Pure Love is one of Legacy Five’s all-time most anticipated releases. The group recently saw a substantial vocal transition, with acclaimed songwriter Lee Black replacing outgoing tenor Josh Feemster and baritone Bryan Walker replacing founding member and twenty-year...
Last night, the Collingsworth Family recorded two live DVDs, Majestic and We Will Serve The Lord. The taping was at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium in Spartanburg, SC, a 3,244-seat venue that was at or very near capacity. As Phil Collingsworth Sr. noted in the...
The Perrys' upcoming April 8th StowTown release, Into His Presence, is one of the year's most highly-anticipated releases. This was a day that many in the Southern Gospel community feared would never come. Over the last fifteen months, during Tracy Stuffle's...
There are no two ways about it: The Mark Trammell Quartet's brand-new release Your Walk Talks is a masterpiece. A great recording starts with great songs. Mark Trammell has proven he knows how to find good songs; it is not a coincidence that his years with the...
Have You Heard? is perhaps the last thing you would expect from a group that has been on the road for fifty-one years—a breakout album. A breakout album redefines what we can expect from a group. When we refer to an album as a breakout album, it's usually for a group...
The opening has a cinematic elegance: Footage of candles and other scenes from the Collingsworth Family home lies underneath a brief narration from Phil Collingsworth Sr. about the importance and impact of hymns. Then the scene shifts outside, where soprano and oldest...
Every generation of Southern Gospel quartets has a select few that leave a permanent mark on the genre by inspiring the next generation of singers to follow in their footsteps. Members of the Kingdom Heirs grew up listening to Gold City, the Kingsmen, and the...
Is it a coincidence that Paul Harkey is wearing a short tie on Glorious Day's album cover? Ernie Haase thinks visually; small details don't escape him. It's probably no coincidence that Harkey's debut album cover with the group has a distinct visual connection to the...
Is it possible for truly great songs from truly great songwriters to be overdone? If such a thing is possible, then our genre has probably never seen songs more overdone then those that have left the pens of Bill and Gloria Gaither. There's no question that the songs...
Most of the time, when a Southern Gospel group records an album of hymns and classic songs, it is a low-budget project with simple arrangements, basic soundtracks, predictable song selection, and no unifying theme. Lifetime is a shining exception to the rule. Let's...
3:1 Reviews offer three highlights of an album and one area that could have been improved. 1: Concept. Few Southern Gospel releases can claim to be completely unique, but this is one of them. Shawn Degenhart, lead singer and visionary behind the project, had special...
This was originally published in four installments. By popular request, all four posts have now been combined into this single, 5350-word mega-review. Today, according to CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International), the 10 most popular songs in American...
It has been three years and four months since Gold City released their last mainline CD, Moment of Truth. In the last three years, they have had five tenors (Steve Ladd, Chris Cooper, Josh Cobb, Brent Mitchell, Dan Keeton), three lead singers (Bruce Taliaferro, Craig...
Tribute Quartet launched several years ago with Jacob Kitson singing the tenor part. Given the name he has made for himself since then, it is no small feat that Tribute has been steadily improving since their original lineup. Tenor Brian Alvey came aboard at about the...
Introduction Jerry Martin's recent addition to the Kingdom Heirs made We Will Stand Our Ground one of 2011's most anticipated projects. The project releases next Tuesday. Over the last month, several of Southern Gospel's longest-running and most active bloggers—Brian...
Just two years ago, I was saying this about the Collingsworth Family: The Collingsworth Family doesn’t have years of mega-hits. In fact, other than two or three of Kim’s piano solos, they have few if any songs instantly recognizable to a casual Southern Gospel fan....
When Brian Free & Assurance's released their previous mainline album, Worth It, I spoke highly of the song "Die Another Day." I was criticized for this, as it's no secret that I have a strong personal preference for the traditional and orchestral portions of the...
Southern Gospel is distinguished as a genre by its vocals. Our vocal blends are rooted in four-part male quartet harmonies—the second highest voice taking the lead, with the highest and lowest voices redefining the boundaries of what a male voice can do. Male trios...
Next Tuesday, Ernie Haase & Signature Sound will be releasing A Tribute to the Cathedral Quartet, a CD/DVD combo covering 21 songs from Haase's alma mater, the Cathedrals. Based on a request from their publicist to post the review by the time of release, and due...
Editor's note: After this review was completed and scheduled to automatically load, yesterday's news included the announcement of Troy Peach leaving the Perrys. While this review is of a pre-release of the CD, and the final release will include vocals by new baritone...
This is the second entry in our series of Cathedral Quartet album reviews. The Cathedral Trio's debut project, Introducing the Cathedral Trio, was enough of a success that the Cathedrals went back into the studio later in the year to record another. If the events in...
This post starts a series of Cathedral Quartet album reviews with an ultimate goal of an in-depth review of every recording (excluding compilations) recorded by the Cathedrals, from their start as a trio in 1963 through their retirement in 1999. Since the Cathedrals...
Song 1: A Higher Throne Daniel: A few hours before this CD arrived in my mailbox, I was pondering Lari Goss's iconic introduction to the Cathedrals classic "Champion of Love." It's an instantly recognizable riff—and not just because it is the melody of a line whose...
It has been at least over three years, five CDs, and several #1 hits since the Kingdom Heirs last recorded a live concert video. One could say it was about time. The video opens with a behind-the-scenes montage of preparation for the film, with sound check, makeup,...