Worth Knowing

• Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver has hired a new lead singer/guitarist, Dustin Pyrtle. He replaces Mike Rogers, who left to accept a place with country singer Tate Stevens. (Stevens won Season 2 of The X Factor TV show.)
• Mansion has transferred the Mark Dubbeld Family from their Manor House imprint to their Mansion label. 
• Michael Davis, founder of the Dominion Agency, has launched two new agencies. Blue Ridge Talent will represent bluegrass artists, including the Snyder Family Band and Mountain Faith. Mountain Top Talent will represent up-and-coming Southern Gospel groups, including Red Roots, The Williamsons, and The Sneed Family.
• AbsolutelyGospel held their annual awards ceremony on Tuesday; here are the winners.

Worth Watching

Also worth watching: Tribute Quartet’s Sunday evening concert at Asheville, North Carolina’s Trinity Baptist church will be live-streaming at 5 P.M., here. 

Worth Discussing

It’s open thread Saturday—you decide!

Last night, during the International Bluegrass Music Association’s press conference announcing the top 5 nominees in their 2012 awards, they also announced their 2012 inductees into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame. One of this year’s two inductees was Doyle Lawson.

Lawson, of course, is primarily known for his work in the field of bluegrass; he played with Jimmy Martin, J.D. Crowe, and the Country Gentlemen before forming Doyle Lawson & Foxfire in 1979. (He soon renamed the group to Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver). But, over the last decade in particular, he has had significant crossover success in Southern Gospel. He has regularly appeared at Southern Gospel’s largest annual event, the National Quartet Convention and at other Southern Gospel venues, and had significant charting success on the Singing News radio airplay charts (including the September 2008 #1 hit “Help Is On The Way.”)

This evening, at 6:00 P.M. Eastern / 5:00 P.M. Central, the Tennessee State Senate will hold a ceremony honoring Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. This will be held on the Senate floor at the Tennessee State Capitol building, and, notably, will be streamed online (here). After a resolution honoring Lawson is read, the group will sing two songs a cappella.

This live blog will be updated throughout the evening.

Moment of the Night

The Perrys’ “Plan of Salvation.” It would have been one of the evening’s strongest moments with no introduction, but with Tracy Stuffle’s introduction (see below) tying it to the one-year mark of his return to the stage, it was an incredibly emotional moment.

Runner-up: Collingsworth Family, “At Calvary.”

Brian Free & Assurance (10:38)

Set list: What a Beautiful Day, Anything is Possible; I Believe; God Will Close the Door; Long as I Got King Jesus.

Highlights: ”Long as I Got King Jesus,” of course. The Collingsworth Family came back up for the encore, and the groups left the audience on their feet.

Collingsworth Family (10:18)

Set list: I Feel Like Traveling On (with Brian Free & Assurance), Part of the Family; Joshua Fit De Battle of Jericho; I Found It All (When I Lost Everything);  At Calvary.

Highlights: Kim’s piano solo on “Joshua Fit De Battle of Jericho” got a standing ovation—despite the late hour.

“At Calvary” was utter magnificence. The hymn has quite possibly never been done better. It, too, got a standing ovation.

Click “more” for the rest of the coverage: 

Doyle Lawson shares his views on bluegrass and Southern Gospel in this South Bend Tribune article. Of particular interest are his comments on Southern Gospel:

“I have never laid claim to be a Southern gospel artist,” Lawson says. “I am a person that loves to sing and play gospel music. I think that is a testament to the fact that gospel music in itself is universal. As far as trying to convey a message in song, I don’t think there are any boundaries. I don’t think there should be any boundaries.”

Lawson says the decision to release an occasional secular album is simply a matter of “supply and demand.”

“I have both a secular market and a gospel market,” he says. ” I guess the only difference in the two is, by and large, the people that listen to gospel music probably only want to have those recordings in their possession. Whereas, the people that support the bluegrass world, most of them, they love the music, they love the gospel music, and they love the bluegrass. They will tend to buy both.”