Great Western Southern Gospel Fan Festival, Day 2

Well...I just got back from the second night of the three day Great Western Battle of Songs....uh...I mean Great Western Southern Gospel Fan Festival. Sorry...a Freudian slip of sorts. I'll explain what that means in the paragraphs below.

This was a wild, hectic day. First, at work, I met two of our leading national talk show personalities. Sean Hannity and Mark Levin were both here...for they were doing a show of their own in downtown Fresno this evening.

And although Sean and Mark are both nice guys, I'm sure glad I had a previous engagement, and thus could not attend their evening of political posturing. Yawn.

I have a feeling that if either Hannity or Levin would have attended tonight's singing at the Save Mart Center, they too would have been more impressed at that than their own program. Just a hunch.

Tonight, as last night, there was slightly more than half the arena in attendance. And once again, Roy Webb accompanied the Booth Brothers and Hoppers on stage.

Although Webb was outshone at the keyboard by Legacy Five's Tim Parton, it was the only portion of the program where both the Booths and the Hoppers did NOT have the standout performances.

Which gives you a tease of sorts as to how the evening went. Allow me to elaborate.

At exactly 5:59 PM, John Pfeifer opened the festivities with the national anthem on his trumpet. It was the only subpar performance by Pfeifer this evening....he missed a few notes, and some members of the audience visibly winced.

Then Gerald Wolfe came out to lead some singing. Evidently there was a singalong in one of the day's earlier festivities, and the singalong portion went over very well. It did again tonight...Wolfe let us do most of the singing, since most of the audience knew all the songs, and their enthusiasm was apparent(even then).

The Johnson Family from Grass Valley led off the singers, and once more they provided a solid if not spectacular beginning to the evening.

Things livened up considerably when the next group, the Dixie Melody Boys appeared. Like the Palmetto State Quartet the night before, the Dixie Melody Boys have completely new personnel since I saw them last in person, with the exception(of course)of their Hall of Fame legendary bass singer and manager Ed O'Neal. Like the last time I saw them, though, they primarily sang old-fashioned quartet music and arrangements. Which poses a question...

I realize we're only one market, and a quite different one demographically than the Dixie Melody Boys ordinarily sing to. Nonetheless, Fresno has always been considered one of the nation's best test markets for new products, considering its' size and demographic makeup. Having said that, it was obvious that tonight's audience preferred traditional stylings and songs. We read all the time on gospel music internet sites how southern gospel needs to change with the times, that it doesn't appeal to a broad enough fan base, and it needs to adopt more modern marketing techniques to better reach not only a broader audience, but its' core audience. I'd like to ask those people who push that agenda to explain why the music thus far at this event only received polite, respectable applause...while the first song at this year's GWSGFF to receive a standing ovation was the Dixie Melody Boys' rendition of "Happy Rhythm", sung much the same way it was in the late 1940s when the Statesmen introduced it to the gospel music world. Hm?

For the first time this week, audience members stood and clapped along with a song. One elderly gentleman was even dancing in the aisles to it!

I'll concede that the response to that song...and the Dixie Melody Boys set overall...was probably due in large part to the group's fine performance of the song, and maybe...just maybe...we had an unusual audience tonight. But although there were more than a token number of younger people(ages 18-34)in attendance, again(as is almost always the case)the majority of the audience was over 50 years of age. To which I say...so???

Look, one thing we'll have to admit sooner or later is that this kind of music is always going to have a core audience base of over 50s...and is that so bad? For it's always been the case that that generation has always had the most economic clout of any demographic. Yes, I know what they say about younger people being more receptive "impulse" buyers, but when you're discussing a consumer product(which gospel music is, admittedly)dealing with eternal satisfaction, why would you so heavily target the "impulse" buyers? Just some food for thought. Now back to the review.

Next on the program came Phil Cross and Poet Voices. Now their music is a little more A/C oriented than traditional gospel music, but it was still well received by the audience. One reason for that is that Poet Voices, since it sings almost all Phil Cross-written material, always has good songs to sing...and Poet Voices does a good job presenting those fine songs. They managed to simultaneously bless and calm the audience.

Next came a big surprise for me...Greater Vision made their first event appearance. Now I know that Greater Vision is one of the more popular and well-liked groups in today's gospel music...but their live performances always seemed to lack energy(to me, at least)....well, not tonight. They sang some of their newest material, and got the audience to respond to a hymn medley. Then Gerald Wolfe absolutely slayed the audience with a powerful rendition of "Till The Storm Passes By". It earned the evening's second standing ovation. Rodney Griffin and Jason Waldroup were in good form as well, but Wolfe pulled out all the stops, and I'm glad to say that for the first time, I was truly moved by a live Greater Vision set.

Did I forget to mention that in between the Dixie Melody Boys and Poet Voices, that they played another vintage gospel video...of the Blackwood Brothers from about 1959 singing "Never"(a JD Sumner penned song)? Oh, I didn't? Sorry. I'm beginning to look forward to those video cut-ins.

After Greater Vision, the King's Heralds again did one a cappella song out in the crowd...their version of "Good News...Chariot's Comin'" dazzled the audience(as their performance last night did), marred only by the premature applause from the crowd unfamiliar with the false ending they put on the song.

Greater Vision would be a hard act to follow...but I had reason to believe that the next group, the Pfeifers, could do it. After all, they have been among the most positively received groups in Fresno since they began coming out here. One reason for this is their instrumental facility...when Candy Pfeifer and Mary Jane Carter accompany John Pfeifer's trumpet with their saxophones, they have an unusual big-band sound that is even more refreshing in this age of vocal stacks and predictable canned instrumental tracks. Plus, they have an engaging stage manner as well.

The Pfeifers did not match Greater Vision's set with the same power and finesse, but they were good once again...and John Pfeifer atoned for his earlier performance on the national anthem with a stirring rendition of what he introduced as "Danny Boy" but the group sang as the Dottie Rambo classic, "He Looked Beyond My Fault"(it's the same tune, you know). Again, the Pfeifers were no slouches...and again captivated the Fresno fans.

But then, the battle of songs really began.

The Booth Brothers followed, and they were on all cylinders, just firing off one dazzling performance after another, and on their next-to-last song, actually had audience members in the upper seats standing and clapping along. When they finished that song, they realized they still had five minutes on their time clock. Then the fun began...

They closed with a rousing(even for them)version of "I'm Feelin' Fine" that soon had the entire arena standing and rocking along to the beat. Even other suite holders were standing in their luxury boxes! Then, with their encore, they called every other group on the program to join them on stage for the song. It was extremely moving to see 15-20 singers on stage all joining the Booths on this gospel classic. The audience meanwhile, was coming unglued...in the suite next to ours, my friend Hugo Shirley(of the group Chosen Vision)and his friends were shouting "Amens" and "Glorys" and "Hallelujahs" as if they were in a church healing service. It was reminiscent of the days when the Blackwoods and Statesmen would join each other on stage in the old "Battles of Song" that the "team" promoted in the 1950s and 1960s(hence my Freudian slip at the top of this post). People were rocking in their seats and in the aisles...I haven't seen that in at least three years at a gospel concert!

Fortunately, it was intermission...a chance for all of us to catch our breath!:-)

I tried to circulate and socialize during the intermission, but I found it hard to make my way through the crowds of people flooding the aisles. This was a pleasant problem to have at a gospel concert...not being able to go where you wanted to go because of all the enthusiastic fans wanting to do the same thing!:-)

It was almost anticlimactic to have a second half after the Booths' set...how could you top that?

A new energy seemed to fill the Save Mart Center...everyone on the second half sang with emotion and added feeling...and there was plenty of testifying as well(not always appreciated during that kind of concert, I'm afraid).

The Pfeifers opened the second half with a swingy version of "Goodbye, World, Goodbye"....then Les Beasley and Claude Hopper came out to tell us that they'd be back again next year(YAY!).

Then came the Palmetto State Quartet to do a very emotion-filled and competent(if not spectacular)set. They were well-received, as they were last night.

Legacy Five was next...this would be their last night at the event. They're headed for San Diego in the morning, and based on how they performed duing the first two nights, I'll miss them tomorrow. Again, they seemed to turn up the temperature on their singing, as did everyone following the Booths. New pianist Tim Parton was spectacular on his keyboard work, he was even featured on a solo. The quartet wound up its' inspired final set joined by Jim Brady(of the Booth Brothers)on their hit "Truth Is Marching On".

On "Truth", Legacy Five was also joined by the Hoppers on their encore. Immediately after the song, video of Ronnie Hinson writing and singing his song "I'm Just Waiting For My Ride" with the Hoppers came on the big screen, and the Hoppers sang along with themselves. Connie Hopper(the classiest woman in gospel music)was then featured on the Nancy Harmon classic "I've Come Too Far", which the traditional loving crowd enjoyed immensely.

The Booths fired their grenade at the end of the first set, now it was up to the Hoppers to fire back.

And that they did...putting the video of "Shoutin' Time" on the screen...and singing along with it.

This kind of multimedia play baffles me...why do I want to watch the Hoppers sing on a video when they're right there in front of me, singing the exact same song? I'm not trying to be critical, I just think there's some unnecessary sensory overload at work here. In any case, the Hoppers did "Shoutin' Time" the way they always do...and you guessed it, soon the entire arena was standing and clapping along with them.

And like the Booths, the Hoppers encored the song again and again, and then called everyone who sang on the program to join them onstage to close the program...it was if they were saying, "Take that, Booth Brothers!"

There might be some that think that kind of thing is just a spectacle, but I didn't see anyone who didn't enjoy themselves and the singing as well. The singers seemed to really enjoy themselves, and fed off each other's energy all night.

There was not as much local or regional singing as there was Thursday, but from what I could gather, both fan and singer alike had the time of their lives tonight. I know I did.

Oh, almost forgot to mention, after the Palmetto State set, another vintage video was presented. This time it was the Statesmen with Jake Hess singing "I Believe In The Old-Time Way"(another JD Sumner song).

My highlights tonight? The incredibly warm reception for traditional quartet-style singing, the old fellow dancing to "Happy Rhythm", the Booth Brothers and Hoppers sets, and naturally, the King's Heralds a cappella wizardry.

I can hardly wait for tomorrow night's grand finale. Wish you could all be there with me.

Back with more then.

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