Gaither —
Larknews.com has the scoop (h/t, Tom). The stage will be in the women’s clothing section and Bill Gaither promises a celebration of low prices and gospel favorites:
“For believers, coming to Wal-Mart is like coming home.”
Gloria Gaither may also read a poem over the store’s loudspeakers about cheap affordable grace.
I hadn’t heard of this novel before this commenter brought it up, and as so often happens in these kinds of things, I immediately started seeing references to it. Most recently: today’s New York Times includes a story about the way the novel bubbled up from obscurity to the bestseller list.
I haven’t read the book […]
Apropos our discussion of the Gaither Trio discographical madness, the ever insightful CVH writes:
What I’d like to see, aside from all the Gaither/Homecoming product released today, would be an extensive compilation, like a boxed set, of all the earlier recordings, with outtakes, alternate versions, etc. and extensive liner notes. Bill would have to write […]
So this conference I’ll be presenting at shortly has required me to (re)immerse myself in All Things Bill Gaither. Partly, this has involved rereading Gaither’s books, I Almost Missed the Sunset (1992), and It’s More Than Music (2003). Fortunately, they’re even easier to read the second time through.
Aside from the fact that […]
So as you’ve probably seen, Jason Crabb signed with Spring Hill. Brandon Coomer (whose avfl welcome to the blogosphere is long overdue) makes some salient points about the signing. David Bruce Murray follows up here.
First, I’m not sure why anyone would sign with a label that has a website as badly out of […]
Some stuff that might be of interest but doesn’t really warrant its own post:
-This time of year is when I get really behind on a lot of things that aren’t absolutely necessary. Which means, among things, I have a growing stack of music I need/want to listen to, including but not limited to the […]
Apropos our discussion of what a post-Gaither landscape might look like, longtime reader Ben Harris writes:
Maybe a better question would be who is going to take Gloria’s place? From all I have heard from people who were often on the Homecoming series, she was the one with the plan.
An excellent point. For […]
What will the world look like after Gaither leaves the scene? I have no idea, I should say, but in a way, we’re already post-Gaither. The thing about the world after Himself is that, given what he’s done to Chrisitian music generally and gospel music specifically, it’s no longer a question of (with apologies to […]
Kyle Boreing has an interesting post up about the rise of vocal stacks and the Gaither Vocal Band. It’s worth clicking over to just to hear the 1993 clip of Mark Lowry, Terry Franklin, and Michael English singing “Home.” The song barely rises above a whisper and still manages to be thoroughly electrifying even after […]
Roy Pauley’s June column in the Singing News has all the makings of an interesting read: “Gospel Music’s Biggest Blunders.” And indeed it’s arguably true that, as Pauley has it, prematurely parking the Gospel Singing Caravan and consistently inducting gospel greats into the hall of fame posthumously have lastingly diminished the long-term viability of gospel […]
Breaking news tonight: Hundreds of Homecoming friends record audienceless in front of selves, report best Gaither video ever. Up next: birds of a feather flock together, and flock, and flock, and flock, and flock, and flock, and flock, and flock, and flock, and flock, and flock, and flock. After that: methinks thou protesth too much. […]
A lot of you have been asking about the much ballyhooed Gaither Nashville taping this week. This was, you’ll recall, the Homecoming to beat all Homecomings, to which Gaither invited pretty much everyone in southern gospel. Evidently, it wasn’t loud enough for me to hear down here in Florida, but if you want to read […]
I don’t like to make a habit of pulling posts, but I’ve given this some thought and decided to yank the earlier reference that was here to Candy Christmas’s Bridge ministry. I should have done my research first and while the point I was trying to make is still worth making - the Gaither spotlight […]
Date: Thursday, January 25, 2007
Location: Fort Myers, FL
Setting: Germain Arena
Occasion: Gaither Homecoming Tour, part of a big swing through Florida to catch all the snowbirds
Average age guesstimate: 61
Opening act: The very funny Kevin Williams cracked not a single joke in the entire 10 minutes he stood on the stage playing a few hymns from […]
I hadn’t heard “I Bowed On My Knees” in a while, so this clip (via sgblognews) of English with the GVB back in the day was pretty amazing to revisit. The singing is simply in a class by itself, though perhaps at this point that goes without saying. In his prime (now long passed, alas), […]
I’ve been meaning to comment on this for a while but since it happened during my blog-free week at the end of last year, it has slipped my mind till now.
Perhaps you’ll remember that Chuck Peters and others carried news that an “upcoming Gaither Homecoming taping in Nashville will include an ‘A’ list of […]
No one will believe me when I say this, but it has been genuinely nice to see Ernie Haase learning the lessons of Bill Gaither’s strategic benefaction toward EHSSQ and paying it forward by playing Bill to the Ball Brothers’ Ernie (if this website is accurate, they’re still opening for EHSSQ these days). And obviously, […]
KB makes some asute observations about Give it Away and living (and listening) in the age of stracks:
My only beef is with the tracks. Gaither’s got a full band that appears to be playing everything the track is doing, why not just LET THE BAND PLAY?! The real reason is because the Vocal Band (at […]
I had a chance to see the full DVD of Give it Away this past weekend, and though I’m going to complain a bit about for a while (not least of all to retain my curmudgeonly bonafides and keep the interns from thinking I’m a softie), it’s pretty much engrossingly captivatingly good. Before I rhapsodize, […]
From one of our farflung correspondents:
Total meltdown at Gaither.com over the cancellation of Jubil…whatever in Memphis. Just a total meltdown. The issue is that no one from Gaither announced this and folks red it on The Singing News website and not on Gaither’s official site. The kids running the site apparently feel like those folks […]
