, and
where Stacie is now.

This episode includes:
— The CCM template that shaped her career
— The alleged abuse detailed in the civil lawsuit
— The mechanism of control the lawsuit describes
— Why this happened in a Christian context
— The King David frame — grace and justice together
— Where Stacie Orrico is in 2026

NOTE: This episode discusses allegations of childhood
sexual abuse contained in a civil lawsuit
(Orrico v. Ham et al., Case No. 26STCV00252).
These are civil allegations only. No criminal charges
have been filed. No verdict has been reached.

If you or someone you know has experienced abuse:
RAINN | rainn.org | 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)

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🎥 WATCH THE FULL VIDEO VERSION:
https://youtu.be/gyNJX-C36Ck

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More Cowbell Please is a narrative essay podcast and
YouTube channel for people who love Christian music
and want the full story. Host Ainslie Grosser brings
nearly 30 years as a Grammy-credited mix engineer
and CCM insider to stories that deserve more than
a Wikipedia summary.

#StacieOrrico #CCM #ChristianMusic #MoreCowbellPlease

Bob Farrell — one half of the husband-and-wife duo Farrell & Farrell — passed away on July 11, 2026. He was one of Contemporary Christian Music's most gifted and innovative songwriters, leaving behind a catalog that stretches from synth-pop CCM classics like "People in a Box" and "Get Right or Get Left" to songs recorded by Eric Clapton, Amy Grant, Sandi Patty, Wynonna, Michael W. Smith, and dozens more.This is our tribute to Bob — his story, his music, and his faith.We cover:- His upbringing in Lubbock, Texas — down the alley from Buddy Holly- A marriage that nearly ended before it began — and the conversion that changed everything- How Farrell & Farrell pioneered synth-pop in Christian music alongside DeGarmo & Key- The Soviet Union tour — 25,000 people a night in Moscow and Leningrad, one year before the Wall came down- 40+ Sandi Patty cuts, the London Symphony Orchestra, and a rock opera with Eddie DeGarmo- What Bob said he wanted to be remembered for — in his own wordsI had the privilege of having Bob record in my studio around 2003. This one is personal.Rest well, Bob. The seeds you planted are still growing.
0:00 Introduction — The Man Who Almost Wasn't
0:38 Growing Up in Lubbock — Buddy Holly's Neighbor
1:32 The Marriage Crisis & Dallas
1:55 The Kitchen Table Conversion
3:13 Farrell & Farrell — The Sound They Built
3:51 Synth Pop Pioneers — The Thomas Dolby Moment
4:56 People in a Box & The Baskin-Robbins Era of CCM
5:49 The Songwriter Behind a Hundred Songs
7:40 Jesus Christ Superstar, Hero & My Studio Session
8:38 Touring the Soviet Union — Behind the Iron Curtain
10:04 What He Wanted to Be Remembered For
10:39 Jane — The Glue That Held It All Together
11:41 The Legacy
12:28 A Final Word — In Bob's Own Voice━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ More Cowbell Please is a channel dedicated to the stories, artists, and moments that shaped Contemporary Christian Music.New episodes every week.Subscribe → https://www.youtube.com/@morecowbellpleasepodcast?sub_confirmation=1━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#FarrellandFarrell #BobFarrell #CCM #christianmusic ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━SOURCES & FURTHER LISTENINGBob Farrell interviewed on CCM LegacyCAST (2024):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOFkupu-dQMBob Farrell interviewed on Music for the Soul podcast:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyY5QLyrcSEBob Farrell's personal video channel:https://www.youtube.com/@bobfarrell2941Bob Farrell's original YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/@SPARKYNBCBob Farrell's final personal video ("I Will Be"):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GodiVbEWlOAFarrell & Farrell official website:https://www.farrellandfarrell.netCCM Magazine tribute:https://www.ccmmagazine.comCCM Classic — Farrell & Farrell artist page:https://www.ccmclassic.com/artist/farrell-and-farrell━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Get vidIQ to grow your channel faster! 🚀https://vidiq.com/morecowbell

Stacey Wilbur has spent over thirty years in Nashville doing
a job most music fans have never heard of — song plugging.
Her role: find the right song, fight for it, and get it into
the hands of the artist who will make it a hit.

She helped launch Worship Together. She championed Laura
Story's "Blessings" when the label wasn't sure it should
make the record. She worked alongside future stars before
the world knew their names. And today she heads publishing
for TIM — the company founded by Chris Tomlin and Jason
Ingram, two of the most recorded songwriters in Christian
music history.

In this conversation, Stacey takes us from a small town
in Michigan — where a poster of Wynonna Judd on her bedroom
wall sparked a dream — all the way to the rooms where
Christian music's biggest songs are pitched, fought for,
and sometimes saved from the cutting room floor.

She talks about a stranger who prophesied over her in a
restaurant before she was even a Christian. About losing
her job, hearing God say "be still," and what happened
the very next day when she wrote a name on a piece of paper.

She tells us about a CEO who didn't have to say anything —
and chose to anyway.

This is one of the most honest, funny, and quietly
remarkable conversations we've had on More Cowbell Please.

Stacey Wilbur / Head of Publishing, TIM Publishing
Instagram: @staceyswilbur

More Cowbell Please is a podcast exploring the stories,
faith, and people behind Contemporary Christian Music.
Hosted by Grammy-winning mix engineer Ainslie Grosser.

Topics in this episode: Christian music industry, song
plugging, music publishing Nashville, CCM history,
Worship Together, Chris Tomlin, Laura Story Blessings,
Mandisa, TIM Publishing, Brentwood Benson, EMI Christian,
Capitol Christian Music Group, Bill Hearn, Billy Ray Hearn,
Sparrow Records, faith and work, Nashville music careers.

Chapters
0:00 The people behind the songs you love
0:53 Meet Stacey Wilbur
1:35 Small town girl with a big dream
4:51 The prophecy at the restaurant
5:34 October 2nd — getting saved
7:57 615 Music Row — how she got in the door
8:50 The Avalon audition
11:26 Worship Together / Chris Tomlin / Matt Redman
11:46 What is a song plugger?
12:50 The Busby & Daughtry story
15:15 "It's me" — pitching herself to Gary Overton
16:41 Honky Tonk Badonkadonk
17:43 Brentwood Benson — "All the writers say hire you"
19:05 Chris Sligh / Rascal Flatts / Cracker Barrel
22:16 Losing the job — the wilderness season
24:13 Who was Bill Hearn?
25:19 "I know what happened to you. You matter."
25:35 Seth Mosley texts the next day
26:27 The panic attack (and what happened next)
27:01 TIM Publishing — Chris Tomlin's crazy idea
27:52 Steffany Gretzinger walks in
30:09 The Charlie Kirk Memorial
30:34 iTunes Top 10 worldwide — God is moving
33:32 Laura Story "Blessings"
35:41 "I mixed that record"
36:37 Advice — dream big
37:50 Be yourself / the Brian Johnson line
38:50 God's strategies > AI strategies
39:25 The magnificent defeat
40:47 Outro