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In this Singing News forums thread, nmyrtlebeach makes the case that artists would do well to start their concerts with familiar songs–either general classics, or if they are fortunate enough to have introduced several songs that have become genuine Southern Gospel classics, their classics. It’s a good idea, because it will help artists build rapport with the audience, and make the new songs go over much better.

One example that comes to mind of this being done well is Garry Jones and Mercy’s Mark. When I saw them in Shelby, Ohio, they started their concert with “There’s Just Something About That Name,” followed immediately by “Plan of Salvation.” Then they did “This Jordan,” a song from their debut project that would have been somewhat familiar to the audience. Here was my reaction at the time:

I mentioned at the start of this review that I was uncertain how well the audience would receive progressive songs from Mercy’s Mark’s current project. After these three songs, I decided that the group could sing anything they wanted and have it go over well.

And, in fact, at that point they did sing several progressive songs to an audience that in large part doesn’t care for the style–and pulled it off.

But they followed a mostly different route the second time I saw them, opening a concert with only one semi-familiar song, “Where is God” (a song Garry Jones had a hand in originally), before moving into new songs.

And that leads me to my point. The first time I saw them, all but a handful of people were seeing them for the first time. The second time, they were singing to Garry Jones’ home church, to an audience that mostly knew them. I think nmyrtlebeech’s suggestion to start with a focus on familiar songs is most necessary when before a new or mostly new audience. When a group is at a venue they attend every year, starting with a familiar song would be nice for the newcomers, but they can have a greater focus on pitching their new material.

I imagine groups already know this intuitively, but a fan’s perspective every now and then doesn’t hurt.

After my last post, I went off in search of news, and found some here. The Ball Brothers, a trio I saw earlier this year (as described here), are adding a new member–a brother–to their vocal lineup. Josh Ball, who has run sound for them, is moving to full-time vocals, and Josh’s best friend, Josh Gibson, is coming on to run sound. (Gibson doubles as Daniel Ball’s brother-in-law.)

What is not yet announced is whether Josh will be singing some sort of a bass part–a choir bass, if you will–or as a second baritone.

I don’t really have anything on my mind today for a post, so for your daily read I point you to John Scheideman’s latest, on Ed Hill picking up another fan. I know he picked me up as a fan when he graciously let me interview him (for this blog) for over an hour, and it’s nice to see others feeling the same way.

Speaking of the Prophets, it’s taken seemingly forever for their debut album to be completed, but from everything I’m hearing it should be very good when it’s finally done.

Late last month (July 31), the Dixie Echoes announced that Tracy Crouch was leaving the road to go into law enforcement. Although I’d already heard through the grapevine that they had tapped former Diplomats bass (2001-2004) Pat Barker as the replacement the official announcement went out last night.

I’m not familiar with Barker’s style or range, so I can’t honestly say what this will mean for the group. But I do hope it means they will record a new album soon. If history is any indicator, they probably will, because most if not all of their albums over the last 10 years have also been their recording debut for a new member.

(I have this feeling that some members of the Dixie Echoes read my blog, at least occasionally, so while I usually don’t admit to doing this, yes, that was a hint!)

In 2003, the Perrys raised the bar for their projects with This is the Day. In liner notes for that album’s back cover, Singing News editor Danny Jones said,

Just like the grand tradition in which they sing, the Perrys will never go away. They’ll just get better…and better…and even better. If good is good enough for you, skip this record. It’s only for those who want the best.

That project set the standard by which their albums since (Life of Love, Remembering the Happy Goodmans, and Come Thirsty) have been measured. The last three of those projects featured Loren Harris singing lead and Joseph Habedank singing baritone. But with Harris’s departure last year, Habedank’s move to lead, and Nick Trammell’s addition as baritone, some observers wondered if the new lineup would measure up.

***

Look No Further features twelve songs by twelve songwriters: Kyla Rowland, Joel Lindsey, Mosie Lister, Dottie Rambo, Rodney Griffin, Chris Binion, Wayne Haun, Marcia Henry, Allie LaPointe, Nick Trammell, Joseph Habedank, and Matthew Holt. Kyla Rowland wrote two songs for the project and Joseph Habedank co-wrote three (two with Matthew Holt), but other than that, each of the other songwriters only wrote or co-wrote one song. This avoids the over-reliance on one writer that weakens many otherwise strong projects.

The project, produced by Wayne Haun, starts off with an uptempo quartet song Haun penned, “I Know it Was the Blood.” It’s one of several particularly radio-friendly songs on the project.

Group alto Libbi Perry Stuffle is featured on “The Potter Knows the Clay,” a mid-tempo ballad.

Although Rodney Griffin is known for primarily writing ballads, once in a while (i.e., “I Know I’m Going There” and “Don’t Let the Sandals Fool Ya”) he writes a fast-paced quartet song. “Every Question Will Be Answered,” his contribution to the project, is such a song.

The title track, penned by Rowland, is one of the highlights of the project. The verses bear a slight melodic resemblance to another Rowland song, “Something’s Happening.” Every member has a solo on one of the song’s four verses, with bass Tracy Stuffle and lead singer Joseph Habedank singing complete verses. This song should do well on radio, and promises to also be a concert staple for the group.

Group baritone Nick Trammell is featured on a song he wrote, “All is Well.” Though his voice is unmistakably a Trammell voice, it doesn’t have the edge that nearly thirty years on the road has given his father Mark’s voice. Mark Trammell now has the voice quality of a lead singer; Nick Trammell’s voice is currently more like his father’s voice in the early 1980s, distinctly a baritone voice. (Since he is the group’s baritone, that’s actually a good thing.)

Tracy Stuffle is featured on the Habedank/Holt song “Product of Love.”

I have felt since Remembering the Happy Goodmans came out that “The Holy Hills of Heaven” was the one song not on the project that I most wish had been. Its addition to this project adds a nice nod to Southern Gospel’s heritage to this collection of otherwise mostly new songs.

The Perrys do include one other older song on the project, “Come and Get Me” by Mosie Lister. It was one of Lister’s earliest songs, and has not (to my knowledge) been recorded by a professional group for years. It is given a wide-open convention-song treatment reminiscent of a song like “When Morning Sweeps the Eastern Sky.”

Joseph Habedank and Libbi Perry Stuffle are featured on a powerful Kyla Rowland ballad called “Holy Shore.”

The album closes with a mid-tempo Joel Lindsey song called “Second Opinion.”

***

For the last day and a half, I have been trying to decide whether to say what I really think about the CD. After the response this review got, I tend to avoid superlatives in album reviews.

But every now and then, a project comes along that deserves superlatives. And I would be less than honest if I didn’t tell you what I really think.

This project deserves to go down alongside Gold City’s Are You Ready, Greater Vision’s Live at First Baptist Atlanta, Legacy Five’s Live in Music City, and the Perrys’ own This is the Day as one of the albums of the decade.

Some wondered if the album would measure up to recent Perrys albums. But with Look no Further, the Perrys raise the bar again.

The Blackwood Brothers Quartet (Jimmy Blackwood’s group) has finally sent a single to radio. “God Leads Us Along,” from Rock of Ages: Hymns of the Faith, debuted at #70 on the Singing News airplay chart.

If you hear the strains of this familiar hymn come over the airwaves, be listening especially for a verse solo by their bass Randy Byrd–who I’ve been talking about here and on the blogs for a year and a half now. Hopefully you will have the chance to hear what I’ve heard in his voice!

The song is a simple piano-and-vocal rendition of a familiar hymn, so I’m not expecting it to become a top 10 hit, but it does provide a nice introduction to the current group’s sound.

Once in a while I see someone posting regrets that the day of the live album has passed. Most live recordings today are of a DVD to accompany a group’s current studio-recorded release. But although they may be fewer than in the glory days of the 60s and 70s, live recordings of new songs certainly have not been consigned to the dust bin of Southern Gospel history.

Several groups have recorded landmark live albums since the turn of the century. I am sure that several others are worthy, but these three in particular come to mind:

• Greater Vision - Live at First Baptist Atlanta. I consider this the quintessential live album for a group with their style. Their style is not the style of the Kingsmen or Happy Goodmans, or of Gold City, but within their fully orchestrated / big ballad style this stands head and shoulders above the pack.
• Brian Free & Assurance - Live in New York City. This album redefined the group’s sound through one of their career hits, “Long as I Got King Jesus.”
• Legacy Five - Live in Music City. The full impact of this album will not be known until after NQC, but coupling Roger Bennett’s final Legacy Five project with a song selection that includes songs like “Truth is Marching On” and “I Have Been Changed” stands a chance of propelling the album or group to several Fan Awards this year.

Though the days of a live album with (just) a live band accompaniment may be mostly past, reports of the live album’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Recently, John Scheideman encouraged me to post a list of my favorite non-Cathedrals albums by Cathedrals members. I thought it was a good idea, but decided to think it over for a week or two before posting. I decided to focus this list on post-Cathedrals albums; pre-Cathedrals albums would be a list of its own.

1. Quartets - Greater Vision. This is, in my opinion, Greater Vision’s finest project. It was a popular project for the group, but had the unfortunate effect for them of whetting everyone’s appetite for them to add a bass singer.
2. Stand By Me Live - Ernie Haase & Signature Sound. The project starts off with “Heavenly Parade”–and they had completely won the audience over before that song was over. Other highlights of the project include an acapella rendition of “Little is Much” and one of Haase’s best versions of “Oh What a Savior.” I rank this project so high since it was made before Signature Sound was fully part of the Homecoming Tour, and proves just what they could do on their own.
3. Are You Ready (Gold City) - This was Gold City’s definitive project from their Mark Trammell days. It features songs like “Get Up, Get Ready,” “More Like Jesus,” “He Lives,” “Saved,” and, of course, Jay Parrack’s signature song, “Are You Ready?”
4. Once Upon a Cross (Mark Trammell Trio) - I still stand by my initial assessment that this is one of the albums of the decade.
5. Live at Music City (Legacy Five) - It was a tossup whether to rank this or London higher, but “I Have Been Changed” gave this the edge.
6. Live at First Baptist Atlanta (Greater Vision). This is the definition of a perfectly paced concert, and features, among other songs, “Soon We Shall See” and “A Pile of Crowns.”
7. London (Legacy Five) - Legacy Five’s finest studio project from the days Roger was still with them.
8. Far Beyond This Place (Greater Vision) - This was their breakout recording, featuring “My Name is Lazarus,” a spellbinding rendition of “Redemption Draweth Nigh,” and a guest vocal from Glen Payne on “I Believe.”
9. Pressed Down, Shaken Together, Running Over (Gold City) - This project, coming on the heels of Are You Ready? a year before, cemented Gold City’s position as the Southern Gospel supergroup following the Cathedrals’ retirement.
10. Hold Forth the Light (Gerald Wolfe) - This 1988 solo project is one of Southern Gospel’s forgotten gems.

Honorable mention: Beside Still Waters (Mark Trammell Trio), 20th Anniversary Celebration (Gold City), and Feelin’ Fine and Encores (Old Friends Quartet).

This list focuses on projects within the last ten years or so, in part because these are the alumni projects with which I am most familiar, and in part because after all the projects I’ve heard, I still think these ten are the best.

Well, for a second day straight there are so many stories that I’m going to put them all into one post.

• Gene McDonald is back on the road, as the driver / product table manager for Gordon Mote. Interestingly, that moves him back into the Gaither Homecoming sphere; I wonder if Bill Gaither will let him be part of the choir at Homecoming events.
• Greater Vision is planning to release their newest DVD, Chicago Live, at NQC. They taped this just three weeks ago; I don’t know if this is a record turnaround time for a Southern Gospel group, but it has to come pretty close.
• Previews have been posted of the new Gaither Vocal Band/Ernie Haase & Signature Sound live CD/DVD, Together, here (audio) and here (video). I’m especially pleased to see their cover of “Heaven’s Joy Awaits,” using the arrangement on the Cathedrals’ farewell studio project, Faithful. What makes it a particularly good pick for a joint project is that the Cathedrals’ version had the Gaither Vocal Band as guest artists and built the arrangement around Guy Penrod’s and Ernie Haase’s voices. Since those two vocalists are also featured on this arrangement, it comes off very well and promises to be a highlight of the final product.

Triumphant Quartet announced that they will be leaving the Miracle Theater to travel full-time in 2008. Their announcement states:

Triumphant Quartet will be ministering on the road full-time starting in January 2008!!!! We are so excited about the new direction God is leading us.

Your love and support of Triumphant Quartet has been overwhelming in the past and your continued support is vital to the success of our future. You are more than fans, you are our friends. So in light of this, we need your prayers that God will continue to give us souls for our labor and that He will help us to be an encouragement to all we come in contact with.

Our schedule at The Miracle Theater will remain the same throughout 2007.

This could have both its advantages and its disadvantages for the group.  Full-time road travel will bring them before more audiences–honestly, a good percentage of loyal Southern Gospel fans (including me) have never been to Pigeon Forge, and being before more audiences will get them more exposure in the Southern Gospel world (even as they will have a bit less outside it).

On the other hand, a theater gig is more conducive to maintaining a consistent lineup. My take: If they can hold the same personnel together for the next five years or so, they will be the most popular group in Southern Gospel, at least outside of the Gaither universe.