Southern Gospel Concerts

For the last several years, promoter Robert York has been featuring Triumphant and Brian Free & Assurance in a Christmas concert at the Praise Tabernacle in Powder Springs, GA.  This year he also invited Voices Won, a trio of brothers from Dalton, Georgia.   Rather than waiting until the end, the groups all got together for an amusing opening number, a medley of songs called “Medley of Fun” from one of Triumphant’s Christmas albums, “We Need a Little Christmas.”     Here’s the video:

Voices Won (Jaron, Staclynn and Shantell Faulknor) brought along their pastor, Trey Starnes to play the keyboard for them.  Trey was once the pianist for a group called the Trailblazers and he really added to the program not only by playing but by having written one of the songs that was performed – Let’s Go to Calvary for Christmas.  They did a wonderful job on each song, but I’ve loaded videos of only their Christmas songs from this concert.   (I have quite a few videos of their other songs on my youtube channel.  Actually, except for Save Me a Place at the Table by Brian Free & Assurance that I feature later in this review, I am only uploading Christmas videos from each group.  I already loaded quite a few videos from each of these groups of most of the songs they sang tonight.)

Here’s what they sang:

• Tell Your Story – I love the way they start their concerts with this song – challenging us to witness to those around us.
• Sometimes When the Wind Blows
• Knowing You
• Fishing Trip – Jaron wrote this really catchy song also with a witnessing theme.
• Let’s Go to Calvary for Christmas
  
• The Christmas Song
• Merry Christmas, Mary
• Guess What Zacchaeus Found
• He Came to Me – This is probably not the song you’re thinking about!  Written by Jeff Bumgardner, this song is from their newest album, Something for Everyone

Brian Free and Assurance was next and they began their program with an a capella song, There Is a Kingdom Coming.  I’ve seen them sing this song from their newest CD, Worth It, but this is the first time I’ve seen the special microphone they use to pick up all of the voices as they sing in a huddle.    The microphone worked great!  Former group baritone, Derrick Selph, came to see his old buddies and it was very nice to see him.

Many of us will remember Jeremy Lile’s performance of Save Me a Place at the Table on the NQC main stage following the death of his father.  In this video clip he introduces the song himself and relates what it means to him.

Here’s what they sang:

• There is a Kingdom Coming
• I Keep Looking Up
• Go Tell the World
• Die Another Day
• Praying Man
• Have a Little Talk with Jesus
• Sheltered in the Arms of God
• Save Me a Seat at the Table
• For God So Loved
• Long As I Got King Jesus
• Do You Hear What I Hear
• Christmas Shoes
• A Strange Way to Save the World
• You Must Have Met Him
• Jesus Will Pick You Up

Triumphant gave us their usual strong performance!   I would characterize their set as a few songs from their newest album, several of their most popular songs (3 of them have been nominated for song of the year), and some really wonderful Christmas tunes!

Here’s what they sang:  (songs with asterisks are from the Grammy-nominated album, Everyday)

• Amazed at the Change*
• Everyday*
• Jesus Built This Church*
• Don’t Let the Sandals Fool Ya
• The Great I Am Still Is  – with an a capella reprise after a standing ovation
• What a Wonderful Day*
• Goodbye, World, Goodbye
• Jesus Is Born Today
• Sunday Go to Meeting Medley
• The Old White Flag
• Deck the Halls – Here’s a cute version of the song played by Jeff Stice
• Hallelujah Chorus
• Hallelujah
• Hope Has Hands – quite possibly the most beautiful Christmas song ever written!!
• Mary, Did You Know?
• Jesus Is Lord - blurry video but the sound is too good not to upload!

Here’s a picture of the elf that Santa was supposedly looking for during the opening number of the concert!   Scotty Inman and his wife Kasey were dressed for Triumphant’s costume party in October of this year.  The Triumphant guys and their ladies know how to have fun!

Edit 12/9/09 —- On a more serious note, Voices Won has a blog where they post frequently.  I thought I would pass the link to this particular entry along to my readers since it is so timely.  Please check it out and feel free to reply to them.