Yup, you read it correctly! After almost a year away, the Gospel Soundcheck blog is back!

I know, I know. When I stopped blogging last year, I was exhausted, frustrated and cynical. And when I stopped blogging here, I stopped almost all music writing. It felt like a 10-ton weight was lifted off of my shoulders.

I started writing about dogs. I volunteered at an animal shelter. I started shadowing a dog trainer extraordinaire. I read, I blogged on my personal blog, fostered and then adopted a third dog, realized I needed to make money, got and quit a part time job.

But I moved forward and didn’t look back. Well, mostly didn’t look back.

I didn’t watch a single minute of this season of “American Idol” and I loved it. But there have been moments over the last year when I thought, “I really wish I was still blogging at Beliefnet, because this is a great story.” Moments when I heard about an artist making a difference and I knew the story would never get the coverage it deserved. Moments when I really missed my editors and the fun I had working with them daily.

And so when the opportunity was offered to come back, I thought about and decided that as along as we can spend more time talking about artists who make a difference and less time promoting a bazillion worship CDs with the same songs, I’d do it. The fact that the new editor is just as great as my old one helped a ton.

And so … the Gospel Soundcheck is back!

In all fairness, I need to mention the two other music bloggers at Beliefnet, guys who know way more about music than I do. Chad Bonham writes the Whole Notes blog and Stephen Russ writes The Prophet of Pop. I wouldn’t even pretend to compete with them when it comes to music knowledge. (And Stephen also happens to be my editor, so if it seems like his stress level spikes in the next week or so, you know why. I’m back.)

I’m no music expert, but I love people and I love a good story. So over here, we’ll talk about the stories that don’t make the main stage and focus on stories of artists who are making a difference. Between the three of us, we’ll cover everything you need to know about music. (I hope I can hold up my end of this triangle. See, I made a music joke! Ding!)

So thanks for those of you who stuck with me during my hiatus. I was able to spend some time writing about other topics I love and will continue to write about. And now I need you to help me out here: I want to hear from you about artists in your area who are making a difference – volunteering, reaching out in your community, doing cool things that you think the world needs to know about.