In the news

• Chuck Wagon Gang alto Shaye Smith and her husband Andy are expecting a daughter, Chloe, on August 23rd. She is planning on taking a leave of absence from August 6 to October 23rd. The group is presently rehearsing with a young lady who will fill in for those eight weeks. Smith is also looking for a nanny, to help once she gets back on the road.
• Ryan Seaton announced on Facebook that his next album will feature love songs. Most or all will be covers from assorted secular artists. [EDIT, 6/18/12: Broken link removed.]
• Worth reading: Wes Burke’s take on a Dills concert.

Video of the Week

Most of you know Anthony Facello from Beyond the Ashes and Mercy’s Mark, and some of you remember his Journeymen days. Here’s a young Anthony with Heaven Bound:

In the News

• The Gaither Homecoming concert taping I attended earlier this month (and reviewed here) resulted in two DVDs which will arrive to retail on September 27th (hat tip, DBM). [EDIT, 3/16/13: Broken link removed.]
• Kingsmen bass singer Ray Dean Reese’s wife Carolyn has been slowly but steadily recovering from her pneumonia and bacterial staph infection. She has been moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation center to assist with the recovery.
• Former Kingdom Heirs tenor Billy Hodges has remained employed at Dollywood since leaving the Kingdom Heirs in December. He has now been given his own show, singing at the old-fashioned one-room Robert F. Thomas Chapel on Fridays and Saturdays at 1:30 and 3:30, and on Sunday at 3:30.

Video of the Week

The Jay Stone Singers, one of the newer artists on Pinnacle Records (Crossroads’ development label) might not exactly be household names yet. But this video, which they posted a week ago, is to cute to ignore (and leave at eleven views, of which two or three have been me!)

Emma and Stone Carter, now in their teens, have stepped up alongside their parents Bobby and Sharona to hold down two of the four parts in the mixed quartet.

Open Thread

As always, consider the News Roundup comment section as an open thread.

Health updates:

• Former Hoppers/Childress Family pianist Shannon Childress’ condition is steady but critical.
• Carolyn Reese, wife of long-time Kingsmen bass singer Ray Dean Reese, is hospitalized due to pneumonia-induced breathing difficulties. (UPDATE, 10:48 PM: Via the Kingsmen Facebook page, Carolyn now “has a very serious bacterial staph infection throughout her body along with bacterial pneumonia” and is in a critical care unit.”

Other news items:

• The Dixie Melody Boys are in the studio, working on a 50th Anniversary Album, The Call is Still the Same. This will be their first recording with Song Garden Music Group. There will be guest appearances from DMB alumni McCray Dove, Ernie Haase, Harold Reed, Devin McGlamery, and Rodney Griffin, and guest appearances from Jason Crabb and Ben Speer.
• The Dixie Melody Boys will appear at an NQC showcase, making a 50th Anniversary Appearance at the Singing News Straw Poll showcase.
• Ron Blackwood, R.W.’s son, and former member/manager of the Blackwood Quartet, is going to be the tour manager for CCM recording artist Carman.
• Pathway Records, Mansion Entertainment’s development / custom division, is launching a talent contest in conjunction with AbsolutelyGospel. More information is available here. (EDIT 8/6/11: Broken link removed).

As always, consider the comments section an open thread!

Well, kinda.

Prince William and Katherine’s wedding yesterday included the almost-forgotten hymn “Guide Me, Oh Thou Great Jehovah.” I will freely admit that I didn’t watch the wedding—but I’ll guarantee you this: No matter how good the rendition was there, there’s no way it matches Gold City’s iconic 2000 20th Anniversary Live rendition. They had an earlier studio version on Within the Rock—inspired by a 1960s Couriers rendition. But the live version with Jay Parrack, Jonathan Wilburn, Mark Trammell, Tim Riley, and a live band, defines that song.

In other news, Freedom signed with the Dominion Agency yesterday. The trio, led by industry veterans John Rulapaugh and Josh Garner, has shown great promise of being one of Southern Gospel’s top groups in the near future.

As always for these threads, consider the comments section an open thread.

In the News

• Tim Duncan is making his first post-Ernie Haase and Signature Sound appearance. [EDIT, 3/16/13: Broken link removed.] Members of the Oak Ridge Boys and their band are appearing in a PBS special commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War; they will be singing “Dixie” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” The Oak Ridge Boys’ bass singer was unable to appear, so Tim Duncan will be singing bass.
• This week, Homeland announced that the Anchormen had signed with their label. The Anchormen’s current lineup is Karl Rice (tenor), Dale Forbes (lead), Terry Carter (baritone), and Paul Harkey (bass). They are currently booked by the Adoration Agency.
• A Japanese youth pastor, Kenneth Maiki Aiolupotea, recently recorded a version of Stuart Hamblen’s “Until Then”; it has garnered quite a bit of attention on GodTube as the “Tsunami Prayer Song.” (EDIT 8/6/11: Broken link removed).

Video of the Week

Revelation, the Southern Gospel trio from Northern Ireland who signed with Crossroads last year, recently performed in front of an audience of 8,000 at a revival. Though the video quality isn’t great, this does give a good taste of what they sound like live (for the 99% of us who can’t afford tickets to Northern Ireland to hear them live!)

In the News

• Earlier this week, BMI honored the most-played Christian songs in 2010. Five Southern Gospel songs were honored: “He Locked the Gates” (Kingdom Heirs), “It Pays to Pray” (Greater Vision), “Life Goes On” (Talley Trio), “Stuff of Life” (Booth Brothers), and “When the Trumpet Sounds” (Triumphant Quartet). Rodney Griffin, who wrote two on the list (“He Locked the Gates” and “It Pays to Pray”) was one of three honorees for Christian Songwriter of the Year. Griffin appeared to accept his honor, and Triumphant Quartet also appeared to sing “When the Trumpet Sounds.”
• The March AFA Journal featured the Todd Allen Family. [EDIT, 2/22/13: Broken link removed.] This is the same family that performed a special version of “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” as a male barbershop-style quartet at last year’s National Quartet Convention.
• Brian Free’s mother, Frances Free, is hospitalized after suffering a massive stroke last week. Brian’s father James passed away last October.

60 Second CD Review: Joy in the Journey (McKameys)

Over the years, the McKameys have produced a number of strong albums. Joy in the Journey is their strongest since I discovered and started paying attention to Southern Gospel seven years ago. Four highlights:

• I Have a Great Savior. Several reviews called this a weak track; I find that puzzling. Though it’s a new song, written by Rebecca Peck, it has the musical and lyrical feel of a hymn. It’s a great fit for the McKameys’ voices, and one of the strongest tracks on the project.
• Joy in the Journey is a cheery, encouraging convention song penned by alto Sheryl Farris.
• When Faith Steps In. This story-song, by Squire Parsons’ daughter Leigh Parsons Sexton, is a clear stand-out and was an obvious pick for first single.
• God Doesn’t Think Like Me is a power-packed fusion of a chorus that feels like a big ballad with the McKameys’ distinctive harmonies.

Blog Updates

This week, I totally revamped the menu. The Home and pages links have joined the categories in the main red menu below the logo. Social media, post by email, and RSS links are now where the old menu was.

Random contest: What two graphic design changes did I make to the site this week? The first person to correctly list both wins a free CD—the Crist Family’s debut project, Worth the Trip. The winning entry is the first to accurately list both!

Also, during the recent preparation/launch of SouthernGospelBlog.com’s YouTube channel, I kept thinking that I could and ought to take our video presence to the next level. The leading news websites in other industries usually have their own video players. While having YouTube as a free option was helpful for this site’s first four and a half years, I decided to make the dive and pay for custom video hosting. Our genre deserves the same level of quality other industries have. Custom hosting also allows better security and the ability to offer exclusive footage. And call me a geek if you like, but YouTube’s compression algorithm is as horrible and lossy as JPEG compression!

Our YouTube account will remain active. Even once current and past videos have moved to our higher-quality custom channel, YouTube will continue to host our Essential 25 and Southern Gospel 101 playlists.

Open Thread

As usual for the news roundups, consider the comment section an open thread!

In the News

• The Anchormen were involved in a rollover van crash yesterday, caused by a tire blowout. Members were taken to a hospital for observation as a precaution, but there appeared to be no injuries. (Hat Tips: SL, LP, JfK, and Singing News.)
• Southern Sound, which has long been run by lead singer Ben Harris, now has a father/son duo handling baritone and bass. Rick Fair, known for stints with the Palmetto State Quartet, the Blackwood Quartet, and others is singing bass, and his son David has just joined to sing baritone.

A note to my blogging colleagues who use WordPress

Over the last two weeks, there has been a major spike in attempts by foreign spambots to hack the admin areas of a number of WordPress sites under my purview. I have been alerted to this by the “Limit Login Attempts” plugin. Not only does it block an IP address after submitting the wrong password for a customizable number of times (default 4, but can be 10 or more)—it also sends you an email when an IP is locked out!

It’s worth the five minutes to install and customize this plugin. It’s free, and does what it does so well that I haven’t noticed any competitors. It could save your blog.

In the News

• The Dixie Melody Boys signed with Song Garden and plan a 50th Anniversary recording.
• The live Gaither Vocal Band reunion at NQC will be Thursday afternoon from 1:15-3:15. Can Steve Green, Larnelle Harris, and Michael English draw more than Sarah Palin?
• Worth reading: Brian Crout’s take on Greater Vision’s It’s Just Like Heaven. My, do I wish I had thought to ask him before Adam did!

Video Highlights

Here’s a video that has been making the rounds, of a young Scott Fowler with The Sound.

In the news:

• About a week back, I passed the one-year-mark with Crossroads. It’s been a great year! Occasionally, I find that I say everything I have to say in a blog post or album review on the Crossroads site, and thus simply forget to mention it here. (Take, as a great case in point, the album summary for the Talley Trio’s Stories and Songs.) Lest I be entirely remiss in this area, let me catch up on two newsworthy stories here. First, Mark Bishop, who has been recording with Crossroads/Sonlite Records since 2002, just signed a publishing agreement to be on the Chris White Music / Asheville Music Publishing songwriting roster.
• Second, Crossroads recently rolled out an innovative website feature, the Crossroads Video Vault. Currently, several exclusive concert tapings are available, as are song-by-song downloads of several current DVDs (like NQC Vol. 9 and NQC Vol. 10). The part that excites me the most is the plan to release out-of-print videos through this format—videos you can’t get elsewhere.
• Singing News is conducting an online poll to determine readers’ all-time favorite cover.
• Soloist Jessica King has returned to Southern Gospel and has signed with Daywind.
• Don Butler, a Southern Gospel Hall of Fame member who was a member of the Sons of Song, and then became an industry executive, working in booking with Sumar Talent, passed away on February 3 (Thursday) at age 80.
• Fellow Asheville-area Southern Gospel blogger Adam Edwards made a move I wish I had thought of making, signing up Brian Crout as a contributor to his blog. Brian, I hope you won’t be a stranger in the comments here! We’d certainly miss you if you were! Either way, though, we wish you the best of success!

In the press:

• TampaBay.com / The St. Petersburg Times featured a nice interview with Phil Collingsworth and an area host pastor, announcing an area concert.

Featured video:

Word has it that early in the Signature Sound Cathedrals Tribute project process, Ryan Seaton was slated to sing “Champion of Love.” Of course, the plan had to change when he left, but now that the soundtrack has come out, he has started singing it. Here, he sings it with the Ryan Seaton Quartet – Toby Hitchcock, Andrew Goldman, and Aaron McCune – an ensemble solid enough so as to leave assorted observers hoping that they will go farther than merely making occasional appearances.

Also, correspondents have been sending in more videos of the Kingdom Heirs’ new lineup. Via Bryan, here’s a video of Look for Me and He Locked the Gates, and via J.C., here’s He Lifted Me / Fire Away.

In the News:

• According to individuals on her email newsletter list, TaRanda Greene stated there that she will be launching a solo career in March.
• Tim Greene announced, via a press release posted on the Singing News website, that he will be returning to the Southern Gospel circuit after a decade off the road. He will be launching an all-male trio, the Tim Greene Trio. (No link is posted because the Singing News website is apparently down as of the drafting of this post.)
• Former Wilburns / Gold City lead singer Jonathan Wilburn announced on his Facebook page that he has left Ronnie Watkins Ford, where has been a car salesman for the 2 1/2 years since he left Gold City. (Has it only been 2 1/2 years? Wow!) He is launching a full-time ministry, Wilburn & Wilburn, with his son Jordan.
• Steve Eaton and David Bruce Murray have launched a fascinating new series, a Must Buy or Not? series of album reviews. Here’s the first.