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In about three weeks, the Gaither Vocal Band and Ernie Haase & Signature Sound will be releasing a joint CD/DVD release, Together. Since I interviewed Ernie Haase the last time Signature Sound released a project, I took a recent chance to interview the other three members of Signature Sound, baritone Doug Anderson, bass Tim Duncan, and lead singer Ryan Seaton.

The pdf version of this interview can be viewed here.

I just added a page listing all the feature articles Southern Gospel Blog has run. It’s in the sidebar under “Contents.”

Looking back, it amazes me to see how many people I’ve had the chance to interview in the past year–the Ball Brothers, Tracy Crouch, Keith Plott, Matt Felts, Gerald Wolfe, Scott Fowler, Doug Anderson, Ryan Seaton, Tim Duncan, Kyla Rowland, Ernie Haase, and Ed Hill.

What a year! It’s been quite a ride; thank you for coming along!

This is actually yesterday’s post. For some reason, I forgot to put it up; my apologies to those who looked for my daily post yesterday.

North Carolina officials recently renamed the 1.2 mile stretch of Yadkin River Road that connects N.C. 268 and U.S. 321 as the “George W. Younce Memorial Highway.” This article in Caldwell County News-Topic is well-written and more accurate than most articles on Southern Gospel figures in the mainstream media.

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I’m going to be out doing a seminar tomorrow, so I’ll try to make up for that by posting extra today.

I continue this weekly series with the best Kingdom Heirs lineup that never was:

Tenor: Brian Free
Lead: Ryan Seaton
Baritone: Melton Campbell
Bass: Christian Davis

Free’s style is closely akin to Billy Hodges, although I’ve probably reversed the order I should have said that (and compared Hodges to Free).

Over the last several years, Signature Sound’s Ryan Seaton has been developing and polishing a stage presence, range, and breath control that make him the closest modern-day equivalent I could think of to someone with the almost freak-of-nature abilities of Arthur Rice.

For some reason, Melton Campbell’s voice reminds me of Steve French’s. Both have a similar accent (at least to my Yankee ears), range, and pleasant tone.

Jeff Chapman is consistently in subwoofer territory, and from all I can hear is at the top of his game and right on target virtually every time he walks on stage. While other bass singers try for the same notes, few are as low as consistently. One of the few who can equal or surpass Chapman is Christian Davis, currently of Mercy’s Mark Quartet.

So there you have it: A group of four vocalists who have never sung with the Kingdom Heirs yet could preserve that Kingdom Heirs sound.

There’s an interesting thread on the Singing News forums about artists not being at their booths at the National Quartet Convention. jchaz and dbmurray have some worthwhile suggestions:

• “I think ALL the groups should plan to (at least once a night) have a set time when they could all be at their booth at the same time.” – jchaz
• “ The Dove Brothers’ policy was for all the members to be in the booth from 4-6 every night, and then for the rest of each evening, they did shifts…seemed like a good policy that all groups should adopt. Of course, I’m sure there were times when they had to make exceptions to do interviews, etc., and McCray had to be in the dunking booth at one point.” – dbmurray

Having announced times when the group will be at the booth should be good both for the fans and the artists (by driving sales when they will be there).

One of the CDs I picked up at NQC was Gerald Wolfe’s Keys to Quiet Places piano solo CD, primarily since I wanted the Greater Vision titles that formed the rest of the package deal. At any rate, I found the disclaimer to have an interesting presupposition:

© 2006 Greater Vision Music Ministries, Inc., P.O. Box 1172, Morristown, TN 37816. All Rights Reserved. PLEASE READ: If a Christian knew it was illegal or “stealing” to copy this CD for someone who lives outside their household, they wouldn’t do it. Now you know. It is a violation of Federal Copyright Law to copy the music on this CD for anyone who doesn’t live in your house.

Notwithstanding the fact that that is one of the most creative copyright notices I’ve ever seen, the fact that it is specifically directed to Christians raises the question: What percentage of Southern Gospel fans generally, or Greater Vision’s fans specifically, are Christians?

Numerous groups–including Greater Vision–give altar calls at the end of their concerts. That suggests that Greater Vision assumes that at least a few of the people who purchase tickets to their concerts are not Christians.

I suppose this is a post that asks questions instead of answering them. Does anyone have statistics on what percentage of Southern Gospel fans are Christians? (Of course, that begs the question of how wide the definition of “Christian” can be, since some who have an unorthodox theology or are part of a cult have been known to enjoy Southern Gospel music.)

Welcome Brandon and Lisa Coomer to the Southern Gospel blogosphere; their new blog, Coomer Cove, just launched. I understand that the blog will not solely be about Southern Gospel, but stop by and welcome them anyhow.

Dan Keeton confirmed that he would be joining the New Florida Boys in this Singing News forums post. His announcement stated:

I am leaving DMB, but not real soon. The plan was to leave the first of October, but the new man will not be here yet. So, I will be here till he is ready and I will be there in Hillsboro, OH.

There was a mention that the announcement of me joining the Florida Boys would happen on saturday night at NQC. But since DMB was to perform two groups later, I didn’t feel that it was respectful to Mr O’Neal. Ed has been so good to me and it is a bitter-sweet decision.

My mother has been diagnosed with “congestive heart failure” and our families miss us alot. I am starting a multi-media studio and publishing co at home and will begin with the New Florida Boys in January.

I believe this is also the first mention of the fact that the New Florida Boys will take a couple of months to get their act together, and will start in January. That’s both encouraging, since it should help them get their act together (pun not intended) before facing the public, and surprising, since the timing of the announcement led many fans to believe that there was some rush to get the news out. As it stands, if they won’t be starting for three or four months, it really wouldn’t have hurt anything to delay the announcement until after NQC.

In this post a few days ago, I made a few follow-up suggestions on how next year’s NQC could be improved. Upon further reflection, I think one suggestion went a little too far. I think dropping the vendors’ hall on Saturday would have more bad side effects than good ones, including spurring some vendors to tear down early Friday instead of Saturday.

It would probably work far better if the vendor’s hall was open from 2 PM through 6 PM on Saturday. That would give vendors time to tear down at a reasonable hour and still slip in to catch some of the groups on the last night.

One commenter rightly observed that some people only come for Saturday. Having the Vendor’s Hall open for 4 hours should give them plenty of time to make the purchases they really want to make–since chances are the sort of fans who would have more than 4 hours worth of booths would find some way to be there for several days.

Having the Vendor’s Hall open for limited hours on Saturday would probably be the best of both worlds, giving some a final chance (or an only chance) to make some purchases, but also allowing for plenty of tear-down time.

Last week, I premiered my series on “the best lineup that never was,” picking singers who never sang with a group who nonetheless could carry on that group’s sound. Last week’s feature was on the Kingsmen; this week, we turn to the Inspirations.

Tenor: Dallas Rogers
Lead: Dean Hopper
Baritone: Steve French
Bass: David Hester

Dallas Rogers does not quite have the twang Watkins has, but he does appear to emulate Watkins’ style well.

Dean Hopper is often overlooked as a lead singer due to singing a lead/baritone part in a family group, but he would do well in a quartet setting (and particularly here).

Steve French is a true baritone and has an accent close enough to be able to hold down the baritone part here.

Mike Holcomb was the hardest challenge here. No other bass singer comes particularly close to his sound. In all likelihood, if the Inspirations continue beyond Archie Watkins’ and Martin Cook’s retirement, Mike Holcomb will carry on the group name. But nonetheless, to complete the group, I had to find someone, and I believe David Hester could sing an Inspirations-style bass more than adequately.