As to the current GC, they certainly have the vocal ability, but the fans just don’t respond to progressive music the same way they do the traditional and even semi-traditional material.

Ladd is the greatest tenor in GC history, and it’s not even close!
Free owes what he is today to Ivan Parker, who in his heyday was awesome…and carried that group. What’s the deal about Free?
Before tuning, he could not sing 8 bars with good intonation…hardly a recorded song without bad pitches…and his vocal pleacement was plain bad…he road Parker’s coat-tails.

It’s close between Trammel and Riley, but not real close. Daniel Riley is THE most underated, under appreciated singer in SG. He is better than 90% of the lead singers out there. It helps that he can pick and choose the tunes he wants to sing lead for, and has JW to carry the load, song after song. They are an amazing 1-2 punch…style wise. Only GVB rivals their talent. But even GVB does not compare to their versatility. GC’s voices have unique personalities, yet blend very well.

Tim Riley get’s the sympathy vote, but really sang no better than their current bass. No one managed better than Tim…but I’m just talking music.
No…I accept your explanation: that you are not biased…just don’t agree with your votes.

For the record, I consider the Free/Parker/LeFevre/Riley/Jones and Parrack/Wilburn/Trammell/Riley/Parton or Eleton/Riley/Borden lineups to be two of the greatest ever in Southern Gospel, and I hardly dislike the current one. It’s just that in each individual category I found other nominees that I like a little more.

What’s your problem with Gold City. I don’t know if Daniel Riley is the best “part-singer” singing baritone, but he is the best “singer” singing baritone. Like Harrison recently stated, I believe GC has the best overall configuration of singers in SG today…Ladd is amazing…regardless, it seems that you have some kind of bias, to not give them any nod with your votes. Maybe I’m wrong.
I do commend you for making your ballot public.

Thanks for the explanation. Like I stated above, I think the Regional Artist award is a great thought, and I understand and fully support your reasoning behind the award. I’ll be interested in seeing what happens with the results of that one, and if it is able to accomplish its stated purpose effectively.

There are a lot of really great artists out there that are not in that A Class artist list for whatever reason. As such they never get any recognition for their work even though many of them are capable of turning out great projects and some performances that often leave some crowds wondering why they were not the “main talent.” I have personally attended some of those events.

I simply wanted to provide a place for those artists who may just be a couple steps from the main stream to get some recognition for their efforts because at some point every artist was a “Regional Artist.” I guess the name choice was not the best and maybe we should have gone with something like Sunrise/Horizon etc. (People on the West Coast think all Southern Gospel Artists are Regional Artists. LOL! )

In regards to the (N/A) choice that is a real interesting story. For the first time ever I received an email from a group who didn’t feel that they should be in that category (even though fans placed them there) and requested/demanded to be removed or moved to another “more appropriate” category. I couldn’t make the change in the voting form once voting began and the only changes allowed are spelling. So I changed the group name to N/A to honor their request.

My biggest “oh my” moment this year? Having a category for best eating joint and not favorite pianists! I have lost a lot of brain cells over the past year I guess….

That old saying that every publication has its fan base is really true. I was amazed at how some of what I considered obvious choices didn’t even break into the Top 20 much less the Top 10.

My biggest surprise in all of this is how an artist can win a category one year and then not even make the Top 10 a year or 2 later. I think the trend that I see in all of this is that people often vote for who is in their mind on the day they cast their votes!

Another big surprise? During the nomination process having to spell out beside “Favorite Mixed Group” that it means male and female. At one point I think Ernie & Signature Sound were just ahead of the Booth Brothers and Three Bridges in the “Mixed Group” category.

Things I’m still trying to figure out? Too many to list. But one is do we now take the Top 5 from this round of voting and let folks vote on them or do we just run with the leader even if only a fraction of a percent gets them the win from the Top 10? Has southern gospel officially moved from a quartet based genre? I think the voting “Booths” are beginning to say yes. With all the stacks who needs to pay a couple extra guys when you can travel with a choir in a box anyway! LOL!!! (Thanks for voting Daniel.) We are open to any and all suggestions to improve the awards!

I’m glad you picked Crossway though.