SouthernGospelBlog.com

I heard this morning that Mike Allen was singing with the Monument Quartet, I believe over the past weekend. I checked the story with Paul Jackson, Prophets lead singer, and found that Allen was just filling in with Monument. He is still a member of the Prophets, and they’re still scheduled to have a first-quarter 2008 release for their project.

A member of the SoGospelNews message boards saw the Blackwood Gospel Quartet over the weekend and reported seeing this lineup:

Tenor: Derrick Boyd
Lead: Mark Blackwood
Baritone: Brad Smith(?)
Bass: Burman Porter
Pianist: Jonathan Sawrie

Burman Porter sang with the Blackwood Gospel Quartet before his stint with the Palmetto State Quartet, so it’s not particularly surprising to see him back. The surprise would come if Monument Quartet’s Brad Smith was indeed filling the baritone slot for the Blackwood Gospel Quartet. I do notice that Brad photo is no longer on Monument’s myspace page, so perhaps he, too, has returned to the Blackwood Gospel Quartet.

Monument has two tenors currently (Marshall Pugh and Matt Felts), and it’s rumored that another is on the way to fill the vacant fourth spot on stage. It will be interesting to see how things settle out with the group, and what titles (lead/baritone/tenor) they give the three vocalists–or if they will bother to assign part titles at all.