By Susan Shinn
Salisbury Post
CHINA GROVE ó Fans of Exit 9, rejoice!
The dynamic Christian acoustic duo returns for its third appearance at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, China Grove, on Sunday.
A spaghetti supper is set for 5 p.m. with the concert to follow. The event is free and the public is invited. Concert-goers are asked to bring canned goods or staple items for Main Street Mission.
Exit 9 is comprised of Clay Arthur, who hails from Strasburg, Va., and Gloria Goeres of Columbia, S.C.
The duo appears at churches and church-related events throughout the Southeast.
“We’re so excited about coming back down there to play,” Clay says. “We have targeted a different area for different times of the year.”
This weekend, Exit 9 will play at Newberry College on Thursday and a confirmation retreat on Friday before heading to China Grove on Sunday.
Although Exit 9 has previously played other venues such as coffeehouses, Clay and Gloria are narrowing their focuses these days to purely “church gigs.”
“It was always the focus,” Clay says, “but not the only thing we did. We’ve just ramped up the focus on our church ministry.”
Exit 9 still performs with Johnny and the Vault Cats, a rockbilly group which includes Clay’s dad.
They recently performed an Elvis show since The King’s birthday was Jan. 8.
“A couple of times a year, we will do that for fun,” Clay says.
For now, Clay and Gloria are still keeping their day jobs ó Clay works for a bank while Gloria is a schoolteacher.
They’ve been working with ó believe it or not ó Prince’s former guitarist to get more focused on their music careers and the marketing aspects of Exit 9.
Dez Dickerson, now based in Nashville, serves as a marketing agent for many Christian artists.
“He builds a plan to get them where they want to go,” Clay explains. “It’s about creating a vision and creating a mission, and measuring success based on that.”
Clay calls Dez “an amazing musician.”
His “Little Red Corvette” guitar solo was voted the 64th best of all-time.
“It’s been a good partnership,” Clay says. “You’ve got that synergy and the ideas start to blossom.”
Exit 9 will be mounting a new marketing campaign this summer to book venues through the rest of the year.
“It’s all about networking,” Clay admits.
He says that 90 percent of the events are at Lutheran churches, although they’d certainly like to expand to other denominations.
“I think there’s an opportunity there with other denominations in the way they view music ministry,” he notes.
Of course, good marketing doesn’t work without good music ó and that’s something Exit 9 is creating as well.
Clay and Gloria have a new CD, “Reissued,” which includes old songs, new songs and cover songs.
“This CD is different than what we’ve done before because we use a full band,” Clay says.
“Reissued” is arranged and produced by Dez.
The new CD is available online and at Exit 9 concerts.
Clay and Gloria also have new T-shirts ó again, through Dez, they’re working with a new graphics designer.
Sounds like this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
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For more information about Exit 9, visit www.exit9music. com.
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For more information about Sunday’s supper and concert, call the church at 704-857-2092 or visit www.stmarkschinagrove.com.nnn
Contact Susan Shinn at 704-797-4289 or sshinn@salisburypost.com.