SouthernGospelBlog.com

Last Sunday, Greater Vision performed a concert at Dr. David Jeremiah’s Shadow Mountain Community Church in San Diego, California. The church is equipped with a top-notch video crew; they recorded the service to be streamed live and later archived on Shadow Mountain’s website. The live streaming did not work for many or all users, but the concert was posted online yesterday, here.

The video quality is probably the highest I’ve seen in any online stream. I’ll post my thoughts on the concert; since this is a concert that all of us (at any rate, all who have high-speed connections) can watch together, perhaps we can have a group discussion in the comments.

Song list:

• You Were Faithful Yesterday - featuring Jacob Kitson. The mix was a little tenor-heavy. When I first heard the song on their new CD, I never thought of it as a concert opener, but it works well.
• Paid in Full Through Jesus, Amen - a good choice for an up-tempo number to kick the concert into high gear.
• God Will Pass By - their current radio single, featuring Gerald Wolfe.
• Tell Me the Story of Jesus - from their Hymns of the Ages project; since much of the audience may have been unfamiliar with Greater Vision’s new numbers and even the convention songs, the inclusion of several hymns was a wise choice for the venue.
• Little is Much - the story Wolfe tells of Jacob singing the song is Greater Vision’s new audition-in-the-stairwell moment. Granted, the setting isn’t quite as exotic as the location of former tenor Jason Waldroup’s audition, but Kitson’s rendition of the song and Wolfe’s abilities as a storyteller more than compensate.
• Better Hurry Up - this was introduced as a classic convention song, which I thought was interesting, since I had thought the Happy Goodmans introduced it in 1979. But no matter how much one knows, there’s always something to learn; this prompted me to flip through some projects I have and I noticed a Blue Ridge Quartet rendition of the song in 1963 (with George Younce on the bass part, incidentally).
• A Mighty Fortress - this got the first standing ovation of the night (that the cameras picked up).
• He is Loved - Jacob Kitson’s live rendition had a pathos that the studio version didn’t quite capture. While this song might not have stood out as a highlight on the CD, it works well live.
• The Source of My Song - also featuring Jacob Kitson. I don’t know if the number of times he was featured was random or intentional, and if intentional, whether it was to to introduce him or since he’s young and his voice can handle a greater share of the load.
• O Holy Night - the second standing ovation of the night. A masterful rendition by Gerald Wolfe, as always.
• I Wanna Know that You Know - the sole uptempo song from Greater Vision’s new CD.
• It Pays to Pray - somewhat like “He is Loved” (and slightly ironic, since the songs seem to share some common musical motifs), this song is more of a standout live than on CD. It was introduced powerfully by Rodney Griffin—but I won’t give any spoilers; watch it for yourself!
• Altar Call
• You’re Not Forsaken - the big ballad on Greater Vision’s new CD. Greater Vision’s third standing ovation of the night.

Overall thoughts: Just as in the short NQC sets, in this more extended setting Jacob Kitson gave abundant proof that he is Greater Vision caliber. He has a great stage presence, too—he has a winning smile, and remembers to use it often.

The video quality is top-notch, and in fact surpasses the quality of several of Greater Vision’s other videos, including their 2007 Chicago Live release. If they can arrange for permission to use the footage, they would be hard-pressed to find a better quality DVD to introduce Jacob Kitson and showcase songs from Not Alone.

Ernie Haase & Signature Sound has been trying an innovative marketing effort for Dream On, their upcoming CD/DVD release. A couple of months ago, they posted a movie-style trailer as a teaser. After 23,376 (or more) views, they’ve posted a complete song from the video (”The Old Landmark,” one of the songs they did at NQC):

The other morning, I wasn’t feeling well but I couldn’t sleep so I slipped a CD by the Ruppes into my walkman and began to listen. I’ve had the CD for years but this particular morning, as I listened to the song, “Light From Heaven,” the words jumped out at me and were just what I needed to hear.

“For the sun is always shining though the clouds may hide its view. You may not see a silver lining but any day now, some way and somehow, the light from Heaven will come breaking through.”

How I needed that reminder! We may not see it but it doesn’t mean the sun’s not there. The clouds may hide it during the rainy season but it won’t rain always. The sun WILL shine again.  Let’s not lose sight of that and if you know someone who is hurting, be faithful to remind them of that as well.

A couple of stories I didn’t get to this week:

• One I should definitely have mentioned earlier: Songwriter Roy Overholt, author of “Hallelujah Square” and “Ten Thousand Angels,” passed away.
• The winners of the Diamond Awards were announced. This year, the voting evidently had a strong turnout among Isaacs fans.
• Canaan Records brought in Southern Gospel fan Tim Pruitt, who looks quite a bit like Santa Claus, for photos with artists and fans during NQC. Their photos are here.
• Wes Burke over at Burke’s Brainwork noticed a compression issue I evidently missed when reviewing the Mike LeFevre Quartet’s newest CD, Nothin’ but Good.

Several artist bloggers have shared their takes on NQC. Worth reading:

• Keith Waggoner (Liberty Quartet)
• Wes Hampton (Gaither Vocal Band) *One sentence particularly worthy of note: “I’m pretty sure we’ll be back again next year.“
• Madison Easter (Jeff & Sheri Easter)
• Paul Jackson (Prophets Quartet)
• Debbie Bennett
• Breanna (Crist Family)

I still have a stack of CDs picked up at NQC to review, and until I’ve reviewed them, I’ll refrain from posting an upcoming reviews schedule.

Rating: 4 stars (of 5)

Average Song Rating: 3.7 stars (of 5)

Song List: I Know What Lies Ahead; He Sought Me Again; The Rose; Another Chance for God to Move; We Are Not Home Yet; How Great it Is; He’s Still Settin’ My Place; I’m Safe; Come Spring; Amazing Grace.

Available from: Crossroads.

***

The Inspirations know what their fans want. Inspirations fans aren’t looking for “stylistic progression,” “artist development,” or other signs that the artist has changed from project to project. The group knows their fans want ten or twelve new and cover songs in the same style as the previous albums, and that is what they do.

As always, this album includes several covers. Jack Laws is featured on “Come Spring”; bass Mike Holcomb and tenor Archie Watkins are featured on the song “I Know What Lies Ahead” (most prominently recorded by the Oak Ridge Boys). Watkins is also featured on an acapella rendition of “Amazing Grace”; his fans will probably point to the track as one of the project’s highlights, while those who do not like his voice will probably view it as their least favorite track.

“The Rose,” penned by Joseph Habedank and Matthew Holt, was a good pick for their first single. While perhaps the most Inspiration-styled of the songs Habedank and Holt have published, it also contains enough of the style they typically write to make it an interesting mix.

“We are Not Home Yet,” featuring Mike Holcomb, is another strong ballad. (Seeing the song’s name on the song list got me to wondering what it would sound like if the Inspirations covered Steven Curtis Chapman’s hit song “Not Home Yet.” It would be interesting, to say the least.)

One highlight of Inspirations projects for many Southern Gospel fans is that the Inspirations always include several convention songs. This project does not disappoint, with “I Know What Lies Ahead,” “Another Chance for God to Move,” and “I’m Safe.”

Since the Inspirations maintain a very consistent style from project to project, the relative strength of their albums basically comes down to the quality of the song selection. If you didn’t like their style before this project, you will find nothing changed, but if you enjoy their brand of Appalachian Gospel, you will find this a quality addition to their discography.

It occurred to me the other day that if blogs are a passing fad, then SouthernGospelBlog.com might be outdated one of these days. “So 2000s,” the 2010s geeks will say.

So just in case the blogging fad passes, and I still have something to say…

I just bought the domain names www.southerngospelcommentary.com and www.sgcommentary.com. I figure those are two domains that should remain viable into the long-term future.

I think www.southerngospelblog.com has enough name ID now that it’s not worth re-branding the site at this point. (But I am open to input on this point. Thoughts?) At any rate, the domain names are now active and typing them in will bring you to this site.

I recently joined with several other bloggers to do a mega review of Ernie Haase & Signature Sound’s recent table project, Influenced. The review is here.

An excerpt from my part of the conclusion:

…the project flows nicely and is nicely spaced. While it’s a little short of being a five-star release, it’s a solidly enjoyable four-star release. Fans of traditional Southern Gospel music who enjoy Signature Sound’s periodic convention numbers will find this to be the group’s most enjoyable release in recent years.

A poster on the Singing News forums asked if Stewart Varnado had bought the group. Yesterday, Varnado replied:

In August of 2007, Randy sold half of the Dixie Echoes to me, and the other half to his son Randy Jr. So, I’m NOT the sole owner. Wish so many of the older group names going away when the senior members retire, Randy thought it was best to pass the torch now, so that the Dixie Echoes can continue for many years to come. Our 50th anniversary is just around the corner, I’ve now been with the group 10 years, Randy Jr. has been here 19 years, and we plan on carrying it on as long as the Lord intends!

This sort of long-term plan is too often lacking in our genre, so it’s commendable to see succession plans being made (hopefully) years in advance here.

It’s still too early after NQC for the news flow to start back up. So here’s another NQC-related thought I had over the weekend:

It’s a little odd that possibly 2007’s most popular song (”I Can Pray”) was disqualified on a technicality, but the winning song (”Look For Me”) is a song that the Kingsmen introduced 35 years ago and the winning group (Booth Brothers) recorded some seven years ago.

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not suggesting a conspiracy; I know Singing News bases its rules on radio airplay. As I understand, “I Can Pray” was apparently singled at the wrong time to be qualified. But should rules that produce a result this incongruous perhaps be reconsidered?

(Keep suggestions constructive. The past is past; focus on the future.)

It’s amazing to look back at how technology has changed over the past few years. Just a few years ago, the new thing was day-by-day coverage of the National Quartet Convention. Written summaries were novel.

Two or three years ago, digital camera technology and upload bandwidth speeds had progressed to where daily updates of photos were feasible.

Last year was the first year when NQC offered a live video stream. Last year and this year, word is that it’s been riddled with technical glitches. This year, my video clip coverage here was (to my knowledge) the first time one of the most active Southern Gospel websites posted day-by-day video clips from the floor and Freedom Hall. While I know that the quality my little handheld camera produced wasn’t great for the Freedom Hall clips, it’s been a lot of fun being a little innovative.

So…what’s the next step forward? How can coverage be improved next year?