DVD Review: The Best of the Jubilee Years (Dixie Echoes)

In 1997, Bill Gaither released the Dixie Echoes’ entry in the Best of the Jubilee Years series. This was recently re-issued on DVD. As the title suggests, the footage is culled from the Dixie Echoes’ numerous appearances on the Gospel Singing Jubilee TV series. Some of the footage is in (faded)...

CD Review: Songs From the Old Path Vol. 3 (Old Paths)

Since the last two projects I’ve reviewed from the Old Paths—Live in Pigeon Forge (October 2008, here) and Today (April 2008, here)—they have added and then lost a live band, and lost their bass singer. Though they remained on the road constantly, they took a year or longer off from recording to...

CD Review: It Just Started For Me (Cross 4 Crowns)

Last year, when Cross 4 Crowns released Turning Point, I gave it a 5-star rating (here)—pretty much unheard of for a debut project, particularly from a group not started by an already known personality. Since that album’s release, the group’s one previously known name, Dallas Rogers, left and...

CD Review: Heritage Hymn Collection Vol. 1 (The Browns)

After two previous reviews of Browns projects (Hope and A New Day), the Browns need no introduction here. At the risk of being redundant, for any new readers: The Browns are a family group from Iowa that has been on the national scene for several years now, with a steadily growing fan base. Their first...

CD Review: Jubilee (Booth Brothers, Greater Vision, Legacy Five)

Since this review is several months after the release of this project, there’s little to say that hasn’t already been said in several excellent reviews. The project came about after Singing News posted a poll on their website asking whether fans would rather have a recording with one or more than...

CD Review: Songs You Know By Heart (Talley Trio)

When an artist records a project of new songs, there is some pressure to select songs and deliver arrangements up to par with their previous work. Artists and their fans alike enjoy it when, every now and then, artists take a break from that yearly cycle to deliver pleasing arrangements of time-tested...

CD Review: No Trace of Rain (Paid In Full)

Paid in Full started in 1991 and really took off when the late Jake Hess started mentoring the group in 1996. For years, they have been content to be weekend warriors, even as an increasing chorus of critics and fans say that they’re on par with the best out there. It’s not the sort of situation...

CD Review: For Such a Time As This (Couriers)

Editor’s note: This review was scheduled to appear in several months; however, with today’s announcement of the group’s disbanding, I bumped the review up while their webstore was still up. Though the Couriers started in 1955 as a quartet, their best known configuration, from the 1960s...

CD Review: Decennial (Dove Brothers)

Often, when a group celebrates an anniversary like ten years on the road, they will mark it with a compilation of some of their greatest hits. But the Dove Brothers can be trusted to think outside the box, and they don’t disappoint. Decennial is a collection of eight Dove Brothers classics and two new...

CD Review: Expecting Good Things (Jeff & Sheri Easter)

Two years ago, after thirteen or fourteen years on the road with Jeff & Sheri Easter, Charlotte Ritchie resigned and started a solo career. When Jeff & Sheri announced that their fourteen-year-old daughter Morgan would be taking Charlotte’s place at the soprano spot, many fans wondered if she...