Worth Knowing

• Jodi Hosterman has left the Inspirations.
• Singing News has prepared their year-end annual radio chart of the most-played Southern Gospel songs of the year. Occupying the #1 spot on the chart, which will appear in the January 2013 Singing News issue, is the Mark Trammell Quartet’s “I Want to Know.” 
• HisSong manager Dennis Humphries is marrying Angel Ricketts this afternoon in Red Bay, Alabama.

Worth Watching

Worth Discussing

It’s open thread Saturday—you decide!

Worth Knowing

• HisSong manager Dennis Humphries mentioned on Facebook that his fianceé, Angel, is now singing with the group. (HisSong recently lost founding member and long-time tenor singer Adam Elrod.) This apparently indicates that HisSong will be moving from a male trio to a mixed group configuration.
• Former HisSong tenor Adam Elrod is launching his own male trio, Adam’s Call (website, Facebook), with lead singer Bobby Davenport and baritone Sam Fisher.
• Beyond the Ashes, formerly with Wayne Haun’s and Kevin Ward’s Vine Records, has signed with Ernie Haase’s and Wayne Haun’s Stow Town Records.
• The Lesters have found a new tenor, Justin Wells, making them an all-male group for the first time in their history.

Worth Watching

This song, sung by this combination of voices, never gets old:

Worth Discussing

It’s open thread Saturday—you decide!

Worth Knowing

• Scotty and Kasey Inman’s infant daughter Embry, whose hospitalization we’ve covered here and here, continues to recover. Scotty Inman posted this update on Wednesday: “As many of you know, Embry had her 2nd EEG today. we just talked to the Neurologist, face to face. He said that the EEG looked “completely fine” and didn’t resemble the one taken earlier in the week! He went on to say that she doesn’t look like the same baby that he read about & saw on Sunday. Kasey & I told him that MANY PEOPLE had been praying for her and that we Thank & Praise the Lord for these results And he agreed with us. We are one step closer to taking our girl home. When she goes home she will be on medicine & sleeping with a monitor for at least 2 months.” They were able to take her home yesterday afternoon.
• HisSong tenor/founding member Adam Elrod is leaving, after over ten years with the group. He is recording a solo CD.
• April Potter Holleman, a veteran booking agent who has worked for the Harper Agency and her own former agency, the April Potter Agency, has launched Creative Vision Entertainment. She will be booking the Ball Brothers and singer/songwriter John Lemonis, among others.

Worth Reading

• Lauren’s SG Blog has a review of Matt Fouch’s first night with Legacy Five.

Worth Watching

School is in session! Paid in Full shows how Southern Gospel should be done—and the excitement a live band brings to the stage:

Worth Discussing

It’s open thread Saturday—you decide!

Worth Knowing

• Kingsmen: Bass singer Ray Dean Reese had prostate cancer surgery last Wednesday. He took the weekend off to rest at home. His medical team is recommending further treatment of lymph nodes affected by the cancer.
• McKameys: The McKameys’ hometown, Clinton, Tennessee, honored them with a recent Lifetime Achievement Award. The award commemorated their thirty-one years of full-time Gospel Music ministry.
• Hissong: Baritone David Price has left HisSong. He has been replaced by singer/songwriter Michael Frost. [EDIT, 2/21/13: Broken link removed.] Frost’s five-year run at Pigeon Forge’s The Miracle Theater ended last month when it canceled its production “The Miracle,” a musical about the life of Christ.
• Revelation: Revelation, the Southern Gospel trio from Northern Ireland, recently signed with Christian and Sophia Davis’s Adoration Agency for U.S. bookings.
• Rambos: Dottie Rambo will receive a star in Music City’s Walk of Fame.

Worth Watching

When Sisters presented earlier this year at a Dove Awards pre-ceremony, they generated some buzz with a four-style take on a hymn. Though it’s not footage from the Dove pre-show, here’s a recent performance of that routine:

Worth Discussing

It’s open thread Saturday—you decide!

But this week, I’ll kick the discussion off with a question. I went to Wal-Mart yesterday afternoon and was astonished, as I am every year, at the sudden and stark juxtaposition of Halloween merchandise giving way to Christmas merchandise. Should Christians be more offended at our society’s widespread celebration and commercialization of Satan at Halloween—or our society’s widespread commercialization and trivialization of Christ at Christmas?

In the News

• Wes Hampton opened up the Gaither Vocal Band archives, posting sound clips from two songs that the Gaither Vocal Band recorded in 2008, but did not release. They’re definitely worth a listen!
• Singing News is doing a showcase and straw poll at the National Quartet Convention. They announced this week that they will also permit voting via Facebook. (This is for the straw poll only, not the official awards.)
• On Monday, Apple launched iCloud, which will let you stream any song in your iTunes library to Windows desktops and any Apple device for $25-year. It’s not exactly revolutionary, since LaLa, Amazon, and Google have all released programs with similar functionality. I don’t get as excited over the latest Apple announcements as some do, though, since we’ve already seen them use their walled garden policy to block a Christian app that speaks to what the Bible says about marriage being between a man and a woman from all iOS devices (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad). Still, they have enough clout in the market that it’s worth a mention here.
• Seals “Low Note” Hilton, a well-known bass singer of the 1950s, passed away on Tuesday after a three-month illness.
• Dennis Humphries of HisSong was hospitalized this weekend with chest and stomach pains. He is on bed rest for two days and will be seeing a doctor next week.
• Anthony Facello was hospitalized earlier this week with chest pains. After doctors determined that it was not a treatable condition, he is now back on the road.
• Update, 10:05 A.M.: Southern Gospel soloist Archie Watkins slipped while doing yard work yesterday, breaking his ankle and tearing ligaments. He also sings tenor for Smoky Mountain Reunion and spent forty-five years singing tenor for the Inspirations.

Worth Reading

• FridayNightRevival launches a debut project review series with a post on Brian Free & Assurance’s debut.

Video of the Week

I was going to post the Aaron Swain video here, but Thursday was a slow enough news day that it got its own post. So let’s pull one from the (fairly recently posted) archives: Here’s a video of Gerald Wolfe filling in on lead as the Cathedrals sing “Plan of Salvation”:

It’s also intriguing to see a live staging of the song this early in its run; it offers a peek at how the rendition developed over the years, on its way to becoming a classic.

Open Thread

As always, consider the news roundup comments section an open thread.

HisSong was founded in 2001 by Dennis Humphries. They have maintained a stable lineup (Adam Elrod on tenor, Dennis Humphries on lead, and Adam Cannon on baritone) for several years, long enough to give them the freedom to refine their ensemble sound.

I won’t make the same mistake I made last time (review of On the Way Up) of saying the project doesn’t have a clear breakout hit—especially since “I Believe in Prayer” has already hit the Singing News top 10! Other particularly strong tracks on the project are “Bethlehem, Galilee, Gethsemane” (penned by Bill & Gloria Gaither) and a new, lyrically unique track written by Dianne Wilkinson, “Can You Burn?”

Adam Elrod has a unique power tenor tone, but great control. He knows his limits, stays within them, and anchors the group’s vocal identity in the process. In a genre where vocal production techniques can make a number of groups sound just like other groups on their radio singles, HisSong has a key asset of a distinctive sound. And as their song selection keeps improving, this has become a group to watch.

Song list: Jesus is the Best Thing; Journey Through the Sky; When We Talk to the Father; Can You Burn; What a Difference a Day Makes; I Believe in Prayer; When God Moves a Stone; Bethlehem, Galilee, Gethsemane; Just What I Needed; They’re Getting Ready in Glory. Personnel list: Adam Elrod, Adam Cannon, Dennis Humphries. Review copy provided.

In the News:

• Hissong is releasing a project with Christian Davis singing bass; though he’s not being billed as a full member of the group, he is expected to do at least one concert per month with them. (Hat tip, Adam.)
• Ernie Haase has postponed the Cathedrals Tribute taping from June to an indefinite future date. (EDIT 8/6/11: Broken link removed).
• The Talley Trio launched a new website design. It looks great, definitely a step up from their last one (though the black and white version of their current album’s cover photos seems a little odd to me).

Upcoming Reviews:

• 2/6/09: Sunday Morning Ivories (Kim Collingsworth)
• 2/13/09: Bill Gaither’s 12 All-Time Favorite Homecoming Hymns (Cracker Barrel)
• 2/20/09: DVD: Why? (Aaron Wilburn)

Housekeeping announcement:

I’m in the process of a server migration right now. Right now, I’m transferring domains; I’ll transfer hosting some time tonight or next week. The site may be down for a few hours at points. If you think of it, I’d appreciate prayers that everything goes smoothly!

Rating: 3.5 stars (of 5)

Produced By: Wayne Haun.

Song List: On the Way Up; The Grave Can’t Hold Me; The Miracle Man; Out of His Way; Through Every Storm; Our Highest Praise; Because of the Blood; Joy in My Heart; I Still Have it All; The Things That Won’t Be There; That’s When God Steps In; I Don’t Regret.

***

The main adjective that this project brings to mind is “ambitious.” Given a larger-than-average budget and a master producer, what can a second-tier group achieve?

This project gives us a pretty good idea.

It contains mostly new songs, though it includes three covers, a Walt Mills / Tanya Goodman collaboration, “Joy in My Heart,” and two Hemphills covers, “On My Way Up” and “The Miracle Man.” Song selection is good, a decent selection of ballads, mid-tempo numbers, and fast songs, though mid-tempo songs seem to be predominant.

The group has a good vocal blend; probably its most distinctive voice is Adam Elrod’s tenor part. Elrod is a power tenor in the Danny Funderburk tradition.

The album isn’t exactly traditional, but it’s not really fully progressive either. It incorporates elements as diverse as Black Gospel arrangements, orchestral ballads, and a session band with some familiar names in the (small) Southern Gospel session player universe–Gordon Mote, Ricky Free, Craig Nelson, Randy Miller, and others.

No song jumps out as a likely breakout hit for the group. But the project is quite listenable and shows promise of a group that has strong potential to be top-tier material.