averyfineline

As many of you have probably seen or heard, Matt Dibler, whose sexual misconduct forced his resignation from the Inspirations last year, took out (what some people thought appeared to be) a full-page ad in the most recent Singing News asking forgiveness for misbehavior that goes unspecified in the ad (it’s actually a full-page letter […]

For those of you curious about the partial return of the new old Gaither Vocal Band (sans Lowry), you might want to check out this reader report from a Homecoming concert posted in comments:
With the high tenor lead, they did some switching between Hampton and Phelps…and it was painfully clear that Bill would just point […]

I’ll be traveling most of this week so posting will be light. Talk amongst yourselves. In case you need some kindling:

A friend of mine in the industry texted me this the other night: “So…is EHSSQ the next casulty of Gaither’s ax of reinvention? just go tour with his new formed boy band?i mean when Bill […]

Several of the musical performances at the Lincoln Memorial Inaugural event yesterday were quite good, some of them astonishingly so (not least of all given the weather). If you didn’t see the whole thing, HBO has a free rebroadcast up online (which means you can skip the celebrity blather and the musical misfires like John […]

From Gail Collins on our soon-to-be-former president:
The man has been saying goodbye for so long, he’s come to resemble one of those reconstituted rock bands that have been on a farewell tour since 1982.
Hehe. And the kind of fate I hope the “new” Gaither Vocal Band avoids.

1. I’m inclined to agree with this commenter, who says that the thing to watch in this Vocal Band shake-up is the music they release. The press release hits the reunion album pretty hard, and of course you know my thoughts on what we’ve seen and heard so far from that. But even if you […]

So the Gaither Vocal Band is sending Marshall Hall packing (kinda surprising), making Guy Penrod’s hiatus permanent (no surprise there), and bringing back Michael English, Mark Lowry, and David Phelps to sing with Gaither and Wes Hampton. It’s being billed as revolutionary (a gospel quintet!), but it sure looks like an attempt to reboot an […]

New group … same-old habit of fleecing people (h/, H).
PS:  it’s worth the free registration at the Mountain Press to read about what Blackwood was up to before forming his new “super” quartet.
PPS: While we’re on this subject, it would be remiss of me not to note this story, which has been making the rounds […]

Longtime reader NG brought this clip to my attention. It’s Josh Garner, Jonathan Sawrie, Scoot Shelnut, and Gerald Williams doing “Standing by the River” at the 2007 GOGR:

The vocals are not without flaws and the recording quality is close to horrendous. And, too, regular readers will know that I would have preferred that Andrew Ishee […]

In a recent post, David Bruce Murray grapples with the age-old question: what makes you qualified to write a music review? Naturally, how anyone answers this question is going to implicitly defend the approach the writer himself takes (myself included; see below). Thus DBM, who has cornered the market on short reviews of sg - […]

I stumbled onto this gem of a book at a local Goodwill the other day.

Maybe this is old hat to most of you, but it was new and oh so kitschtastic to me (it’s going on the shelf next to my Singing in Tongues LP). I mean, color coordination between the accents on the cover […]

STUDENT (on cell phone leaving a building as I’m entering): “And I could feel my anger rising …”
ME (to myself): “Your anchor holds … and grips the solid …. ROCK!” … Be very sure … be verrrrryyyyyyyy sure …. Ok maybe I sang it out loud just a little.
Add it to the list.

David Bruce Murray flags the typo of the day from Ty Gilpin at Crossroads, who sent out a press release giving the Kingsmen a plague instead of a plaque. I’m sure there’s a joke in there somewhere about putting the Ty in typo but I’ll leave that aside for now. Instead, let me offer my […]

A list of bloggerly whines for the new year to which I assent wholeheartedly, save for No. 9, since my math skills suck.

Date: Friday, January 2
Location: Fort Myers, FL
Setting: Riverdale High School auditorium (which, judging by the temperature where I was sitting, doubles as a meat locker)
Average age guesstimate: 61
Occasion: Bill Bailey event, part of a package of concerts for snowbirds that Bailey puts on with these groups in Florida
Opening act: Bill Bailey. Who else? Artists must […]