Southern Gospel Concerts

It’s usually fun to hear a group for the first time, especially if they are a group whose music you haven’t heard before.  That was the case for me when I heard Soul’d Out Quartet on July 20th in Lawrenceville, Georgia. The group’s baritone and bass guitar player, Tanner Stahl, posts fairly often on the Singing News forums, so I thought I would just go over and see what the group sounded like!  I got to the church during soundcheck and I enjoy seeing the guys before they get all dressed up for their performance.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that Dusty Barrett from the old Crystal River is singing tenor with them now.  At that point, Dusty and new pianist Michael Howard weren’t shown on their web site, but they are now.  

The group performed a good mix of old standards and original music.  I particularly liked the way they performed Boundless Love and their new songs,  He Is My Lamb and I’ve Been Saved.     Here is a link to a video of He Is My Lamb - my favorite of the evening.   And here’s a video of several more of their songs from that evening.  From reading the liner notes on the CD I bought (Ain’t Nobody), Matt Rankin (owner and lead singer) writes most of their new music. 

As a pianist, I also enjoyed hearing 19-year old Michael Howard.  I was very impressed with his abilities and I bought his solo CD.  The liner notes revealed that he did all of the piano arrangements on the CD.  There is a very wide variety of styles and instrumentation on the CD and I would encourage you to get it if you enjoy listening to piano music.  Michael and Tanner also had a bit of fun playing a duet of Goodbye, World Goodbye.

This is a group I definitely want to see again. 

I heard them for the first time yesterday (Sunday,August 17th) up in Galion Ohio, and totally agree with you Diana.
I showed up early and entered the church in time to hear Michael Howard praticing something, I think it was I’ll Fly Away. That young man blew me away. My only gripe is that during the majority of the concert, I couldn’t hear the piano over the live and stacked vocals. I”d see him hammering the piano like Matthew Holt or Anthony Burger, but couldn’t hear it. Regardless, the concert was great.
Tanner and Michael’s version of Goodbye World Goodbye is pratically the exact arrangment Anthony Burger did on the Kingsmen video “Live In Orlando”. Those two nailed it!
He Is My Lamb is…..well…….there’s really no words to describe how the Holy Spirit moves through that. One just have to go see them and hear the song to know what I mean.
Near the end of their set, they asked for all in the building to close their eyes and bow their heads during the alter call. At one point, I thought (mistakenly though) they were done with the invitation and were going into the dismissial, so I opened my eyes and looked up. I caught a glance of a group member at the alter praying with someone that came forward. I saw all night in the music, testimonies, and humor the real character of the men involved in Soul’d Out, but their guinine desire to minister was especially visiable in that moment. To me, that’s what southern gospel music is all about.
Way to go guys, stay genuine in the faith, and keep letting God use you as vessles like he did that night at Gospel Baptist. Continue to be Soul’d Out to Jesus.