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The other day, I came across a video of the Hoppers singing “Miracle In Me.” Of course, since that was a huge song for the Greenes when Kim (Greene) Hopper was still with the group, I anticipated that Kim would naturally be featured.

But as the video starts, the four singers on stage are Greg Bentley and Claude, Connie, and Dean Hopper. So I fell upon my backup hypothesis—that this was shortly before Kim would come on stage, and she was waiting in the wings to come in on the second verse or encore and blow the roof off with a power finish.

But no. In this video, it’s Connie delivering both the mellow opening lines and the power finish. With aplomb.

Now Connie seems to be content to quietly blend and let others have the spotlight. But if that has ever fooled you into underestimating her singing abilities, watch this video:

I apologize for two question posts in a row, but it’s a slow news week in Southern Gospel so far. (But I can’t say that without anticipating it somehow becoming a self-defeating prophecy.) Jeff Foster does have a good post up on NQC Conduct, but there’s little to discuss in the way of news right now.

So let’s discuss a music-related question I’ve been puzzling over. I have quite a few “smart playlists” in iTunes. One day I might be inclined to listen to songs I’ve rated 5 stars, another day songs released in 2009, and another day songs penned by Dianne Wilkinson.

These smart playlists are constantly automatically refreshing. Do any iTunes geeks read this blog? If so, do you know if these slow the program down any significant amount?

Are the feature interviews I do for this site too long?

I realize that what comes out to eight or nine pages when formatted may be more than most people want to read on a regular basis.

And if they are too long, should I

• (a) Cut out some information and only stick to the highlights, or
• (b) serialize the interview, posting a segment once a week for four weeks?

UPDATE (9:37 PM): Thanks for your feedback. All at once it is! Every now and then, I try to give myself a reality check. Am I doing things the way I am because that’s the way I like it? because that’s the way I’ve always done it? or because that’s the way you like it? It’s nice when all three coincide!

I was sitting in Freedom Hall at the National Quartet Convention watching the Booth Brothers when Michael Booth began to sing “Look For Me at Jesus’ Feet.” I remember hearing Gary Sheppard sing that song years ago and I heard Michael sing it last year but this particular evening, I received a mental picture that I would like to share with you.

I picture myself in Heaven slowly strolling the streets, still somewhat dazed, wondering if I’m dreaming and not quite sure what to do with myself.

As I look up, I see Jesus up ahead, smiling at me as if maybe He is also wondering what I’m going to do once reality finally sinks in. As soon as my brain clears and I realize who He is, I run toward Him, throwing my arms around Him and clinging to Him in ecstasy. After a while, I let go and step back, looking into His face once more. The love pouring from His eyes is like none I’ve ever seen. Such an intensity that brings tears to mine.

He smiles as He says, “My beloved child, welcome Home.” He takes my hand and begins to walk back where He had come from. I don’t even think about where we’re headed; I’m just happy to be with Him. He leads me to His throne where He releases my hand and takes His rightful place. In awe, I sit at His feet staring up at Him in amazement that I’m finally there … in Heaven … with Jesus. Wow! Can this really be happening? Suddenly, all my worldly cares are forgotten for all I can see is His face!

I don’t notice the streets of gold; I don’t notice the walls of jasper; I don’t notice anything but Him and I am convinced that if I sit there looking at Him and listening to Him for all eternity, it would not be long enough.

Just for fun, since I don’t have anything more serious on my mind today, I thought I would post my most embarrassing NQC moment.

Apparently (as I hear) at the urging of Blackwood Brothers bass singer Randy Byrd, my fellow blogger Aaron Swain put together an impromptu Southern Gospel Bloggers Quartet. He sings bass; the other three of us (David Bruce Murray, Nate Stainbrook, and yours truly) sing baritone or lead. We had no tenor.

Well, I believe my comfortable range is the highest, but it just as certainly is not a natural tenor. But I foolishly agreed to sing tenor anyhow.

So we stumbled through a rendition of Boundless Love. I did especially poorly; remember …that I was singing tenor and I’m not one. Anyhow, it was bad enough that the person in the booth next to our home base (the SouthernGospelForums booth) peeked through the curtain to see what the racket was.

Brian Free.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Average Song Rating: 4.3 stars

Executive Producer: Mark Trammell. Associate Producer: Dustin Sweatman.

Song list: Leave Your Sorrows and Come Along; Mansion Over the Hilltop; Hold Me; John Saw Me; Standing On the Solid Rock; While Ages Roll; Sweetest Song I Know; Sin Will Take You Farther; In the Sweet Forever; Hide Thou Me.

* * *

After Joel Wood joined the Mark Trammell Trio earlier this year, there evidently wasn’t enough time to turn around a CD of new songs featuring the new lineup by NQC. So the group decided to put out its second CD of classic songs. (Their first, Journey Thus Far, introduced Dustin Sweatman in 2006.) Much like Journey This Far, Vintage Gospel includes a mix of hymns, classic convention songs, and songs Mark Trammell was known for other with other groups.

Mark Trammell reprises his rendition of his Cathedrals hit song “Sin Will Take You Farther.” He also performs a song that originally featured George Younce, “Hold On.”

Uptempo convention songs like “Leave Your Sorrows and Come Along” and “Sweetest Song I Know” reinforce something I’ve said before: The Mark Trammell Trio is the best quartet without a bass singer on the road today. Other trios, like the Booth Brothers, Voices Won, and the Bishops, have (or had) a sound that was so trio a bass singer just wouldn’t fit. But this group is a mega-quartet waiting to happen.

Joel Wood is featured on “Mansion Over the Hilltop” and “Hide Thou Me.” Particularly on “Mansion,” his voice tone is enough like Eric Phillips that a casual observer might hear the song and not even notice that there’s a new tenor. His voice doesn’t seem to be quite as high, and seems to have a more power-tenor mid-range (should the group choose to employ it). But he should have little problem with the group’s repertoire.

Dustin Sweatman keeps improving as a vocalist. This is most notable on the song “John Saw Me,” where he has an impressively smooth yet powerful solo.

It took a member change to prompt Journey This Far—one of the group’s best CDs to date. It took another member change to prompt this project. If this keeps up, the group might soon find their fans doing something incredibly odd: Hoping there will be a member change … so the group puts out another table project of this caliber!

But, truth be told, it would be far more sensible for the fans to do something that would work just as well: Purchase so many copies of this project that it doesn’t take a lineup change for them to put out the next one.

Welcome Jeff Foster to the Southern Gospel blogosphere! He has launched a blog at southerngospelperspectives.blogspot.com.

Jeff, you’re off to a great start. Keep up that pace and stay positive, and I’m sure this won’t be the last time I’ll be mentioning you here.

Oh, and the Monday after NQC is a great time to start a blog. I should know.

Danny Jones has a thought-provoking post about how most NQC booths are torn down early on Saturday (or, in 5%-10% of cases, Friday).

Though this might matter less to people there all week, like me, or people who are there Thursday-Saturday, he pointed out that this keeps the Saturday night attendees (well over 1/6 of the total), many of whom can only come for Saturday night, from being able to purchase projects by many of their favorite artists.

Fact is, it can cost artists sales from people who are there all week. Gold City inadvertently lost a sale to me (and not just a $10 one) by leaving early; I was hoping all week to purchase their Heritage Collection Vol. 2 DVD set, but had to wait till the week was over to see if I had enough money. By the time I made it to their booth early Saturday evening, they had torn down and headed out for the week. Maybe I can get it next year, but I have no idea if I’ll be able to get Tim Riley’s autograph then.

Understandably, many groups want to schedule weekend dates to recoup the costs of an NQC booth. And it would be hard to force them to stay–short of posting armed security guards, an idea Jones suggests and rejects as implausible.

If it’s worth encouraging artists to stay, there is a simpler way. NQC could charge artists $200 extra for a booth (roughly 50% more than the current rates, I hear), and announce and put it in the contract that the directors will walk around immediately after the finale ends and refund the deposit to groups that stayed it out.

Even then, it physically won’t be possible for many groups to stay. But perhaps a $200 refund would be an added incentive.

Agree? Disagree?

The winner of this site’s Third Birthday Contest is in: It’s my fellow blogger Diana B., whose guess of 9,876 was 190 away from the correct total: This site has had 9,686 comments since its launch three years ago.

Rounding out the top 5:

• 2nd place: M Smith (286 away)
• 3rd place: Adam Wallace (314 away)
• 4th place: Nate Stainbrook (514 away)
• 5th place: Jeff Foster (814 away)

There have been 20,054 spam comments, too, which is why I made the contest specific to non-spam comments.

We’re getting closer to the 10,00o comment mark. Perhaps we should do another contest for that!

Just in case you missed it in the midst of the NQC coverage, SouthernGospelBlog.com has a Third Birthday contest going; that contest ends at 8 P.M. this evening. Head over and enter!