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For a group that has spent almost twenty years on the road, Greater Vision has had a remarkably stable lineup. The trio has only ever had five members–two baritones, two tenors, and one lead–and their current lineup has been together for thirteen years.

That’s about to change, as the current Tenor of the Year (2007 Fan Awards), Jason Waldroup, has announced his resignation from the group. In a statement issued by the group, he said:

This is a decision I have been struggling with for more than a year, and the time has come for me to follow what I believe to be God’s will for my life. I have delayed this decision because of my love for what I’ve been privileged to do for the past thirteen years as a part of Greater Vision, and my relationships with Gerald and Rodney. They, along with Chad Baker, our Product Manager, are family to me, and they’re my closest friends. That has made this decision that much more difficult.

Gerald Wolfe and Rodney Griffin also offered their thoughts:

Jason is like a son to me, as well as being one of the closest friends I’ve ever had. None of us want to see him leave, but we have encouraged him to follow God’s leading, no matter what, and leave the consequences to Him. – Gerald

I will certainly miss standing beside Jason every night, but he has my full support as he moves into his next phase of ministry. – Rodney

This will be one of the most interesting personnel changes to watch this year, since Greater Vision could have their pick of just about any tenor on the road. Few tenors would take the offer lightly.

The group’s statement mentions that more details will be forthcoming.

A.B. Kendall has a report on his blog from the debut concert of Charlie Waller’s New Florida Boys. The new group has been six months in the making, and gets high praise from Kendall.

In a move that comes as no particular surprise (given Waller’s musical tastes), it sounds like the new group’s repertoire consists primarily of Florida Boys material from forty years ago. This seems to suggest that the Florida Boys will join the ranks of the Blackwood Brothers, the Chuck Wagon Gang, and (to a lesser extent) the Dixie Echoes, groups that primarily perform material older than most of the members and rarely introduce new songs. But that is quite possibly the best niche for this group. It will provide them with sufficient material for their live programs while freeing them from the inevitable comparisons that would come from attempts to add to the legacy by finding and introducing new songs as good as the Florida Boys’ classics.

For some time, I’ve wanted to introduce a way for Southern Gospel fans to share concert photos on a website specifically devoted to Southern Gospel music. Today, I’m launching the SouthernGospelBlog.com Gallery. It will feature concert photos, studio photos, and other Southern Gospel-related photos sent my way.

If you’d be interested in submitting concert or studio photos of nationally known Southern Gospel groups to this gallery, contact me at editor@southerngospelblog.com for submission information.

There are a couple of news stories in Southern Gospel today:

• The Greenes have announced that Paul Lancaster has joined the group. Lancaster has quite the resume, having performed with The Mullins, The Nelons, The Martins, and most recently Everyday Driven. He’s also filled in with Karen Peck and New River, Three Bridges, The Booth Brothers, and others.
• Song Garden Music Group has announced a new website. Of course, new websites are launched every week in our genre, but I mention this one since, as a website designer myself, I thought whoever designed this did a very good job.

The Prophets Quartet announced yesterday that they’ve landed another legend, adding former Happy Goodmans pianist / record label executive Eddie Crook as their piano player. Eddie Crook has known Prophets manager Ed Hill for nearly 50 years and says he is “honored to be part of the return of the Prophets.”

The Prophets have had several lineup changes in the approximately two-year interim between the formation of the group and today. At least the changes have been for the better!

Some time back, Gaither Vocal Band tenor Wes Hampton mentioned on his blog that he would have exciting news to announce soon. Well, it was worth the wait; his most recent post has this paragraph:

Oh, while I’m thinking about it, I can finally reveal what I’ve been excited about for so long but have been unable to share.  Of course now, it’s probably been so hyped up that you’ll think, “is that it??!!”  Well, here it goes… the week of July 21st, I will be in Indiana, along with Bill, Guy, and Marsh, for a Gaither Vocal Band Reunion taping.  Everyone who has ever been in the GVB will come together for two days to do, well, I’m not really sure at this point.  But, all I know is that it will be awesome.  I will get to hang around and sing with my vocal idols…wow.  I still can’t believe it when I think about it.

Although several groups (Speers, Kingsmen, Dixie Echoes, etc.) have done reunion recordings, this promises to be the most exciting reunion event since the Cathedrals’ 1995 reunion. The potential draw of getting names like Bill Gaither, Steve Green, Larnelle Harris, David Phelps, Michael English, Jim Murray, Mark Lowry, Russ Taff, and David Phelps all in the same room for a live recording could well overshadow even recent Homecoming titles.

David Bruce Murray has posted the upcoming single (a cover of Benny Hester’s When God Ran) from a mystery national group on his Musicscribe blog. Twenty-five of the people who correctly guess the group will get a free download of the group’s entire CD.

Depending on how accurate the results are, it could either be a great publicity move for the group, or go towards documenting the contention that many Southern Gospel quartets sound alike.

When the top 10 Singing News Fan Awards Song of the Year nominees were posted, Crossroads executive Mickey Gamble was as surprised as anyone else to see that last year’s Dove Brothers hit song “I Can Pray” didn’t make the list.

Of course, there was a wide variety of opinions as to why this was the case. The more recent Dove Brothers’ hit “I’m Gonna Make It” could have split the votes. Or, everyone could have just assumed it would make the top 10 and nominated other songs, intending to return to “I Can Pray” in a later round. Or, the song’s support could have been an inch wide and a mile deep–i.e, not as many people as expected liked the song, but those who did liked it so much and talked about it so much that they made up for all the rest in buzz.

But it seems everyone overlooked the real reason. Even if more people nominated the song than any other, it appears to have been disqualified on a technicality. Whenever a song actually becomes a hit, it has to be released between April 1 of the preceding year and March 31 of the year in which the nominations take place. “I Can Pray” was sent to radio in January 2007, though it didn’t peak on the charts until spring/summer 2007.

In the future, it might make more sense if the rules were revised to allow songs which released and / or peaked on the charts during the eligibility period to be nominated. But in the end, this story does have a moral: Always read the fine print.

Out of curiosity, I decided to check how many of the Singing News top 10 Song of the Year nominees were on YouTube.

Perrys – Holy Shore

Ivan Parker – I Choose

Legacy Five – I Have Been Changed

Greater Vision – It Means Just What it Says

Booth Brothers – Look for Me (I’m assuming. perhaps mistakenly, that this is the same song they’ve been singing for years)

Brian Free & Assurance – Prayin’ Man

Triumphant Quartet – The Great I Am Still Is

Kingdom Heirs – What We Needed

I couldn’t find two–the McKamey’s “You are With Me,” and the Inspirations “If You Only Knew” (though I could find a photo montage of the latter.)

YouTube has become one of the first places where people go to check out artists whose name they have only heard. This is the first year where Southern Gospel is represented to this degree.

The other day, I was listening to Glen Payne and the Cathedrals sing “Hard Trials Will Soon Be Over,” and I remembered my brother saying, “If anyone was ready for Heaven, it was Glen Payne.” It also occurred to me that Glen had no idea at the time he recorded that how soon his trials really would be over.

My grandma commented a while back that the songs they used to sing about Heaven mean more now that she’s closer to being there. I’m not that old but I can relate. The more loved ones I have who have gone before me, the more homesick I get but I am grateful that God has a purpose for my life and I hope to be faithful to the end so that God can say, like He said to Glen, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” What a day that will be!

~Sony Elise