MusicScribe BLOG

From Muhlenburg County, KY:

With Broad Street closed, an estimated crowd of five thousand people filled the downtown lawns, streets and sidewalks for the 2010 First National Bank, Gospel Fest.

(SOURCE)

Performers included Gold City, Guy Penrod, Aaron & Amanda Crabb, Christy Sutherland, a couple of local groups plus “hometown favorites” Jason Crabb and Crabb Revival.

Over at Southern Gospel Forums, a healthy discussion has developed in the past couple of days on declining concert attendance. This event shows us one can’t-miss way to get five thousand people to listen to Southern Gospel.

Put several major groups on the bill along with some locals, convince a bank to pay for it, publicize it as some other genre entirely (rock and roll, in this case), and do it on a street where anyone can walk up and listen.

I’m not just being sarcastic, if you’re wondering. If the goal is ministry, introducing Southern Gospel to potential new fans, singing to a lot of people at once, or a combination of all of the above, well, here is one proven and tested way to go about it. I see no downside to this approach at all.

Unfortunately, you aren’t going to find a bank ready and willing to foot the bill in every town on every weekend.

We recently expanded our SGHistory page on the McKameys based on some additional historical information compiled by Kristopher Hise. Check out the updated page by clicking HERE.

As always, if you have any pertinent information to add to the SGHistory site, email us at editor@sghistory.com.

The McKameys are known all over the country for their spirit filled singing and their country charm. Peg McKamey Bean is famous for becoming filled with the spirit and kicking off her shoes during hit songs such as “I’ve Won”, “God on the Mountain”, and “Do You Know How It Feels?” When “Between 12 And 23″ went to number one on the Singing News monthly airplay chart in November 2009, the McKameys took sole possession of the record for the most number one songs in the history of the chart. They increased their overall record to 16 number one songs in June 2010 with “I Keep Praying.”

Today, I was listening to a song, and heard:
“Then as promised, God sent Jesus,
Lord of future and past,
But more than Alpha and Omega
He was the first and the last.”

I wonder what the songwriter thinks “Alpha and Omega” means if they believe “first and last” is “more.”

That rates right up there with the line about the man who was “blind and he could not see.”

Can you think of more examples of unintentionally redundant lines or lines where the songwriter used a word or phrase to fit the meter with no regard for the definition of that word or phrase?

I attended a concert in Lenoir, NC on Friday night. Featured artists included the Kingsmen, Soul’d Out, David Johnson & Dixie Dawn, and Steve Warren (the preacher, not the former Masters V tenor). Fellow blogger Steve Eaton was also in attendance. I expect he’ll have a report on his blog soon.

David Johnson is one of the most gifted studio musicians in Southern Gospel. In fact, the primary reason I wanted to attend this particular event was so I could observe Johnson in a live concert setting.  The other three members of his bluegrass band are good quality players as well, though they were playing from cue sheets and searching for notes on at least one song. I would have preferred to see Johnson featured out-front for the entire set (particularly on the singing), but the features were spread out across the entire group. Johnson treated us to some blazing acoustic guitar picking, while his band-mates added banjo, mandolin, and electric bass. The banjo picker in particular was very good.

Soloist Steve Warren pinches his tones and contorts both his body and his syllables. He’s somewhat entertaining, though, due to his “Elvis hair,” his ability to poke fun at his own appearance, and his interaction with the crowd. He’s a pretty good harmonica player, too. On the second half of the program, he gave us an Elvis version of “He Touched Me.”

Soul’d Out is the hottest up-and-coming quartet in Southern Gospel at the moment and a strong contender for Horizon Group in the Singing News Fan Awards. Their mix was somewhat muddy (at least from my seat) on the first half of the program…the sub-woofers were overloaded by their soundtracks, compressors were working overtime, and the EQ could have been better. On the second half, they sang with just piano and bass, which yielded a better overall sound. In spite of the sound imbalances, they still did a great job connecting with the audience. I had a chance to chat with Dusty Barrett and Tanner Stahl at intermission. They’re about to start working on a new CD for a tentative release around the first of the year. I’m expecting good things from this group.

The current single and soon to be number one song by the Kingsmen, “God Saw A Cross,” was met with enthusiastic applause from the crowd in Lenoir. Harold Reed does a fantastic job presenting this lyric. The Kingsmen sound has solidified since Randy Crawford joined the group. “Justified” is becoming a regularly requested feature for him. Bryan Hutson is continuing to get a great response from “When God Ran.” They mixed in a number of Kingsmen classics including “Glory Road” and “When I Wake Up To Sleep No Moore” (1973).

The Broyhill Civic Center is a nice facility that seats about 1070. The crowd tonight looked to be about 300-350. The event continues on Saturday night, with a larger crowd expected in terms of advanced ticket sales. Perhaps two concerts back-to-back is more than the Lenoir area can handle. Overall, the concert was handled professionally with a good emcee who kept the program rolling.

By the way, if you like good beef BBQ and you’re in Lenoir, check out Hannah’s. Before the concert, I was looking for a good place to eat. I spotted a Shoney’s and turned into the lot, but I decided to go elsewhere when I noticed there were only four cars parked outside and no signs of life inside. That’s never a good sign on a Friday at 5:30 PM. I asked my GPS for a list of nearby restaurants and decided to give Hannah’s a try. The parking lot at Hannah’s only had a couple of empty spaces, and I soon found out why. I tried two sandwiches, one beef and one pork. The sliced beef is perfect with traditional western NC style red sauce. I tried some of their eastern NC style vinegar sauce on the pork, which was good, but a little less satisfying than the beef.

Will the powers that be at Sony/RCA respond to an Amsterdam based petition to release In The Garden by the Weatherfords on CD? Sign the petition and see: http://www.gopetition.com/petition/38572.html

◄— Click over there (or right HERE) to subscribe.

Former Stamps Quartet members Donnie Sumner and Bill Baize appear on the latest episode of If I Can Dream. Skip to the 11:39 minute mark in this video to catch their appearance.

Please be forewarned: this show has objectionable content. The segment with Sumner and Baize is relatively tame.

It has been several years since I attended the Grand Ole Gospel Reunion. The event moves to a new location every few years. This year, the location was less than 1 1/2 hours away at the Hyatt in downtown Greenville, SC, so I drove down for the full Friday evening experience yesterday. This included a four hour concert beginning at 7:00 PM, a breakfast buffet, and a consequent jam session that ended at 1:00 AM.

The GOGR is an interesting experience. The core group of performers are singers who sang with popular groups from the past and still carry some name recognition among long-time Southern Gospel fans. It’s a pleasant moment when you hear a forgotten singer “bring it” despite their age. A few are current or rising stars, and a few more have developed a following that primarily exists just at the annual GOGR event.

Some of the highlights of the evening for me included:
1. Experiencing Phil Barker singing tenor again with a couple of scrap-iron quartets. Phil is still a quality singer.
2. The reunion of the original Dove Brothers Quartet. McCray, Eric, Burman, John, and Richard still sound great together. The GOGR is where the Dove Brothers got their start.
3. Hearing John Rulapaugh, Josh Garner, and Jonathan Sawrie sing a dynamic Rangers Trio song.
4. Watching Florida Boys bass singer Chip Cooper sing lead just like Jim Hamill on “Love Lifted Me.”
5. Southmen tenor, Jim Hefner’s, comedy. A couple of his jokes came from the standard repertoire, but most of them were jokes I’d hadn’t heard before. That is a rare thing in Southern Gospel music!
6. Talking with a number of friends, making a few new ones and meeting some I’d known only via the internet previously.
7. Watching Corey Pearson of the Diplomats capably fill multiple supporting roles as a musician (drums, various guitars, piano) and singer (lead and tenor).

To be honest, I actually enjoyed the jam session more than the main concert itself. The singers are more relaxed during this portion of the program. Some of it is less professional, certainly, but the more relaxed atmosphere resulted in several of the highlights I listed above.

A couple of prayer requests were made from the stage:
1. Miles Cooper will be undergoing open heart surgery next week.
2. Eric Dove will be coming off the road to have surgery on his shoulder.

The GOGR has moved several times over the years, as I mentioned above, and it’s gradually getting smaller each year. It had been seven or eight years since I attended at the Peace Center in Greenville. That was a downsize from the Palmetto Expo venue, which in turn was a downsize from the glory days at the old Greenville Memorial Auditorium. Ticket sales this year were easy to calculate. Rows A-Z were pretty much full. There were 30 seats per row for a total ticket sale potential of 780. The fans who attend are loyal, though. Some attend the entire event every year, buying packages that run $699 for hotel rooms and two tickets to every concert event.

The GOGR is worth attending for the special moments you can’t experience anywhere else and to hear those singers you haven’t heard in a while. That being said, there are other moments when you can see why attendance and interest in the event is declining. Rather than adding “fresh legends” (those who haven’t participate in GOGR before) who might bring in a new group of fans, GOGR is, at the core, the same slate of singers I saw seven or eight years ago. To the GOGR’s credit, they have taken the high road of loyalty to those artists who fail to really connect with the crowd now, though they were undeniably famous in the past.

Greater Vision, Legacy Five, the Hoppers, and the Booth Brothers are all including the song “Statement Of Faith” on their latest CDs using the same Lari Goss produced track. I haven’t heard the Greater Vision version yet, but the vocals on the Hoppers and L5 versions appear to be the same. The Booth Brothers version has different vocals.

Usually when groups collaborate, it’s either for a special release by multiple artists or for one group or the other’s release. The group Sisters, for example, recently included the Booth Brothers on their CD for a song appropriately titled “Brothers And Sisters.” Of course, groups frequently cover songs other groups have recorded previously, and sometimes they’ll release similar versions of a new song over the course of a few weeks. Including an identical (or nearly identical) track on multiple CDs rarely happens, though.

I wouldn’t want to see it all the time, but in this case, it makes sense. As the lyric indicates, “Statement Of Faith” is “more than a creed…this is what I believe.” A various artists approach to this particular song yields a sense of unity and common purpose.

By the way, every CD has at least eleven tracks, so no customer is being “cheated” if they buy more than one of the CDs.

Another wrinkle in the mix is a Lifeway choral collection from Lari Goss also titled Statement Of Faith. There are nine songs in addition to the title track including one written by Goss (“Precious Old Book”), plus two each from each group’s CD. Greater Vision is represented by “It Pays To Pray” and “I’ve Been To the Bottom,” Legacy Five by “New Born Feeling” and “‘Til We Meet Again,” the Booth Brothers by “God Did It All” and “I Still Believe In The Church,” and the Hoppers by “Victory Shall Be Mine” and “East Of Jerusalem” (mis-titled at the Lifeway link as “He Will Come,” see below*).

From a marketing point of view, it’s like a new brand (Statement Of Faith) from an existing brand (Lifeway) by a familiar brand (Lari Goss) reinforcing four more brands (the groups)…mega-cross-marketing.

From a practical sense, great tracks for groups don’t necessarily translate into great arrangements for choirs. Goss turned Greater Vision’s Hymns Of The Ages into a musical with mixed results, for example. In this case, though, Goss could pick and choose the arrangements that would work best in a choral setting.

*An interesting side-note to the mis-titled “East Of Jerusalem” on the Lifeway website is that the same song is also referred to as “He Will Come” in the liner notes written by Connie Hopper in the Something’s Happening CD. The song itself was written by Paula Stefanovich. My guess is that “He Will Come” was the original title until someone realized the last line of the chorus could cause people to recollect a previous number one song by the Hoppers also written by Stefanovich.

Here is an early taste of the upcoming Hoppers release, Something’s Happening.

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The best line in a song I’ve heard about church is, “Nobody’s too bad to come in, nobody’s too good to stay out.” That Rusty Golden/Dianne Wilkinson co-writing thing might just catch on.

More later…