Long road back

Entertainment: After years of false starts, Christian vocalist Michael English is back with a message of redemption | Lynn Vincent

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On the small stage at Foothills United Methodist in La Mesa, Calif., Michael English croons through a bluesy take on the hymnal standard "Blessed Assurance," the audience swaying and clapping like honky-tonk patrons on Route 66.

"Not everybody appreciates me fiddling with the hymns," English says, pausing to tell a story in his Carolina drawl. Once, after he sang the same guitar-twanged rendition of Fanny Crosby's 19th-century classic at a North Carolina concert, an elderly lady marched up to English and got right in his face.

"I thought she was going to tell me how much she enjoyed it," he says. "Instead, she poked her finger right in my chest and said, 'Don't you ever do that again!'"