Southern Gospel Concerts

As a fairly new Southern Gospel music fan, I had not attended any of the Mull Singing Convention concerts.  This one on Saturday, June 28, was in the theater of the New Hope Church (the former Lee Greenwood Theater) in Sevierville, TN. It was a large, comfortable venue, but what is it with smoke machines?  Can someone explain to me what the value of fog on the stage is?  Anyway, the featured artists were The Roarks, The Booth Brothers, Ivan Parker, and The Hoppers.

First up were The Roarks.  I had seen this group once before in a multi-artist concert.  They are a family trio of mother, father, and son with the strongest member of the group (in my opinion) being the son, Shane.  I think that most people would recognize their single “There Is a God.” They have a country sound and they even performed a song named something like “I Want Jesus as My Number One Fan” that Shane wrote about how he’d rather sing gospel than country music.  This group was enjoyable, but I’ll admit to being more anxious to hear the other artists that were on the program.

The Booth Brothers were up next and were my favorites of the evening.  They started out with a Mosie Lister song, Where No One Stands Alone.  Very few groups can match the smoothness of their sound and harmony.  They sang many of their most popular songs - Look for Me at Jesus’ Feet, Hallelujah Meeting, I Would (from Ronnie’s solo CD), The Secret Place (from Michael’s solo CD), Tears Are a Language, He Saw It All, The Eyes of Jesus, I’ve Been Changed, The Night Before Easter, Castles in the Sand, and Still Feelin’ Fine.  The Booth Brothers do an excellent job of featuring each of their members on very special songs that let the audience fully appreciate their vocal abilities while very strongly getting the message across.  Michael even sang the chorus of The Secret Place a-capella very slowly after the track ended to present the message just one more time.

Next on stage was Ivan Parker.  My favorites of the night were The Grace that I’m Under, I Choose, and the old Gold City standards When I Get Carried Away and The Midnight Cry.  He also performed God Bless he USA and I wondered how it felt to him to be singing that particular song in the former Lee Greenwood Theater!  He also performed his current single from his new “Inseparable” CD, You Can’t Take My Crown, which hasn’t quite grown on me yet!   On the second part of the program, Ivan also brought out Kim and Dean to join him on What a Lovely Name.

The Hoppers did a great job with songs like Yaweh, Marriage of the Lamb, Grace Will Always Be Greater Than Sin, I’m Just Waiting for My Ride (with the video —- not my personal favorite!), I’ve Come Too Far to Look Back, Jerusalem and Shouting Time.  On the second part of the program, I really enjoyed their performance of God Already Knew with Karlye being featured on one verse and Michael joining in on the vocals as well.  And then, little Lexie - not to be outdone by big sis - ran across the stage!  I’m a sucker for kids doing cute things, so I really enjoyed it!

It was a great evening of Southern Gospel music and I’ll plan to attend another Mull concert as soon as I can!

“Smoke” on stage is usually created using dry ice. It has at least two purposes.

1. Dry ice lowers the temperature, which benefits the performers who have to stand under hot lights.
2. The effect adds a sense of dimension to the lighting.

Thanks, David! That’s nice to know.