It seems as of late, we have been getting a lot of good southern gospel music in the central VA area. We can attribute this partly to a good radio station, JOY FM, part due to good promoters, and part due to the great fans that continue to support good southern gospel. Last Friday night was no different story. It was the next concert in a great lineup of concerts that Patrick Henry Boys and Girls Home has been putting on. The line up included The Booth Brothers, Triumphant Quartet, and Aaron Wilburn. You would be hard pressed to beat that lineup for any concert anywhere in the country. And one of the things that I liked it was a 4 hour concert, which gave each artist enough time to do a good portion of music mixed in with a little bit of Christmas music. The thing I hate about having a whole bunch of talent on one ticket is just having each one sing a couple songs. I want to see a group get into their program. I want to get a feel for what they are about and how good they really are and not just hear a couple really polished songs. NQC or a Gaither Homecoming Concert is a prime example of having to much talent on one ticket. Don’t get me wrong, I still go to see groups like the Vocal Band and Signature Sound, but I would rather see a couple like that and leave the rest off.
I know that in the past my reviews have been going long because I have reviewed everything about the concert. In the chance that I would bore you to death, I am going to just hit the highlights. Also if you check out the pictures section of the website http://www.vasoutherngospel.com, I should have pics up of the concert so you can see them first hand.
The artist really did a little bit of new and a little bit of old and being December we had some Christmas music in there as well. Staff from JOY FM was there and they started the night out. Our local joy representative, Mike Cook, was up first and introduced the morning Joy Ride Daniel, Candi, and Melody. After talking about the station and the upcoming Gaither Homecoming Concert that was the next night, Aaron Wilburn was the first up. He did some opening MC work and told a couple stories before introducing Triumphant Quartet. I believe TQ is one of the best quartets going right now, taking into consideration presentation, vocal blend, and quality of guys and personalities. They did Jesus Was Born Today, Don’t Let the Sandals Fool Ya, Delivered Again, Grace Has A Face, an acappella Christmas Medley, White Flag, Jeff Stice piano medley, and He Is. The highlight of the set was Clayton Inman doing Ol’ White Flag. If you have seen the guys in the past you know how much they ham this song up. If not it is worth seeing. The song ended up waving their “old white flags” aka handkerchiefs showing their support even though Jeff Stice hates this song.
Next up was Aaron Wilburn. He did a combination of stories and songs that included the Chinese Cat Song and If My Nose was Running Money. The great thing about having Aaron Wilburn and Michael Booth together is they are both nuts and can play off each other well. You never know what is going to come out of their mouth next. The Booth Brothers came on while Aaron was still up. Michael started talking about the great song writer that Aaron is. One of his claims to fame is the song Home as well as Four Days Late and a whole list of others. After talking about the song Aaron played it on just the acoustic while Ronnie sang the lead. On the chorus the rest of the guys joined in on that Booth Brother harmony as only they can do it.
The Booth Brothers set was a mixture of old stuff and newer stuff. It included The Man I Used to Be, Feeling Mighty Fine, His Grace is Sufficient, Look For Me, It’ll All Start Happening Again, What Grace has Done (Ronnie) Welcome to the Family, and Crucified with Christ. The highlight was Look For Me At Jesus Feet. This is one of my favorite songs and I believe that Michael has the best version if not the best. The thing that I love about hearing Michael sing or speak, is he is a communicator. Singers are a dime a dozen but when you find someone that can convey the message, then you got something.
The Booth Brothers concluded the first half of the program and was followed by Jason Watson. Jason is the executive director of the Patrick Henry Boys and Girls Home and the person who puts together the concerts. He gave some information about their ministry and talked a little about the product that the groups had in the back of the church. He turned it over to the groups so that they could go into more detail as to what they had on their tables.
The second half of the concert kicked off with Triumphant Quartet once again. They did a little more Christmas music in this half of their set. They got started with a Christmas medley of songs followed by Long Black Train, Hallelujah Chorus, Christian Family, I’m Going Home, and another medley featuring Jeff Stice. Jeff talked about the influences that he had down through the years on his piano playing and paid tribute to them.
Instead of the Booth Brothers coming up and doing a normal set, they did a an acoustic jam session that included Michael on bass, Ronnie on acoustic guitar, Jim on acoustic guitar, Jeff Stice on piano, David Sutton on harmonica, and another acoustic guitar. I didn’t catch his name but he had been traveling with the Booth Brothers the last few weeks. They did Life’s Railway to Heaven and I’ll Fly Away.
To end up the night, all the groups came up and did one finale song that was encored several times. That was a great end to a great night. You can’t go anywhere else and find a better lineup. And to make it even better, they will be doing the same concert next year. This will more than likely be a ticketed event so keep watch on our website http://www.vasoutherngospel.com and keep listening to JOY FM for more information. You are sure to get another night of great gospel music from some of the best.
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