Attending The Extra Mile

Southern Gospel aficiandos have gathered in different ways over the years. First there were singing schools (and an occasional church homecoming). Then there were concerts. The live Southern Gospel experience has largely revolved around the 90-minute-concert format for decades. But any concert promoter will...

Video: Gaches tackles “I Stand Redeemed”

Ever since Josh Cobb introduced “I Stand Redeemed” on Legacy Five’s debut project, Strong in the Strength, the true test of a Legacy Five tenor has been their rendition of that signature song. Cobb’s original rendition was in an unearthly-high F, modulating to G. Few other tenors can...

Audio Clips on Websites

Southern Gospel record exec Kevin Ward has a blog post up about sound clips that start playing automatically when you visit a site. This is something I’ve addressed before, but I cannot remember whether I have here, so let’s revisit it. Ward’s post is right on. Including sound clips on...

Post of the Day: Open the Eyes of my (Face), Lord

We’ve probably all heard the jokes about Praise & Worship music. The 24/7 joke comes to mind—that a praise song is 7 words repeated 24 times (or 24 words repeated 7 times, depending on who you ask). Some of this reputation is deserved. But fortunately, like just about everything else, the view...

Random thought of the Night

Garry Jones was Signature Sound’s original pianist, followed by Roy Webb. Interestingly, he was also one of Gold City’s earliest pianists, and with the recent Gold City changes, Roy Webb has followed him there as...

Singing News moves Fan Awards to Dollywood

Yesterday. Singing News announced that they will be ending their nearly four-decade partnership with the National Quartet Convention, moving the Fan Awards to Dollywood this year. The event will be combined with the SGMA Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, and the two events will be held Wednesday, September...

Thought of the Day

Hat tip to Ireland’s Phil on SG for prompting this thought. During his professional singing career, Mark Trammell has performed with a number of tenor singers (Ernie Phillips, Kirk Talley, Danny Funderburk, Ernie Haase, Chris Allman, Jay Parrack, Eric Phillips, Joel Wood), a number of lead singers (Jim...

Pat Barker joins Mark Trammell Quartet

Mark Trammell announced yesterday that the first bass singer for the Mark Trammell Quartet will be Pat Barker. He could not have made a better pick. (There were a few others who may have been as good, if they were interested, but none better.) Barker can rattle the subwoofers, but he is primarily a...

2009 in Review: Top 10 Stories

Last year was filled with big news stories, with enough major ones breaking in the last two weeks that it just wasn’t safe to put this post up until the year had officially ended. Gaither Vocal Band unveils new lineup: Penrod, Hall leave Gaither Vocal Band; Phelps, Lowry, English return. If the...

2009 in Review: Top 10 Stories: Nominations

In 2008, there were a few indisputably big stories, but it was a slight challenge to fill out the whole list of the year’s top stories. This year, there was no shortage of big stories; whittling the list down will be the hard part. Since two stories that will definitely make the top 10 have transpired...