One of the most popular and best-selling live albums in the Kingsmen’s discography is “Stand Up at Opryland USA”, but it took a lot of work and re-work to get it done! The album was set to be recorded on May 21, 1986, in Jackson, Mississippi, but they experienced technical issues throughout the day leading up to concert time. The recording engineers tried desperately to resolve the issues, but they resurfaced during the actual recording and all you could hear in the playback was a loud roar which overpowered the singing. During the following Memorial Day weekend, the Kingsmen tried to record again outdoors at the Theater by the Lake in Opryland, where they encountered even more technical issues. Kevin McManus, who was the lead recording engineer for the live album, had a contact at the Opry (Ed Stone and Bob Whitaker), and on Sunday afternoon, May 25, the Kingsmen were finally able to record the live album at the famed Grand Ole Opry House!

Luckily, someone had a video camera at the failed attempt in Jackson, Mississippi, and it made its way to You Tube. I love listening to both concerts (Jackson/Opryland) to compare what the live recording could have been and what it ended up being. The thing I notice immediately is the crowd in Jackson was a true Kingsmen crowd. The crowd at Opryland was a mix of people ranging from Kingsmen fans, gospel music fans, country music fans and just average people who came to enjoy a good show. This also showed how the Kingsmen catered their program to their audience…while Jackson was definitely more of your church crowd who were ready to have church, the crowd in Nashville were ready for good entertainment, and the Kingsmen were able to tweak their program accordingly, though they sang almost the exact same songs.

“Stand Up at Opryland USA” was produced by Eldridge Fox and Jim Hamill, and since Benson had now acquired the RiverSong Label, the album was released on RiverSong Records. The cover shots were a mix of pictures from Jackson and Nashville, as well as some staged shots from the old Nashville Now television studios. This is probably the first album by the Kingsmen with lots of music overdubs as Bruce Watkins added fiddle and guitar work along with Terry McMillan adding harmonica and percussion, which were all added in the studio after the album had been recorded.

Introducing the Kingsmen for this album is the legendary, Roy Acuff. When he found out that the Kingsmen were recording their live album at the Grand Ole Opry, he approached Bill Traylor (who was the executive at RiverSong Records) about introducing the Kingsmen; and what a huge honor it was to have this legendary figure introduce the Kingsmen to the stage that afternoon! The intro became a rather humorous affair, as Mr. Acuff inadvertently introduced them as the Statesmen! When he realized what he had done, he apologized and then quipped, “I apologize to the Statesmen!”, to which everyone howled in laughter, before they did another take of his introduction. It all was so hilarious, the record company decided to leave it on the album, for posterities sake, as it truly was a priceless moment!

After Mr. Acuff’s iconic intro, the Kingsmen kick it off with the up-tempo, “Meet Me at the Table”, which was written by Ronny Hinson and Mike Payne. With Hamill taking the lead, along with step-out lines by Garry and Ray on the chorus, this was the second single from this album, climbing to #3 in the Singing News chart for September, October and again in December 1987. Ronny Hinson pitched the song to Hamill for the Kingsmen to record, and it became one of their most popular concert favorites and has remained an integral part of the Kingsmen’s stage repertoire for almost 40 years!

As the tempo get pushed into overdrive, Ray takes the lead on the song, “Nobody Saved But Me”, which was written by J.D. Byler and published by the Kingsmen. With its flying piano riffs along with harmonica and fiddle highlights, it’s such a fun song and Ray does a great job spitting out the lyrics before the song concludes with an energetic chorus of “Everybody Will Be Happy Over There”. This was a fun inclusion for the album and was a popular concert favorite for Ray.

Slowing the pace down, Ed Crawford steps up to sing the comforting ballad, “The Captain”. With Hamill stepping back, allowing Arthur to step up to the frontlines and sing, and the song became a popular concert favorite for the group. This was a perfect song for Ed, as it was something he could really sink his teeth into, and it became one of his signature songs. Written by a gentleman named Max Rhoades, he was inspired to write the song when his group, New Horizons, was caught traveling through a rough storm one night. As he fervently prayed for safety, he was reminded that Captain Jesus had already been here before, and by the time Max got home that night, he had written the song. Fast forward a year or so later, and his group sang the song on a program with the Kingsmen, and Jim Hamill approached Max about the Kingsmen possibly recording the song. Sometime later, Max was contacted by Rex Nelon about publishing the song through Land of the Sky Publishing (which was owned by Rex and Foxie) and the rest is history!

Moving from the serious to the lighthearted, the Kingsmen take the classic convention favorite, “Leave Your Sorrows and Come Along” (page 166 in the “Red Book”) and have some fun with it, as Ray, Ed, Arthur, and Garry each sing their individual parts on the chorus. Anthony Burger then decides to have some fun with it as he picks up the tempo for the encore (with Hamill encouraging him on), and then picks it up even faster for a second encore. This routine was a brainchild of Arthur Rice, along with Hamill tweaking the skit a bit, and it was pure comedic genius that was a highlight of the album and remained a popular routine in Kingsmen concerts for a number of years.

Hamill then has Anthony tackle an instrumental featuring “Battle Hymn of the Republic”, “How Great Thou Art”, “When We All Get to Heaven” and “I’ll Fly Away”, much to the delight of the crowd. Gary Dillard gets in on the action as well with the harmonica on “I’ll Fly Away”. Also worth mentioning, Anthony and Ed then play “Keep on the Firing Line” as a piano duet. When they get down towards the end, they are joined by Arthur for a threesome on the piano, and it is quite entertaining. The song made it on the live video but unfortunately, did not make the album.

Kicking off the second side, is one of my personal favorites from the album, “We May Be Leaving”, which was written by Stan Shuman. With Ray, Hamill, and Garry each taking a verse and everyone having a step-out line on the chorus, the song perfectly captures that classic Kingsmen excitement, and I always thought it would have been a great radio song for the Kingsmen.

After Hamill takes a few minutes to introduce everyone in the Kingsmen, Arthur delivers an outstanding performance on the Squire Parsons penned, “I Sing Because”. One interesting thing about this song is the performance on the album is quite a bit different than the version that is on the video. It was decided to dial back the energy on the song somewhat, and they re-recorded part of Arthur’s verse in the studio, as well as part of the ending. Squire ended up recording the song a year later, on his solo album “Going Home”, and it was a huge hit for Squire, peaking at #3 in July 1988.

One of the most exciting and energetic tunes the Kingsmen ever recorded is the title song, “Stand Up”, which was originally a big country hit for Mel McDaniel in 1985. Hamill heard the song on the radio and loved it, and one day on the bus, he told Garry Sheppard he wanted him to re-write it as a gospel song for the Kingsmen to sing. Garry took off for a run and when he got back to the bus, he re-wrote the song in less than 15 minutes. Unfortunately, he had to forfeit any publishing rights due to legalities, but the song was a huge hit for the Kingsmen, doing what McDaniel couldn’t do with his version (which peaked at #5 in the Billboard chart), as the song shot up to the #1 position in its third month in the chart, and stayed there for 4 months between December 1986 through March 1987. The song was the ultimate audience participation song and became an instant Kingsmen classic!

As Hamill brings the energy down a bit, he has Eldridge Fox come to the stage as he sings the Jack Campbell penned, “Angels Are Hard to Find”. Published by Land of the Sky Publishing, the Florida Boys originally recorded the song on their classic album, “Reaching Out” in 1984. This was a very special song to Foxie due his own loss many years prior, and you hear some of that in his testimony on the Jackson version of this album, which is on You Tube.

The album concludes with an encore of “Stand Up”, as the Kingsmen ram through a verse and a couple choruses, much to the delight of the crowd. I remember I was up past midnight listening to the radio one night, and they played “Stand Up”, “Angels Are Hard to Find” and the “Stand Up” encore, and I was beside myself! I could not get to sleep after hearing that, and I could not wait to get my hands on this album!

Originally, there were no intentions of recording a live video, but with the facilities that were available at the Opry House, it was decided to record a live video that afternoon. This was one of the early live videos in Southern Gospel Music and as I’ve alluded to earlier, the video differs slightly from the live album in that on the video…there are no overdubs, some of the vocals are slightly different than what’s on the album, some of the talking was edited out for the album and you also hear a couple of mistakes here and there…simply put, you hear the Kingsmen au naturel! Nonetheless, the “Stand Up at Opryland USA” video was a winner, as it won the Singing News Fan Award for “Video of the Year” in 1987! Speaking of Singing News Fan Awards, in 1986, Anthony Burger walked away once again with “Favorite Musician”, as did the Kingsmen Band for “Favorite Band”. Also, Eldridge Fox won the Marvin Norcross Award, which was an award the Singing News created in 1981 in honor of Canaan Record executive Marvin Norcross, who passed away in 1980. In fact, Norcross produced several albums for the Kingsmen when they recorded for Canaan between 1973-1976. The recipient of this award is voted on by the Singing News staff to honor someone who has made significant contributions to Southern Gospel Music, their local community, as well their church and their family, and it was a high honor for Foxie to receive this award.

The Kingsmen rode a big wave of success with this album and the song “Stand Up”, as both gospel and country music fans could relate and enthusiastically support the Kingsmen’s version of the song. The Kingsmen gained a new fan base because of it, which helped propel this album into becoming one of their biggest selling and most popular albums of all time!

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