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I spent the first two hours of the evening concert walking the Vendor’s Hall (as I also plan to do tonight). I had the chance to talk to quite a few artists–Wesley Smith (Palmetto State), Stewart Varnado and Scoot Shelnut (Dixie Echoes), Phil, Kim, and Olivia Collingsworth (Collingsworth Family), all the Perrys, and a couple who I’m forgetting just now.

I arrived back at the main stage in time to hear Karen Peck and New River sing “Last Night” and bring the audience to their feet with “Last Night.”

The Kingdom Heirs sang “I Don’t Wanna Go Back,” “The Rock’s Between the Hard Place and You,” “I Am Salvation” (? on title), “What we Needed,” and “Forever Changed.”

A video played the Hinson’s Sea Walker.

Legacy Five started their set by playing a video of Roger Bennett singing “Joy.” I was sitting near the artist tunnel and noticed something neat as the Kingdom Heirs were walking out after their set ended. Jeff Chapman, their bass singer, was last in line. But as the first bars of “Joy” came on and he heard Bennett’s voice, he turned around and watched a song he had undoubtedly heard numerous times. It certainly looked like a silent tribute to a legend.

Legacy Five sang “Why,” a Christmas medley, and “I Stand Redeemed” to round out their set.

Greater Vision came on stage singing “He’d Still been God.” They also sang “Redeemed Medley,” “Faces,” and “It Means Just What it Says” to round out their set. After the enthusiastic audience response to “It Means Just What it Says,” Gerald Wolfe said, “That’s good preaching.” True, but it’s not just good preaching; it’s also the frontrunner for Song of the Year 2008.

Reggie Sadler used the first several minutes of his set to sing bits of secular songs he’d performed before coming into Gospel music. The audience seemed to know more of those songs than the current Southern Gospel hits–a fact that admittedly shocked me.

A video was played of the Inspirations singing “Shouting Time.”

The Mark Trammell Trio opened their set with “When I Say Jesus.” They also sang “Roll Back the River,” “Won’t it Be Wonderful There” (introduced as their new radio single–an excellent charting call, incidentally), and “Once Upon a Cross.” After that song, Mark Trammell said it was the “most powerful song we’ve had since this ministry started.” I would agree.

Trammell then brought the Perrys with the smoothest transition I’ve ever seen. He said that the 50th Anniversary of NQC would be incomplete without singing a certain Happy Goodmans song, and sang the first verse of “Who am I.” He then, without a comment, filed off the stage, as Joseph Habedank walked up to sing verse 2. Then the rest of the Perrys came on for the chorus and the rest of the song. The song got an enthusiastic reception, but then the Perrys pushed the audience enthusiasm through the roof with a flawless acapella encore.

After that song, they could have “sold” even a dud to the audience. But they actually maintained the high enthusiasm level with the strongest song from their new project, “Look No Further.” They also did “I Know it Was the Blood” and “Holy Shore” before calling the Mark Trammell Trio up on stage for the finale, “I Wish I Could Have Been There.”

Even taking into account the fact that the audience knew they were going to be filing out in a couple of minutes anyhow, the Perrys and the Mark Trammell Trio performed no small feat by getting a standing ovation to the song and maintaining it through two or three encores.

Well, Thursday was my first experience of an NQC. While I’ve done my best to describe what actually happened, I simply cannot capture what it is like to look over your shoulder and see the Hoppers filing out of the auditorium (and congratulating Kim)…or walking the Vendors Hall and talking with your favorite artists in person…or seeing the Perrys and Mark Trammell Trio, long after midnight, bring an audience to its feet for several minutes…or seeing Debbie Bennett accepting the capstone award of her husband’s career…

NQC is something that has to be experienced. Words don’t do it justice.

And I guess you could say that I’m hooked.

The Fan Awards started out with the Sevier Heights choir singing “I’ve Got a Song to Sing,” with guest appearances by Karen Peck, Mark Bishop, and Lauren Talley.

A list of awards is here, so there is no need to re-type it. Artists performed their top 10 songs as usual; Legacy Five, the Mark Trammell Trio, and the Inspirations got the strongest audience reactions.

A few highlights:

Nick Trammell definitely had the applause / laugh line of the night. He said: “I’d like to thank Tracy and Libbi for giving the opportunity that my own father wouldn’t give me.” The Perrys hired him as a baritone; Mark Trammell has hired non-family members for his own group, the Mark Trammell Trio.

Beyond any doubt, the big moment of the show was when Roger Bennett’s name was called as Favorite Musician of the Year. Debbie Bennett’s remarks sounded as though she’d put some thought into them, but that is as likely because of the general expectation–at least by the time NQC rolled around–that Roger would win as anything else.

Also, my informal polling of random attendees after the show confirmed that the big surprise of the night was the Booth Brothers’ win as group of the year. Not too many people saw that one coming; in hindsight, it is more understandable, given that some people simply prefer the trio format to the quartet format, and they only had one group to pick this year. The Booths are still enjoying the success from “He Saw it All,” but to maintain their position as the reigning group of the year will have to produce more songs of like caliber.

The Bloggers conference went well. Clarke Beasley, who’s in charge of the NQC, introduced himself briefly at the beginning of the meeting, then left the room and let us talk to our heart’s content. So any concerns about NQC unduly influencing us turn out to be groundless. They just gave us the room and the credentials to get in, and let us run our own meeting.

I did my best to make a guest list:

1. Aaron Crisler (Gospel Music Update and NQC Photographer)
2. Doug Harrison (Averyfineline)
3. Daniel Britt (XM Radio, danielbritt.com)
4. Kyle Boring (Southern Gospel View)
5. Lottie Squires (WCKB780.com)
6. Allisonn Lynn (Adventures of a Starving Artist)
7. David Murray (Musicscribe)
8. Paul & Kathy Jackson (pauljacksongroup.com/blog)
9. Daniel J. Mount (southerngospelblog.com)
10. Aaron Swain (Swain’s Musings)
11. Adam Edwards (Southern Gospel Critique)
12. Chuck Peters (Southern Gospel Reporter)

Observers:

1. Clarke Beasley (NQC) - briefly
2. Bob Crawford - 80s record company exec and involved in early websites, but there as a silent observer (except for introducing himself and maybe once or twice when we asked him a question)
3. Joel Lindsey (songwriter)
4. Sue Smith (songwriter)
5. Wayne Haun (songwriter/Vine Records)
6. Kathy Jackson (Paul’s wife)
7. Kevin Boring (Kyle’s brother)

I probably missed at least one, and if so, my apologies to them.

We started off with a group photo. The discussion about anonymity earlier this week prompted me to prepare a surprise for Doug at Averyfineline. Right before the shot, I handed him a paper bag with eyeholes. If I can talk Aaron Crisler out of a copy, I might post a copy of the shot here. (We did pose one right after with the bag off.)

A couple of other highlights:

• Paul Jackson said that he came from a different perspective than the rest of us, since he was an insider blogging. We discussed how he simply was a different kind of blogger, and if he established a voice of his own (Doug’s phrase), that was a good thing.
• Chuck Peters said that Doug at Averyfineline posts things that nobody else will, but that he sometimes crosses the line and posts personal things that hurt people. We spent a good deal of the conference talking about where the line should be drawn. There were really no surprises there; the bloggers’ views line up with what they’ve posted in their blogs.
• I asked if we should measure artists by whether they meet their standards or ours. We had quite a bit of discussion on this point. The most memorable comment (to me) was Doug’s, that there are some objective measures, like staying on pitch. But, of course, the bloggers discussed other less objective aspects of the issue.