Sean C. Morgan
George Dominy and his sons David and Cliff will be happy to take the $10,000 if they win, but they’re most interested in having their ministry reach more people when they appear on a television gospel music contest.
Performing as Praise in 3D, the trio will appear on “America Sings” on the Gospel Music Channel. The show runs at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Wednesdays. The members are not certain which Wednesday they will appear, but the program runs for eight weeks. The first episode aired last week. They think they may be on in four or five weeks.
The program is a contest similar to “American Idol,” in which viewers vote each week for their favorite performer. The winners each week will move on to a final competition at the end of the season, with a prize of $10,000.
David and George are officers with Lebanon Police Department. Cliff works at Les Schwab Tire Center in Sweet Home. They perform gospel and patriotic music, frequently performing the national anthem.
The family moved to Sweet Home from Brookings in the 1980s, when George went to work as an officer with the Sweet Home Police Department.
Praise in 3D has performed at numerous events, including the Logger Olympics and Sweet Home Rodeo. The trio recently performed for the Emblem Club in Salem, a law enforcement memorial in Salem and opening ceremonies at Willamette National Cemetery in Portland on Memorial Day.
The latter was their second time performing at Willamette National Cemetery on Memorial Day, George said. Normally, the program is changed annually, but Praise in 3D received so many requests to return that the group was invited back.
Their invitation the first year came from a Facebook connection, George said. A woman with whom he played ball in Little League asked him for a CD through Facebook. She is married to a cemetery official, and an invitation to perform followed.
They believe that gig may have been the one that led to the offer to perform on television.
But they don’t know exactly where it came from, David said. They received the call out of the blue.
A firefighter who had seen Praise in 3D contacted the television show. Brad Lockman Productions, which produces the program, contacted the Portland Police Bureau, and someone there knew George from his time at the Police Academy in Salem. Show representatives contacted the Police Academy, which referred them to Lebanon Police Department.
David received a voicemail, he said.
“I thought no way. It was a complete surprise.”
“I thought it was a joke,” Cliff said. “I didn’t think that it was a legit thing.”
“I remember being extremely excited,” David said.
“They said send us a DVD video with you guys singing,” George said. With help from Ken Long, who works in the video program at Linn-Benton Community College, they recorded a video and sent it in to meet the deadline. The television program sent back some suggestions.
The Dominys went to work redoing the video. They contacted Jim Search of the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, whose son is active in the Young Marines, looking for a large flag to use as a backdrop. He put them in contact with Troy Stevens of Sweet Home, who had a holiday flag that flew on the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, the last conventionally fueled aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy. It was retired in 2005.
They recorded their performance from several angles and sent all of the footage back to “America Sings” for editing.
The performance was much different than Praise in 3D members are used to.
“The biggest difference to us, we weren’t singing to anybody, really,” Cliff said. “We’re not used to being on TV.”
The purpose of it all is to praise God, George said. “We’re not in it for ourselves.”
“God definitely allowed us to reach not thousands, but tens of thousands,” Cliff said.
“If we win, we win,” David said. “If we don’t, look at the people we’ve touched. Wherever God wants to take us that’s where we go. If people find us, it’s because God leads them to us.”
“We’ve won just by reaching so many,” Cliff said.
“It’s a privilege to perform,” George said. “Our goal is to have fun singing as a family and spending time praising God.”
Longer term, Praise in 3D would like to record a second CD. The Dominys previously recorded a CD with the now-defunct Bro2 Studios in Albany. They have sold about 400 copies and used the cash to purchase a sound system because many venues where they perform do not have sound equipment.
The finances aren’t there for a second CD yet, George said. “When the time’s right, it’ll be there.”
Praise in 3D may be found on the Web at praisein3d.com or on Facebook.
The Gospel Music Channel (GMC) is channel 338 on DirectTV and channel 485 on Comcast cable. The program also will appear on skyangel.com.
The Dominys have learned that their Praise in 3D video also may be found on a Pakistani-American Website of some kind, George said. They have no idea how it got there, but it’s in a poll, and “we’re in second place.
“That’s a definite mystery.”