NQC ’10: Wednesday Recap

There still wasn’t too much chatter, though several blogs have decent roundups available.

• Several artists attended the GVB/EHSS showcase (Daniel Riley, Libbi Stuffle, et al) and all said the showcase was spectacular.  Other bloggers and attendees weren’t quite as impressed.
• I discovered that enLighten is broadcasting from the NQC live in the evenings, interspersing mainstage performances with interviews.  I heard the Inspirations set, and as others mentioned, the acappella song they sang was particularly good.  They have a much different vocal sound with Campbell, Ragan, and Hosterman.  Solid all the way around.
• Liberty Quartet had a full set tonight instead of the one song appearance that they made a couple years ago.  Keith Waggoner’s feature song was noted as particularly good.
• Jeff and Sheri had a notable set as well.  In addition to Morgan, Madison Easter joined in on some harmony vocals as well tonight, which one twitter comment said was a throwback to their sound with Rabbit.
• Another show of solidarity tonight between Scott Fowler and Josh Cobb.  I’m glad to see this, as it really makes both guys look good.  Cobb and Fowler shared an embrace at center stage after their groups had been part of a larger singalong of “Boundless Love”, where more than one person praised Cobb’s vocals.
• Buzz of the Night Award:  Speaking of Gold City, they debuted two songs off their soon to be released mainline CD.  One was an unnnamed cover of an old Dixie Hummingbird tune, “It Won’t Be Long”, and the other was Josh Cobb singing “I Stand Redeemed.”  Both went over extremely well, with “Redeemed” drawing the crowd to its feet.

New Music A-Plenty

Several artists have new CDs due out soon, or are currently in the studio working on new projects.

Via Twitter, Legacy 5, the Booth Brothers, and Greater Vision have been in the studio this week working on Jubilee 2.  Also, the Inspirations have been laying vocals this week on their latest CD, and the Perrys are making their final song selections for a new CD as well.

Brandon over at CoomerCove got the scoop on the new Gold City Favorites project from Roy Webb.

The Dove Brothers have a new album due out soon, and have posted a full preview on their website.

Finally, the Booth Brothers’ new CD, Declaration, produced and arranged by Lari Goss, is due to release on next Tuesday, June 1.  I’m currently working on a mega-review of the project with several other bloggers.  Stay tuned, folks, this one is a real game-changer.

Jodi Hosterman Reportedly Joining Inspirations

Daniel Mount has the scoop that Dallas Rogers has stepped down from the Inspirations and will be replaced by Skyline Boys tenor, Jodi Hosterman.  This is a very surprising move, as Rogers really had seemed to fit well with the Inspirations, as his vocal similarity to Archie Watkins had been well documented.  Hosterman is a very good tenor vocalist, and will definitely be a credit to the group, though I must confess I’ve never pictured him as being an Inspirations style tenor.  His work with the Kingdom Heirs was great, and I would have pictured him more along the lines of say the Kingsmen or even Legacy 5 in terms of style.  Still, it will be good to see Jodi in a more prominent place in SG, and will be interesting to hear how the Inspirations change vocally.  Best wishes to Dallas, Jodi, and the Inspirations as they go through this transition.

In The Studio

I’ve noticed that several groups are currently back in the studio working on new releases.  According to the blog at Crossroads, the Inspirations are currently in the studio working on their first project to feature David Ragan and Dallas Rogers at lead and tenor, respectively.  It will be interesting to see if there are any significant changes to the sound of the group and/or arrangements with the major changes in personnel.  Liberty Quartet states in their latest newsletter that they are working on a new recording titled The Journey as well.  I also noticed somewhere (I believe that it was on Facebook) that the Kingsmen are working on song selection for a new recording as well.  Keep an eye/ear out for all of these recordings, they should be good!

Another Dollar General Find

We stopped in Dollar General the other night to pick up some supplies and some cheap birthday cards (DG is a WONDERFUL place for greeting cards!) and while we were browsing around, I was looking through the CDs and DVDs.  Since I found the Johnny Cook CD a while back, I peruse the stacks everytime I’m in there.  Lo and behold, I found something else that was quite interesting.  Dollar General is selling a 6 volume DVD set of the Gospel Singing Jubilee.  These are not the Gaither issued DVDs, but are entirely different.  Here are the six volumes, I only found volumes 1 and 6 at my local store.

• Volume 1 – The Florida Boys
• Volume 2 – The Happy Goodmans
• Volume 3 – The Cathedrals
• Volume 4 – The Inspirations
• Volume 5 – The Hinsons
• Volume 6 – The Speer Family

I will have to say I was disappointed in the Florida Boys DVD.  After about the second or third song, the audio began lagging about a second behind the video, which made for some aggravating viewing.  However, this was not a problem on the Speer Family volume, and it was very enjoyable.  Hopefully my copy of the FB is just messed up.  Oh, the DVDs are very reasonably priced as well….2 for $10.  Gotta love DG prices!

Has anyone else seen these and/or picked them up?

Also, one of the Florida Boys cuts has a tenor I don’t recognize.  The song appears to be from the early 80′s, and the tenor is short, a little on the stocky side, and has dark, almost black hair.  It isn’t Jerry Trammell, it isn’t Terry Davis, and it doesn’t look much like Greg Shockley.  Anyone know who this tenor is?

Archie Watkins Resigns

In what has been seemingly the worst kept secret of the year so far (see here), the Singing News just issued a press release announcing the retirement resignation of Archie Watkins after 45 years as the tenor for the Inspirations.  Archie may or may not be your cup of tea as a vocalist, but his longevity and dedication deserve the utmost respect.  The release does say that Archie will be performing some solo dates.  All the best to Archie and the Inspirations.  It is not specified in the release, but Dallas Rogers will continue on as the tenor for the Inspirations.

New Inspirations Lineup

Judging from this picture, and from this article, it appears that the Inspirations have settled on a lineup of Dallas Rogers – tenor, David Ragan – lead, Melton Campbell – baritone, and Mike Holcomb – bass, with Martin Cook on piano and Myron Cook on upright bass.  The article also mentions that Jack Laws and Archie Watkins will join the group for special numbers.  It seems that Archie has finally settled into a semi-retirement.  Still no official announcement or press release, but the GOGR article is as close to official as you can get.  Best wishes to all involved, I’m sure the Inspirations are ready for some stability after a turbulent few months.

Your Top 10 SG News Stories of 2008: A Statistical Analysis

Several bloggers have posted their top 10 news stories for the past year, but I thought I’d do something a little different.  Here are the top 10 news stories on this blog, based on the number of views each post received over the past year.

1. Matt Dibler Leaves The Inspirations
2. Greg and Charlotte Ritchie Leave Jeff & Sheri Easter
3. Dottie Rambo Passes Away
4. Guy Penrod’s Sabbatical from GVB
5. Jerry Ritchie Passes Away
6. Bobby All Hospitalized
7. GVB’s Lovin’ Life Track Listing Released
8. Monument Quartet Changes
9. Scott Rogers Departs Crossway
10. The Segos Controversy

I find this to be quite an interesting list.  There are some surprising inclusions over glaring omissions here.  I would have expected Wilburn to have appeared here, and definitely the GV tenor swap.  However, by a quick count, Kitson’s replacement of Waldroup was down around #18, and I hadn’t even found the GC lead swap yet.  I think this provides an interesting look into what you, the reader, found to be the most interesting news stories.  Also, understand that I didn’t count non-news items (reviews, pure opinion posts, etc.) in this list.  Quite interesting, to say the least.

NQC ’08 Recap

The most striking thing as I have read all the recaps of NQC is the apparent lack of stories coming out of the convention.  Normally you can expect a lot of personnel turnover and the like, but since the week before convention, things have been fairly quiet, the two exceptions being the departure of Matt Dibler from the Inspirations and the potential addition of Gene McDonald to Ricky Atkinson and Compassion.  The Fan Awards really didn’t hold any surprises, at least not really any major ones.  I was slightly surprised to see the Hoppers get the Mixed Quartet award over the Perrys, but coming on the heels of “I’m Just Waiting For My Ride” and “Yahweh” as major radio hits, it really isn’t that shocking.  Sometimes the couple of weeks following NQC are also news heavy, so we will wait and see what happens.

Matt Dibler Leaves The Inspirations?

Reports at SGN are that Matt Dibler has left the Inspirations, and his profile is no longer on the I’s website.  If so, this would be their first lineup change in quite a while, if memory serves me correctly.

Update: It appears that Daron Osborne is filling in at lead for the Inspirations at NQC.