Southern Gospel Concerts

I attended an Imperials concert on Thursday night at the Top O’ The River Restaurant in Gadsden, Alabama.  As always, the food was great and the singing by The Imperials was excellent.  The venue is a difficult one for the singers because there is a very tiny space set aside for them and their equipment and it is an extremely difficult location for photographers because the lighting is terrible!  It is, after all, a restaurant not a concert hall. 

A local quartet named Unbroken performed four songs to open the concert including Gotta Go Back (Poet Voices), Dead Man Walking (Won By One), Anchored in the Rock (Kingdom Heirs), and Trying to Get a Glimpse (The Cathedrals).  

Perry Jones (tenor) was making his debut with The Imps and he a gave an impressive first performance.  He fits into the blend very nicely and unless you were told that it was his first performance, you probably wouldn’t have known it.   The rest of the group consists of baritone Jason Morales (Armond’s son), bass Ian Owens, and lead Scott Allen.  This is a very versatile group stylistically.  They sang mostly songs from their Back to the Roots CD which is mostly Southern Gospel but they did sprinkle in some of their contemporary songs.  They were very well received by the crowd. They even sang two songs after they had closed out their set because of crowd requests.  Here’s a partial list of what they sang. 

• No Shortage
• First Day in Heaven
• He Touched Me
• I Believe
• He’s Everything to Me
• Water Grave
• Because He Lives (this one got a standing ovation)
• Wrap My Arms Around the World
• Praise the Lord
• Arise, My Love
• We Have a Great Big, Wonderful God
• Closer Still