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Last night, I came across this video of Signature Sound singing the classic “Walk With Me”:

Two comments:

(1) It seems that, of late, Signature Sound has been making a point of doing significant portions of their program without fully produced soundtracks and stacks. Some of their critics charge that they over-rely on those, and it seems that perhaps because of this they have been making more of a point of late to emphasize several songs in the program without any accompaniment other than piano. (Incidentally, this was a video that the group themselves uploaded to YouTube.)

(2) It looks like they have finally sold enough videos to afford full-length ties.

Rating: 4.5 (of 5)

Average Song Rating: 4.3 (of 5)

Song List: I Wouldn’t Take Nothing For My Journey Now; Leave Your Sorrows; I’m Too Near Home; What Heaven Means to Me; God Walks the Dark Hills; How Much More; The Sweetest Song I Know; Looking for a City; I Was Nothing; I Saw the Man; Pickin’; Won’t it Be Wonderful There; Living in Canaan Now; Lighthouse; He’s Coming Again; The Eastern Gate.

Available from: New Haven, Springside, Amazon, Christianbook.com.

* * *

This project is a re-issue of a 1974 video-recording, An Evening with the Happy Goodmans, recorded live in Arlington, Texas. The footage has been remastered onto DVD.

The evening starts with a band instrumental, “I Wouldn’t Take Nothing For My Journey Now.” Vestal, Howard, Sam, and Rusty Goodman take the stage and sing several convention songs and some of their biggest hits before introducing a new song by Rusty, “How Much More.” After another convention song, they bring Johnny Cook on stage for several songs, including his famous “Looking for a City” tenor/alto duet (or is it duel) with Vestal Goodman.

On the second half of the program, Aaron Wilburn and the Voices Triumphant are each featured, as well as several more songs by two configurations of the Happy Goodmans (Johnny Cook with Howard, Sam, and Rusty Goodman and the Vestal / Howard / Sam / Rusty lineup).

The videography is excellent. The editing is also superbly done, doing a decent job of covering the project’s major surprising slip. On the first verse of the song “I’m Too Near Home,” the middle two lines are cut out; the group sings the first line, and then we see them singing the last line. The editing covered this by placing a close-up of the drum-sticks (in sync with the music) during the cut. It’s not clear whether this cut was made on the original, or for the DVD (perhaps to cover a flaw in New Haven’s source copy).

The project includes an extra section with three band members appearing on this video (Eddie Crook, Aaron Wilburn, and Rick Goodman) sharing memories of their Happy Goodmans days.

This project offers a delightful glimpse of what it was like to experience the Happy Goodman Family at their peak.

Rating: 3.5 stars (of 5)

Average Song Rating: 3 stars (of 5)

Producers: Jeff Collins, Roger Fortner.

Song List: Oh How Precious Is the Flow; Remember the Mountain; Oh What a Trade; How Deep the Father’s Love For Us; Without Him; I Believe; Look How Big My God Is; Something More; I’ve Made Up My Mind; I’ll Keep Trusting You; Between Twelve and Thirty-Three; I Thought You Ought to Know.

Available from: McKameys.

* * *

The McKameys know what their fans want, and they are smart enough to stick to it. Something More offers twelve (mostly) new songs, including contributions by Larry Petree, Rodney Griffin, Rusty Golden, Jerry Salley, and several from former group member Sheryl Farris.

The album contains few surprises. Probably the biggest surprise is their cover of the modern praise song “How Deep the Father’s Love.” The arrangement does a superb job of adapting the song to the McKameys’ style–so well, in fact, that most McKameys fans would probably assume the song had its origins in Southern Gospel and was original to the group.

“Between Twelve and Thirty-three” is a contribution from the authors of the Signature Sound hit song “John in the Jordan,” Rusty Golden and Jerry Salley (joined here by Jim McBride). While this blog’s subject matter doesn’t really extend to doctrinal analysis of specific lyrics, the chorus might raise the eyebrows of members of some denominations:

Eighteen years are a mystery
His last three years He made history
Became the Savior He was sent to be
Between twelve and thirty-three

The rest of the album contains an enjoyable mix of up-tempo songs and ballads in the McKamey’s signature style of fairly current accomaniment to traditional Appalchian vocals. This album follows the old adage, “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it” and will not disappoint fans of the McKamey’s style of Southern Gospel.

Google recently released Google Trends. While it does not give actual numbers of searches, it shows whether searches for a term or topic have gone up or down.

In the trend for the search term “southern Gospel,” the trend is steadily downward. Trends for several Southern Gospel groups (Signature Sound, Greater Vision, Bill Gaither, Gaither Vocal Band) generally show an initial peak followed by a gradual downward trend.

Is it that Southern Gospel’s internet audience is shrinking? Or could it be that Southern Gospel fans are as loyal to websites as they are known for being loyal to groups, and that once they visit a site once or twice they bookmark it or remember the domain?

I was wondering the other day: In the Southern Gospel genre, what is (or should be) the role of a blogger?

Is a blogger a journalist, who is supposed to have no favorites and never express opinions or slant, “just the facts”?

Is a blogger a commentator, who can express opinions but is not really supposed to show overt favoritism?

Is a blogger (just) a fan, who has favorite groups and doesn’t mind saying so, and is not shy about expressing opinions, either?

Or are bloggers in a category of their own, with their own unique job description and limitations?

Clayton Watson is putting together a Dottie Rambo Memorial Concert to benefit the Larry Ferguson Fund (a fund to help with the medical expenses of three individuals injured in the bus crash that killed Dottie Rambo–Larry Ferguson, Chris Barnes, and Ronnie Meadows). It is on July 10, 2008 at Remington’s in Springfield, Missouri. Dottie Rambo’s partners on the Golden Girls of Gospel tour, Lulu Roman and Naomi Sego, will headline the concert. There will be a free admission, and a love offering will be taken. For questions, contact Clayton Watson, clayton@claytonwatson.com.

Last Friday, I took the chance to see a regional quartet based in my hometown, Colonial City Quartet. I’ve been impressed with previous lineups and wanted to see them with their new bass Kim Brown.

• Testify. Each group member had a solo on this song and the next one,
• Strong in the Strength. This is a good way to start a concert; it relieves the pressure on any one member to carry the first song or two on their own, and leaves them all warmed up.
• My Lord & I (Walk This Road to Glory, Children). Most of Colonial City’s songs are cover songs; manager Tim Campbell has told me that they are content to be a regional group, and since they have access to local venues that have never had a Southern Gospel group in, it is the first time many in their audiences hear these songs. This particular concert was at a local mega-church; most of its members had never heard of Southern Gospel, but their seniors pastor brought the group in for their annual Seniors Banquet. (Thanks perhaps in part to the dinner, there was quite an audience, at least 300 and maybe over 400. The sanctuary was pretty filled.
• I Bowed on My Knees. This song featured tenor David Campbell. Right before the song, he had some sound system issues, but recovered well with this song. It received prolonged applause. (It was the sort of reaction that would become a standing ovation elsewhere, but this audience did not seem particularly inclined to stand, standing only when invited on “Give it Away” and for the patriotic number.) Since the group’s lead singer, Steve Feazel, used to sing tenor with the group, their arrangements are high; he sang the harmony part above David.
• Pray (”You Can Awake to a Beautiful Morning”). This was a new addition to their program since the last times I’d seen them. It was performed acapella–and performed well. Kim Brown is an excellent rhythm bass; he struck me as the sort who is a good bass now and has the potential to be a great one with a few more years of voice training and experience.
• Give it Away. This was the Gaither Vocal Band song; during the encore, the group came down into the audience and shook hands.

Intermission

• Total Praise. I had never envisioned this Talley Trio song as a quartet song until the first time I heard Colonial City do it, but since hearing their rendition I think it’s even better as a quartet song.
• Journey To the Sky. Classic quartet number.
• I Pledge My Allegiance. This was the first time I’d heard the group do a patriotic number. I’ve been told by some groups that they sometimes include a patriotic number in their programs since they know that it will sometimes evoke a stronger response than anything else on their program. If they haven’t gotten a standing ovation earlier in the program, a patriotic song will often bring a standing ovation if all else fails. It’s a weird quirk of American evangelicalism that the flag will bring some audiences to their feet when everything else–even the cross, the empty tomb, and Heaven–fails.
• I Then Shall Live. This was the first time I’d heard them do this song; it’s a good addition to their program.

A friend sent me a link to this video of the Perrys performing “Holy Shore” (their current hit) in a recent Tennessee concert. The audio isn’t the greatest, but the Spirit shows through and makes it today’s must-watch video of the day.

To view it in a larger size (or even in fullscreen), click here.

Dennie Oxley, a State Representative in Indiana, is running as the Democratic candidate for that state’s Lieutenant Governor position. But that is not the news pertinent here; several articles mention that he sang in a Southern Gospel quartet for several years. The Gubernatorial candidate, a former Clinton administration official, brought him on the ticket to provide ideological and geographic balance.

No website I can find stated which quartet(s) he was part of, but as they are not listed in his career history, I think it is safe to assume that it was probably with a regional group.

Note: I see David Bruce Murray also has the story, but he misidentifies Oxley as a Republican.

Rating: **** (of 5)

Average Song Rating: *** 1/2 (of 5)

Producers: Bill Gaither, Guy Penrod, Marshall Hall, Wes Hampton

Song List: I’m Forgiven; Build an Ark; Jesus and John Wayne; Go Ask; Home of Your Dreams; Search Me Lord; Lonely Mile; There’s Always a Place at the Table; The Diff’rence Is In Me; I’m Loving Life; When I Cry; Prisoner of Hope; Then He Bowed His Head and Died

Available from: Gaither.com, Springside, Amazon, Christianbook.com.

***

Lovin’ Life is the second project with the group’s current lineup (third if you count Together). Group members Wes Hampton (tenor), Guy Penrod (lead), Marshall Hall (baritone), and Bill Gaither (bass) made the somewhat unusual move of jointly co-producing the project; each group member is listed as a producer, and there was no outside producer.

The project, par for the course of GVB projects, features a fairly even mixture of new songs, recycled songs, and covers. Two tracks, “Lonely Mile,” and “I’m Forgiven,” come from the Imperials repertoire (though from two vastly different stylistic eras, 1964 and 1980, respectively). Several familiar Gaither tracks are brought back, most notably “Then He Bowed His Head and Died,” the project-closing big ballad, and “Go Ask,” superbly arranged and featuring Bill Gaither on the verses.

A few of the project’s tracks were previously recorded by the Gaither Vocal Band. “Search Me, Lord,” previously recorded on their Testify Southern Classics project, appears to use the same soundtrack and arrangement. “Build an Ark” is the same song previously recorded by the GVB and the Cathedrals. This rendition doesn’t have quite the same energy of the 1984 Cathedrals rendition; this is probably partly since Bill Gaither doesn’t sing George Younce’s bass answer-back part on the chorus.

This project’s real gems are its five new songs. I have long been of the opinion that with one of the greatest songwriters in Christian music in the group (plus several others in his family), it would be foolish to under-utilize or under-emphasize his contributions. Bill and Gloria Gaither co-wrote three of the five new songs (”Jesus and John Wayne,” “There’s Always a Place at the Table,” and “Home Of Your Dreams”), two of them with their son Benjamin. Interestingly, the other two new songs (”I’m Lovin’ Life” and “Prisoner of Hope”) were songs Benjamin co-wrote with other contributors.

“There is Always a Place at the Table,” Wes Hampton’s feature song, is perhaps the project’s most memorable track (and certainly is one of its best). “Home of Your Dreams” has an almost cinematic feel, accented by the long (mostly) instrumental ending. It would seem more at home in a movie soundtrack than on a top 40 SG radio station.

The Gaither Vocal Band’s last major release, Give it Away, was their first since Russ Taff and David Phelps left the group. That project started the process of defining the new lineup’s sound. Roughly two more years on the road have given this lineup time to establish its own identity.

Now more free from the pressure to fill another lineup’s shoes, Lovin’ Life shows the current Gaither Vocal Band quite comfortable in its own.