SouthernGospelBlog.com

The National Quartet convention just posted their 2008 schedule. While I’ll wait for DBM to give the schedule his usual detailed and insightful analysis, a few preliminary observations:

• The big news, of course, is that the Gaither Vocal Band and Signature Sound are back, in the Friday night lineup.
• It seems like there are fewer groups on Monday night. If every group got an equal amount of time, they would have 24 minutes. Since there will be a few that likely won’t get that, it makes me wonder if they’re going to permit some of the biggest draws to have a half hour or more.
• Also speaking of Monday, it looks like they’ve re-instituted quartet night. Granted, three other groups also appear–the Booth Brothers, the Perrys, and the Mark Trammell Trio–but they are three of the four top non-quartet draws in the business (Greater Vision retaining their usual Tuesday night slot).
• Names missing: No Palmetto State, no Mercy’s Mark, no Anchormen and no Driven, and no trace yet of the Browns or Jimmy Blackwood’s Blackwood Brothers Quartet. No Ball Brothers, though they did have and staff a booth this past year. And, almost unbelievably, still no Collingsworth Family.
• I guess being a part-owner of NQC (not sure if Stewart Varnado’s a full-fledged board member or not) doesn’t come with an absolute guarantee of three slots, since the Dixie Echoes only have two slots, Monday and Thursday.

All in all, while a few groups I’d enjoy seeing aren’t there this year, it looks like it will be a great year for NQC and for Southern Gospel.

The last year has been pretty tough on quartets. The news that all the members of Palmetto State Quartet left (except manager/lead singer Kerry Beatty) came yesterday. This is the fourth group within the last year to have this happen:

• All the four traveling members of the Anchormen left to start Driven. The manager and former drums player, Tim Bullins, was not a traveling member of the group. Bullens hired a regional group, Chapter IV, to become the new Anchormen.
• All the members of Monument Quartet except tenor / bus owner Marshall Pugh left to form Tribute Quartet. At that point, Pugh led Monument into Country music, which has led some to believe that the earlier Monument lineup heard of the plans and wanted to stick to Gospel music.
• All the members of Mercy’s Mark except pianist / manager Garry Jones left a few months ago. Their plans are not yet announced, but their fans are definitely hoping they’ll stay in Southern Gospel music.

Add to that that the Florida Boys and the Old Time Gospel Hour Quartet have disbanded within the past year, and it’s simply been tough for quartets this year.

Gospel Music Update has the story; the Gaither Vocal Band and Signature Sound will be at NQC 2008. NQC VP Clarke Beasley, who runs the day-to-day operations of the office, stated that they will be doing a showcase featuring songs from their Together project on Thursday, and they will also be appearing on the Friday night concert lineup.

Gaither commented:

It’s no secret that I love Southern Gospel Music. It’s an important part of my childhood and my musical heritage, so naturally there are few things that warm my heart quite like hearing four singers and a piano rev it up! In my mind, the only thing better than a great gospel quartet is a whole week full of them! So I’m looking forward to the opportunity to participate in the National Quartet Convention with great anticipation. It is always a wonderful time to hear lots of great quartet music and connect with old friends.

This is good news for Gaither, for NQC, and most of all, for the fans. There was a possibility that the genre would split into sub-genres, Gaither Gospel and Southern Gospel. But this should go a long way toward closing that breach, and our genre will be stronger as a result.

The Dove Brothers recently finished their most recent album, Life. The album is described as continuing dorwn the path they started with Anything But Ordinary and Never the Same, “traditional male quartet harmonies with a more updated musical accompaniment.” The project features songs from McCray Dove, Jerry Kelso, Ray Scarbrough, Greg Lindsey, and Matt Rankin. (Interestingly, the press release made no mention of any song on the project from Nathan Markee, author of the recent Dove Brothers hit “I Can Pray.”) The project is set to be released in April 2008.

Scott & Tessa Thomas, until recently of Ricky Atkinson & Compassion, sent out this open letter last night:

It has been a joy and a pleasure to be able to travel the last seven months and sing on the Southern Gospel stages. So many people have commented on how glad they were to see Tessa and I together on stage. It was a joy to see people I (Scott) had not seen in so many years, and we were thankful that we caught up with a lot of past friends, including those in the industry as well as fans.

In December 2006, Ricky Atkinson asked us to help him in his ministry; however, we were reluctant to accept the positions due to our own ministry and family situation. Although we were a little disappointed and surprised when Ricky decided to make a change in his ministry this past November 2007, we totally feel it is God’s will. We have known Ricky, Loren Harris, and Greg Cook for many years, and we wish them well.

The main point we wanted to make clear is that our ministry continues and we have not stopped serving the Lord. Tess and I sing together in revivals, camp meetings, special Sundays, and even special singings. We are still recording, and we still just get around the piano and sing old-fashioned powerful Southern Gospel songs. Most of all, we see people get help from the Lord through our ministry. Also, the Lord called me to preach in 1986, and as long as I am healthy and alive, I will never stop preaching against sin and for the Savior. A ministry’s value should never be measured by numbers or publicity; God is able and capable of doing the measuring because he is keeping the records. We are simply honored to have been blessed with so many opportunities to serve God and encourage our fellow Christians. We are anxiously looking forward to another great year of ministry starting in January and cannot wait to see what God has planned for 2008!

We feel God is using us more than ever before, and we ask you to pray for us and stay in touch. If you or your pastor is interested in making use of our ministry, please contact us at 770 363-9649. Also, you can keep up with what we are doing at www.scottthomasministries.com, and please call if you want to order any CDs.

Scott & Tessa Thomas

Legacy Five has offered their final table backdrop featuring Roger Bennett in this ebay charity auction (a benefit for ALPS Adult Day Care Services:

The auction will be ending in a few hours, so if you’re rich and

Since most of the interesting features of Gaither.com are only available to paid members of the website, I must admit I don’t stop by that often. But I happened by today while looking for a CD cover image, and noticed that they they have a one-hour version of the Cathedrals’ Farewell concert video posted here. It is supposed to be up through next Monday. (Either this is publicly viewable or I happened upon a glitch in the website; I’ll update this post with developments if applicable.)

For anyone who has not yet had the chance to view this video, here is your chance to witness the Cathedrals shortly before they came off the road. There’s no question, they went out on top.

Gold City recently announced (hat tip, MP) that they were offering their soundtracks as downloads from their website. Several groups (Kingdom Heirs, Greenes, Dove Brothers, etc.) have offered tracks from albums for download from their websites, and most Southern Gospel groups can be found on either iTunes or eMusic. But this is a new and encouraging move.

Currently, the only track available is “I Have Seen the Light,” from their most recent Christmas project. But they state that their plans include out-of-print and hard-to-find soundtracks: “So many have requested certain soundtracks that have long been out of production. Now you will be able to download many of these tracks from our store.“

After Scott & Tessa Thomas left Ricky Atkinson & Compassion, Atkinson was once again in search of some great singers. With last night’s announcement that Loren Harris (Wilburns, Perrys) and Greg Cook (Florida Boys) will be joining the group, shall we say that he succeded?