Greg & Heather's Southern Gospel Concert Blog, Comments from the Back Row

This was a nice church, in the middle of nowhere, friendly people. They had a Pre-concert dinner of Chicken Pileau. We didn’t make that.

We hadn’t seen the Blackwood Brothers in 15 years. They have some different group members, but same sound. They primarily do the old Camp Meeting type songs. It’s refreshing to hear the old stuff.

This was a great concert in a medium sized friendly church.

The Dove Brothers were great as always. There was a bad thunderstorm going on and towards the beginning, the power went off. The guys just kept singing for about 20 minutes. When the power came back on it, it took the main overhead lights about 5 minutes to reach full brightness. I emailed McCray and told him they need to name the next album “The Night We Sang the Lights Off”!

• Mark Trammell – They sounded good, but I hope one day they’ll decide to make it a quartet.
• Chuck Wagon Gang – They sound good, We love the ‘old’ songs. We still miss Dave Emery as their emcee.

• Perrys – Always great!
• Dixie Melody Boys – Their sound had varied a little over the years as different members come and graduate from The Ed O’Neal University, but Ed O’Neal is always the constant.

Christian Heritage is an interesting church, they used to be into the ‘faith healing’ genre, there is not evidence of it anymore on their website. The website states “We believe the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is given to all believers who ask for it and includes a prayer language (speaking in tongues).” Sitting there, waiting for the concert to begin I looked all around the auditorium and did find any visual evidence it was a church at all. There was not a cross or any religious symbol of any kind. The pastor was going around shaking hands so I asked him. He said he was new there and the attitude had previously been, they wanted to appear more like a theater for visitors, but he was going to change that now that he was here. Note: according to their website he’s been there over a year.

First thing is we had to buy tickets online in advance. Evidently, that’s the way Ernie Haase does it at all his events, even churches. I guess that way he makes sure he gets his cut :-). Their sound was great, terrific harmony. My only problem was the group’s movements on stage was overly choreographed, very unnatural and rehearsed. We remember the tenor, Devin McGlamery, when he joined The Dixie Melody Boys at 17. He still has a great voice.

Ernie Haase threw out about 10 balled up t-shirts before they sang. Heather ran up the aisle and tried to catch one. She was very disappointed to not get one. She came back and sat down, then Taylor, her special Lighthouse Girls friend, came back to us and gave Heather the one she caught. Such a sweet girl!

They were great as always. These guys not only support the Lighthouse Children’s Home financially, but hand out their brochures wherever they go and have a Lighthouse page on their website. Anytime they’re in the general area they stop by for a concert to support Billy and the Lighthouse..

This is in the middle of nowhere, I know I say that a lot, but Broxton is a one light town, and this church is 15 miles outside of town. You stand outside the front door and you can’t see another building or house. We found it okay, but I got royally lost going home in the dark. My GPS failed me.
The pastor is an interesting man. He looks like he stepped out right of the early 70s, leisure suit, hair, and sideburns. Nice size church, good acoustics He runs a local Southern Gospel radio station out of his basement.

This was a Bill Bailey Concert Event. The McKameys were great, crowd was very receptive and really moved.

This is the first time we heard the Booth Brothers. We were impressed! They have a ‘polished’ professional sound. I’m not sure I’d classify them as Southern Gospel, but they are outstanding.

One thing we have never heard at a concert before, when they do their CD sales bit, Ronnie Booth says “If our music has truly touched you, and you honestly can’t afford to purchase one of our CDs. come see me and I’ll give to you.” Wow!

This was a medium sized church, great concert. You’ve got to love a church where the Pastor comes out to us early birds and announces there’s sweet tea in the kitchen for any who want it.