Notes and comments from Daniel’s Siblings:

Are we just missing something, or are they not having Compassion International ad segments this year?

The Christmas segment started the same as last year, so we think we’ll call it a night!

11:15: Hoppers. They kicked off with “Jerusalem.” We are still not used to Mike’s new hair color, but he sure is burning calories playing the drums! On a reprise of “I’ve Come to Far to Look Back,” Connie called Taranda Greene up to sing a harmony part with Dean and Kim Hopper. “Something’s Happening” included six vocalists, and seemingly five parts–Taranda Greene sang a part above Kim Hopper!!! Their set concluded with “I Wanna Hear the Angels”

10:50: Mark Trammell Quartet. They sang “Too Much to Gain to Lose” in honor of Ray Flynn, a promoter who is “King of the Carolinas” and is recovering from cancer surgery that the doctors report was successful. “I’m Standing on the Solid Rock” was encored and received a standing ovation. They concluded their set with the “Golden City Tour Medley.” According to the NQC schedule, this is MTQ’s last performance of the week, so we assume it is also Dustin Sweatman’s last, since he was shortly going to be the Choir Program Director for a university. We will miss you, Dustin. God bless you in your new position!

10:15: Triumphant. Scotty talked about his daughter Embry who spent the first week of her life in ICU. She is now doing better and at home. Scotty sang ["Only God Knows Why"?] a cappella, saying it was a song that ministered to them in this crisis. This was a very moving moment. On the next song the hankies came out!

9:54: Crists. Is Breana’s hair a wig or hat or real hair? We’ve never seen such a color!  (They are singing “O Happy Day” but we are distracted!)

9:27: Bill Gaither & Friends segment. How will they need to revise their Presidential Cabinet joke now that Gordon Mote doesn’t travel with them anymore? Well, Mr. Gaither is thinking of adding Gerald Wolfe to the cabinet, and Kevin Williams recommends him for Director of Commerce, “If anyone can balance a budget it’s him.”  Sisters had the first segment of “Bill Gaither and Friends”  and started with an excellent a capella rendition of “For Thou, O Lord, Art a Shield for Me.”

After some technical difficulties the Isaacs took the second segment of Gaither and Friends. Their drummer, Nathan Fauscett, sits on and bangs a box type drum is nicknamed “spicket” according to Sonya. On “The Three Bells” (aka “Little Jimmy Brown”), Bill Gaither came up and joined them. “I’m Gonna Love You Through It” strikes home with many in an audience and seemed to be well received at NQC also. The Isaacs segment closed with an a capella rendition of “I Will Praise Him.”

The Booth Brothers sang, “Played in a Band” at the special request of Bill Gaither.

The Nelons, and the Gaither Vocal Band completed the segment. Towards the end Bill Gaither officially announced to the NQC that he had hired Matthew Holt as the pianist. He said that Tracy and Libbi [Stuffle] highly recommended him!

7:25: Perrys. They started their segment with “Everywhere I Go”. Joseph Habedank was not there for the beginning of the song. We were trying to figure out why they sounded so different. Toward the end of the song, he came bounding up the stairs completing their sound. (The set had been started early.) Their next song was “Celebrate Me Home.” On the screen they showed pictures of Southern Gospel Heroes who have already gone Home.  Tracy introduced “When He Spoke to Me” by saying that many people including lead Joseph Habedank had been requesting they cut this song.

6:44: Dixie Echoes. There are three new members of the Dixie Echoes since the last NQC, but the quartet still has that trademark “Dixie Echoes” sound, singing around two microphones. Randy gave his usual speech about folks only wanting to hear the tenor and bass, so after being in the quartet 43 years, he found something unique–guitar features. He proceeded to play “Happy Rhythm.”  The crowd did seem to really like it! Bass Jordan James was featured on “Roll On Jordan.” They closed their set with “Little is Much.”

6:20: Tribute Quartet. “Good News from Jerusalem” seems destined to become a hit–maybe even a signature song for Josh Singletary. He really gets into the song communicating and demonstrating with hand gestures–we particularly like the one for “called.”  “The Song Heaven” features a wonderful tight blend. It was encored with the audience singing another chorus with the group. They closed their set with “Homesick Angel.”

5:49: Triumphant. “Saved By Grace” kicked the night’s festivities off! It’s a great song to get the crowd in the mood for the continued excellent singing of the night!

5:47: Omega. Showcase winners Omega was joined by the Kingdom Heir’s Jeff Chapman for their rendition of “No Bones About it”

Hello from Daniel’s Siblings! We are covering for Daniel who is on site at the convention…he may add comments after he has internet access again!  The NQC Music Awards are scheduled to start at 2:30 P.M. (as far as we know) and we plan to post updates as the winners are announced!

•  The first award of the afternoon went to Dianne Wilkinson…the Songwriter of the Year!

Triumphant Quartet sang their nominated song “Saved by Grace”

• Kim Collingsworth took home the Musician of the Year award! Presenter Dean Hopper asked Kim to play a song, which was “My Tribute.” Standing ovation before the end of the song!
• Alto of the year went to…Sheri Easter!

Greater Vision sang their top 11 nominated song “I Know a Man Who Can” (There are 11 top ten nominated songs!

• Kim Hopper wins another Soprano award!

Gaither Vocal Band sang “Please Forgive Me”

• Lead Singer of the year: Ronnie Booth!

Jason Crabb was “on a plane headed to Texas” but a video was shown of him singing his top nominated song “Who Am I”

• The Les Beasley Impact Award went to EnLighten Radio (This award was determined by the SGMG.) No one from Enlighten Radio was there to accept the award, so Les Beasley accepted the award for them “On Behalf of Enlighten Radio, I accept this award!”
• Triumphant Quartet’s Eric Bennett won the Bass of the Award!

The Mark Trammell Quartet sang “I Want to Know” (featuring Pat Barker–and he did not pay us to say that).  Crowds generally like this song and are on their feet by the reprise, and this crowd was no exception!

• Favorite Baritone: Jim Brady of the Booth Brothers

Legacy Five sang their nominated song “Ask Me Why”

• David Phelps took home the Tenor of the year award!

The Perrys sang “Blue Skies Coming”

• Soloist: Jason Crabb! He gave a thank you speech via a pre-recorded video. His sisters Kelly and Terah accepted the award for him.
• The Favorite Album award went to The Perrys for the album Celebrate Me Home (Oak Tree)!

 The Booth Brothers sang their song “She Still Remembers Jesus’ Name”

• Producer/Arranger of the year award went to Lari Goss!
• Concert Promoter of the year award went to Bill Gaither!
• Radio Station of the Year: WBOZ-Nashville

Kingdom Heirs sang their nominated song “Tell Me Why”

• The Collingsworth Family won Mixed Group the year!

Triumphant sang their second top 10 song “Almost Home.” If anyone had dozed off they surely awoke with this song–the crowd was on their feet by the end!

• THE Song of the year was “I Know a Man Who Can” by Greater Vision
• Male Group of the year went to the Booth Brothers

The show was closed by Karen Peck & New River (and other winners and presenters) singing “Reach Out and Touch”

We thought it was neat that Mrs. Dianne Wilkinson won the first NQC Music Award at their first show!  We also liked that the presenters were husband-wife duos–it was nice and also payed tribute to the families who have influenced and been active in Southern Gospel!

For everyone at the NQC, Dianne Wilkinson (2012 winner of the Songwriter of the year award!) will be at the Kingdom Heirs booth shortly to sign copies of her new autobiography! When you go get your copy, say “Hi” to Daniel for us and ask him if we did a good job or if we are fired!–Daniel’s Siblings

Editor’s note: My family saw the Mark Trammell Quartet in concert last weekend. Here are photos and a video from the event.

Video Greeting from Pat Barker

(Footnote for those who have no sense of humor or don’t understand his: This was tongue-in-cheek, and in light-hearted fun!)

Photo Gallery

On Sunday, November 13, Daniel’s Siblings went to a Dove Brothers concert at a church near us.

Song list:

• One Day at a Time featuring Keith Casstevens
• I Recall featuring Burman Porter
• If I Knew Then featuring McCray Dove
• Life Can Have a New Meaning featuring Eric Dove
• Little is Much featuring KeithIntroductions: It was Keith Casstevens’ third night helping them out. He was their booking agent and previously sang lead with the Anchorman. McCray Dove still sings Lead, Eric Dove still sings Baritone, and their “original bass singer” Burman Porter is back! In the Dove Brothers Band were: Joe Lane playing keyboard, Jacob Danieley playing guitars (who, by the way, is “always smiling”), and Devin Dove playing drums. We think that Devin Dove is in charge of the band, which might seem funny until you consider that he has been there longer than the other two musicians (to our knowledge). It is not entirely unheard of to have the drummer in charge of the band (Ricky Free and Brandon Reese).
• Long Black Train featuring Burman Porter. McCray introduced this one by saying that Burman Porter used to like and talk about Randy Travis all the time, but now he likes Josh Turner. Therefore, he has been asked to sing Long Black Train. Apparently Mr. Porter sings all the time and will at least try to sing anything he is asked to do.
• There’s Been a Change in Me featuring McCray. He wrote this song on Father’s Day, and it is basically his Dad’s life story.
• Operator featuring Burman Porter. Mr. Porter did his first bass slide of the night on this song, and it was impressive! He shook the floors (aka: rattled people’s cages)! He did more bass slides on songs after the intermission. After a reprise, the crowd finally got on their feet and stayed up for another reprise.
• Following the music-less intermission, The Dove Brothers came back and kicked off the second half with Didn’t it Rain and Get Away Jordan. The stage was not big enough for their usual choreography, but they did a little. Shelby, Ohio, must have been a tough crowd because while there was applause, there was no standing ovation. 
• Still Singing the Song. McCray dedicated this song to all the couples married 50 or more years.
• They Wouldn’t Forgive Me. A new song that McCray recently wrote about situations where a church leader falls, and the people around them “keep them down” instead of forgiving and reaching out to them.
• He is Here featuring Keith Casstevens. It was a nice ballad. They segued from this song to Won’t it be Wonderful There with which they closed the concert.

Following are photos from the concert.

Update (11/17/2011, 7:05 P.M.): McCray Dove also recorded a video greeting; technical issues delayed its posting until now. Here it is:

In this month’s Singing News:

• Page 2: Legacy Five has “A Wonderful Life.”
• Page 4: How could the editor forget the Pilgrims?
• Page 5: “27/’Unforgiven’/Adam Crabb.” Why did he put his name after that?
• Page 14: Ivan forgot “Greatly.”
• Page 20: A most unlikely Southern Gospel artist wins “Nashville 2011 Top 25″ beauty pageant . . . (“Let the reader understand.”)
• Page 32: At least one reader non-artist reader of this blog was spotted here. Can you find more?
• Page 45: Southern Gospel at the “Manatee!”
• Page 63: Bluegrass Chart: “5/’Gonna be Movin’/ Balsam Range.” That will be a difficult chore as many of them are over 6000 feet tall! “With God all things are possible.”

Text, photos, and videos all by Daniel’s siblings.

On October 9th, the Dixie Melody Boys Quartet did an afternoon concert at Temple Baptist Church in Green, Ohio.  Temple Baptist’s resident vocal groups, the Rogers Sisters and the Calvary Singers, opened and sang at the intermission.

From our seats, the audio was not clear, so the DMB song list is to the best of our detection ability:

• Your First Day in Heaven
• Roll On Jordan
• Royal Telephone
• Turn Your Radio On
• We Gotta Get the Good News Out, featuring baritone Steve Cooper
• Bottom of the Basket, written and sung by lead Donald Morris
• Oh What a Savior, featuring tenor Matt Felts
• I’ve Got Family There, featuring bass Ed O’Neal
• There’s Joy in Serving Jesus
• God Will Hear Your Prayer
• His Blood Alone
• I’m Getting Ready

After the intermission and product pitch:

• Goodbye World Goodbye
• When I Cross to the Other Side of Jordan
• The Longer I Serve Him
• That’s What Jesus Means to Me
• The Call is Still the Same

We enjoyed getting to hear and see the members of the DMB again, as well as getting to meet Mrs. O’Neal, who has been traveling with the group since Mr. O’Neal’s fall and broken leg.  Mr. O’Neal seems to be doing fairly well and is now getting around without a cane.

Here are some photos and a video greeting from Mr. Felts.

In this month’s Singing News:

• Page 3: Happy Birthdays, Daniels!
• Page 4: Thank you for your service, Mr. Riley and Mr. Smart.
• Page 20: Mr. Reno joins the Mystery Men, but it remains a mystery which groups he has been with before.
• Page 55: Mr. Ron Brewer tears off the roof and stands on the railroad tracks.
• Page 60: Pat Barker has found a unique way to say how old he is: A 20-year class reunion a few weeks ago.
• Page 72: The Cardiologist’s Song is at #33.
• Page 83: Who are the presents for? The photographer?

Today (September 11, 2011), Daniel’s Siblings traveled 1 hour 20 minutes to Temple Baptist Church in Green, Ohio to hear the Mark Trammell Quartet.  The Temple Baptist Church was celebrating their 44th Anniversary.  Singing groups associated with the church opened the concert and sang just after the offering.

Back by popular demand- for now, at least. . .

Page 2: Wilburn and Wilburn has a new picture that will delight their dentist.

Page 3: Gold City has released a new CD: A Collection of Hits. The cover has a city skyline background without the Twin Towers. Is this in commemoration of September 11?

Page 20: American Mountain Theater: “All seats reserved. Ticket Prices begin at $13.”

Page 28: Dallas Roger forms the four member Restored Trio: Southern Gospel math!

Page 41-45: Advertising section much improved! Page 54: One of the older “Daniel’s Siblings” commiserates with Jeff Hawes’ Grandma Zola.

Pages 62-64: Happy Birthday Mr. Lister. We hope you have a great celebration!

Front Cover: Signature Sound cooks 44 cookies, and eats one!

Page 5: Red Hen Records and Daywind are held together by Scotch tape and worn-out book covers.

Page 26: The “Cathedrals-Influenced Tour” by Signature Sound “Heads to Kentucky.” We wonder if Signature Sound will be influenced by Cathedral Choreography (or the lack thereof).

Page 50: Tim Lovelace puts out a forest fire, saving a forest and and several houses, and then gets in trouble for it!

Page 77: Mark Lowry has “Nothing to Prove” with a number 80.

Due to a decrease in amusing material, we intend to discontinue our Singing News column, and focus on concert reviews in the future.

Daniel’s Siblings