A leader in the Southern Gospel music tradition for over twenty-five years, Mark Bishop often refers to his style as “front-porch music,” because he and his brother and father, the original Bishops, started out by spending summer evenings singing on the front porch. Talking to ChristianMusic.com from his home outside Lexington, Kentucky, not far from the original Christian camp meetings, Mark conveys all the warmth, sincerity – and remarkable storytelling ability – of those Southern summer nights. A prolific songwriter, Mark has come out with an album a year for each of his nine years as a solo artist, producing sixteen top-40 songs, five top-five and two number-one songs in that period. “We tour constantly, and our fans come out year after year to hear us,” he says, “so I look to give them something new each time.” According to Mark, Southern Gospel is much more varied than some people think. “It has a rich heritage in the South, and has progressed into a variety of styles,” he says. “Elvis said his music grew out of this music.” Indeed, most of America’s music can be traced back to those Kentucky camp meetings. Mark particularly likes the music’s tradition of storytelling, and many of his songs are ballads. Last year he produced an album, “Fields of Love,” in which each self-contained song flows into the next, so that the whole album tells a story. “Sometimes you just can’t say it all in three or four minutes,” he says. Mark's most recent album, “Just Pay Attention,” also has about a half-dozen stories. “They're playing ‘Go Ahead and Cry’ on the radio. It’s got a wonderful message to people who ‘are in the valley,’ going through trials,” Mark says. “The song ‘Just Pay Attention’ addresses a family that is dealing with Alzheimer's. A very good friend of mine is dealing with that. I’m impressed with the grace with which they are handling that situation.”

“You can't do just ballads in a concert, though. I’ll interject humor, deep songs, clap-along,” Mark says, “and vary the tempo a bit.” In addition to his traditional venues, Mark reaches out with his gifted voice to other audiences. “I do a lot of concerts, worship services, and secular events,” he says. “A lot of towns have festivals, and you may be singing to people that don't really know your kind of music.”

It's hard to imagine that anyone wouldn't be familiar with it, given that even before his solo success, The Bishops produced two dozen albums, with twenty-seven Top-40 songs, twelve Top-Five hits and three Number-One songs.

“We didn’t know there was such a thing as a chart until we were on it,” Mark says. “We would sing in church long before we knew there was such a thing as a Gospel-music industry.  People would visit and say, ‘come to sing at our church,’ and it evolved from that.”

Their recording start came curiously from Mark’s grandmother, who became feeble and couldn’t hear them perform in church. “She gave my dad five-hundred dollars to record all our songs for her,” says Mark. “Radio stations started playing them and then after a couple years, Nashville called and wanted us to record with them.”

From the outset, Mark was doing the writing. “In the group, we had areas we attended to,” he explains. “My dad did the business. My brother was the pitchman. I was the quiet one who wrote the material. One song or two per album in the beginning. That began to grow until I was writing nine songs per album.”

Around 2001, Mark's father decided to retire and his brother went into politics, working for the Governor of Kentucky. “It had just run its course,” Mark says. Mark quickly adapted to the more strenuous demands of a solo career, continuing his writing, too. “I’m always writing,” he says. “Everything you read or see is a potential song.”

So, with the prodigious output of an album a year, constant touring, and even producing the albums of others, does Mark get a rest when he’s back home? Not entirely. “My pastor tells me, when you're home you’re going to share it with people. So I'll try out a new song on the congregation,” he confesses. “I'll practice a new song on people in my concerts, too. We are very casual. It’s like we are all gathered in Andy Griffith’s living room.” Or, no doubt, on his front porch.