As the year 1995 progressed, the Greenes began preparations for an exciting new live album to be recorded in the fall of that year, for an early 1996 release date, titled “And the Walls Came Down”. Recorded live in front of 16,000 people at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on October 28, 1995, this would be one of the most exciting live recordings I’ve ever heard, and one of my all-time favorite recordings by the Greenes.

Produced by Roger Talley, with orchestrations arranged and conducted by Art Bain, the band and orchestra recorded all the tracks at the Loft Studio in Boone, North Carolina, prior to the event, with the orchestra performing live along with the pre-recorded tracks. For the tracking session, Roger Talley and Dirk Johnson played keyboards, Frank Mills played the bass, Tony Creasman was on drums, Kelly Back played guitars and Chris Payne played the dobro and steel guitar. The tracks were rich and full, complimenting the exciting and powerful singing by Tim, Tony and Milena.

One of the things that always makes a live recording exciting is not just the exciting performances, but it’s an excited and engaged crowd, and I can say from personal experience that the crowd in Winston-Salem was a rowdy crew! Every group has “their” town and the Greenes owned Winston-Salem, and the crowd loved the Greenes. I was blessed to attend several of Ray Flynn’s events at the LJVM Coliseum (as well as several at Reynolds Auditorium) and those concerts were always loud, rowdy and exciting! For whatever reason, I didn’t make it for this concert in 1995, and I really wish I had! Nonetheless, I was present when the Hoppers recorded their 40th anniversary live video there in 1997 and when Tony Gore & Majesty recorded their “Greatest Hits” live video a couple years later. I will mention that the “Jericho March” the audience did while Tony’s group sang “I’ll Put on a Crown” that you see on his live video, wasn’t something out of the ordinary at all, and it totally fit the event and personality of the crowd there, and Winston-Salem loved Tony Gore as well! While this particular occurrence wasn’t when the Hoppers recorded their live video in 1997, it was possibly the year after or maybe even 2 years after, but I can say with assurance that the Hoppers spent 15 minutes or so singing “Shoutin’ Time”, as the crowd just wouldn’t let them stop! Even after 2 attempts to leave the stage, even going so far as turning off all the stage lights, the crowd noise was absolutely deafening…it was like nothing I’d ever seen before or since! I have lots of memories of some of the most exhilarating concerts there at the Coliseum, as well as at Reynolds Auditorium. They just don’t make concerts like they used to!

But I digress…let’s dive into “And The Walls Came Down”…

After a very brief, but enthusiastic introduction, the Greenes hit the stage with all barrels blazing as they kick off their set with an exciting arrangement of the classic convention tune, “When Jesus Comes in the Clouds”, written by Alan Frazier and published in 1941. From page 296 in the Red Back Hymnal, the Greenes deliver the goods with a gutsy arrangement of this song, and it’s the perfect opening for this exciting live recording. When Milena grabs hold of that chorus and then they go for that key change, the excitement level goes through the roof and it’s one of the most exciting performances I’ve ever heard of the song, and it’s my favorite from this recording. I’ve often wondered how this song would have fared had they released it as a single, as I can’t help but think that it would have been a huge chart song for the Greenes! Speaking of which, the song was actually a popular tune for Windy Johnson & the Messengers back in the early to mid-1970’s, charting as high as #19 in the Singing News chart for them in November 1974. In fact, Roger Talley (who produced this recording) recently pitched this song to the Rogers Family to record on their forthcoming recording titled, “Let’s Sing a Song About Jesus”.

Keeping the energy level high, Tony and Tim are both featured on the upbeat, “I’m Going Through”, which was written by David Staton, before the tempo slows down for the warm, country feel of the Marcia Henry penned tune, “The Song of the Redeemed”. Featuring Tim, I love the overall vibe of the song with steel guitar and dobro highlights, along with a strong doghouse bass track, and it’s a highlight of the recording. I love this tune, and I think it would be a really great song for someone to bring back today!

After Tony quickly introduces each member of the Greenes, he begins to tell a unique and heartfelt story of a young boy lost in a big city, unable to find his way home. The storyline has stark similarities to the Gold City song, “Show Me The Cross”, which they recorded on their 1995 recording, “Standing in the Gap”, ultimately charting for them in 1996. Nonetheless, Tony uses this story to set the stage for Milena’s powerful delivery of the Lucy Hemingway penned tune, “The Blood Covered it All”. This was the second single from this recording, peaking at #11 in the June 1997 Singing News chart. Totally in the Greenes wheelhouse, I always felt it was Top 5 worthy (maybe even #1 worthy) and never understood why it didn’t go any higher than it did. Nonetheless, after such a powerful performance, Tim brings the energy level back down, as he delivers his thoughtful and reflective lyric in his song, “Sometimes I Wish”. Featuring lush orchestrations and a warm acoustic feel, if you’ve seen the live video for this recording, you can see there was a mini dramatization of the crucifixion as the Greenes sang. As the song concludes, Milena segues into a chorus of the classic hymn, “Were You There”, with just simple piano accompaniment. It’s a powerful moment of the concert, before the tempo picks back up for the fun, country feel of, “The Rock I’m Leaning On”, which was written by Tim.

Tim takes a few moments to reflect on the goodness of God on the Greenes’ ministry over the last 16 years, before introducing an outstanding medley of the Greenes greatest hits, appropriately titled, “Memories Medley”. Arranged by Art Bain and featuring a big and exciting orchestral score, this medley moves seamlessly from song to song as the Greenes tackle the songs “Gloryland”, “There’s a Miracle in Me”, “Garment of the Savior”, “When I Knelt the Blood Fell”, “They’ll Never Crucify Him Again”, before capping it off with an exciting performance of “The Church is Going Higher”, which in my opinion, demanded an encore! As the Greenes move from song to song, the crowd applauds their approval and with each song, the crowd noise gets louder and louder, and by the time they get to “The Church is Going Higher”, the Greenes are all over the stage delivering one of the most exhilarating and invigorating performances ever, and it’s the high point of the concert! As much as I love this medley, I’ve always felt that the song, “In the Twinkling of an Eye” was left out, and feel it should have been included, but despite that omission, this medley is an outstanding capstone for the Greenes, and it is flawlessly and enthusiastically executed by the Greenes and orchestra, and the crowd eats it up! By the time the medley was finished, the energy level in the coliseum was off the chart, and as Tony feeds off that energy, he jumps into “preacher mode” and gets the energy ramped up even more, as the crowd is in an utter frenzy, before the Greenes deliver a passionate and powerful performance on their final song titled, “I Am a Christian”. Written by Tim, the Greenes never shied away from singing evangelically based anthems, and with this tune, Tim wanted to write something that would let the world know what the Greenes believed in and what they stood for, and it became one of the Greenes’ biggest chart songs, peaking at #3 in the October 1996 Singing News chart. Additionally, they are joined on stage by the other artists who were performing on the concert that evening, the Martins, Brian Free & Assurance, Quinton Mills, Isaacs, Perrys, Bishops and Lucy Hemingway.

The frenzied excitement you hear from the crowd during the medley and on the song “I Am a Christian” (as well as throughout the live recording), is where the Greenes adapted the title, “And the Walls Came Down”. Much like Joshua and the children of Israel marching around the walls of Jericho and then concluding with the mighty shout, one can imagine what it sounded like by listening to this live recording. With 16,000 people in attendance that night, the atmosphere was electric, and you can’t help but feel it when listening to the recording. What would have made it perfect is if Tim could have written a song, or the Greenes found a song to match that intense excitement with the title “And the Walls Came Down”, but I don’t think the decision on the title came until after the live recording was done.

“And the Walls Came Down” is one of my all-time favorite recordings by the Greenes, and it was one of the last great live albums of the era, as by the 1990’s, the era of the live album was pretty much over. It’s an exciting concert and still ranks as one of my all-time favorite live recordings. The Greenes knew how to stir a crowd, and as I stated earlier, they “owned” Winston-Salem, and that crowd loved the Greenes. With the use of pre-recorded tracks, the recording lacks the true live, spontaneous “feel” of those classic live recordings from the past, but it’s still an exciting live album filled with electrifying performances and an exhilarating crowd response.

As a unique comparison, the Bishops recorded “Chapter X”, which was also recorded with a live orchestra in 1994 (you can read my article on that recording via the following link: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1537832795009508&set=a.1476892434436878), and the Greenes recorded “And the Walls Came Down” a year and a half later in 1995, and those 2 recordings are the only “live” Southern Gospel recordings that I am aware of utilizing a live orchestra. But both groups handled the event very differently, as the Bishops did everything live (full band and orchestra) and then went back into the studio and added music overdubs afterwards, whereas the Greenes recorded all their tracks before-hand in the studio, including the orchestra, and had the orchestra play “live” along with the tracks. While the Bishops’ “Chapter X” recording had a bit more authenticity to it, the Greenes’ live recording had a slicker feel (and a much livelier audience!). Both events had their fair share of headaches due to the massive undertaking of putting on such a huge performance, but they were both superior live recordings in their own right!

“And the Walls Came Down” was a rousing live recording and it was a rousing success all the way around! While their last recording didn’t offer any Top 40 chart songs, “And the Walls Came Down” put the Greenes back where they belonged, and offered 2 stirring, and yet exciting hit songs, making it one of the top releases for 1996!

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