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Dave's Top Eight
1. Jerry Reed...Revisited by Darrell Toney (reviewed 6/07) (5 Stars) Click title to purchase at CBD.com...click artist name to read Dave's Review. A CD will automatically fall out of the Top Eight after twelve months if no CD surpasses it before then.
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Most Recent Articles
Why blog? (Three years and counting)
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-----------July 29, 2005Isaacs Biography The Isaacs The Isaacs began as a family bluegrass group during the 1970s. Lily Fishman Isaacs has a Jewish background. Her parents married at the end of World War II. Her father had been forced to serve in a German labor camp and her mother had been confined to a concentration camp during the war. After Lily was born in Germany, the Fishmans immigrated to New York. When Lily grew up, she began singing as half of a folk duo called Lily and Maria. They released an album for Columbia in 1968. She also performed on the off-Broadway theatre circuit. Joe Isaacs was playing with a group called the Greenbriar Boys when he met Lily Fishman at Gerdes Folk City, a New York City hotspot. The two were married in 1970. One journalist commented that the unlikely match was analogous to “Ralph Stanley joining Joan Baez.” Lily and Joe became Christians in 1971 after attending the funeral of Joe’s brother and hearing the gospel message that was presented. She now describes herself as a “completed Jew.” After Lily’s conversion, the couple quit performing in nightclubs and began singing exclusively in church settings. Their children Ben, Sonya, and Becky were born between 1972 and 1975. During those years, Joe had a group called the Calvary Mountain Boys. He later headed a group billed as Joe Isaacs and the Sacred Bluegrass. This group was together until 1986. Early on, the three Isaacs children recorded a project billing them as the Isaacs Trio. They were laughingly referred to as the Chipmunks at the time, due to their high harmonies. As they matured, the three Isaacs children began singing from time to time with their father’s group and appearing on a local cable access network. They re-billed themselves The Isaacs in 1986 with the three children now full-fledged group members. Their music was bluegrass, but their vocals were more akin to Southern Gospel, and so they began to have moderate success in both genres. In the early 1990s, the group’s popularity grew considerably. They were invited to appear on the Gaither Homecoming videos and were an instant hit. Joe and Lily would ultimately divorce, but Lily continued to perform with the family group. The song “I Have A Father” came very close to being a number one hit for the Isaacs on the Singing News charts. Their next single was “From The Depths Of My Heart.” It did reach number one and it held the position for three months in the summer of 1993. Rebecca married John Bowman in 1994, and John joined the group to play guitar and banjo. Tim Surrett also married into the family and joined the group on the road for several years playing dobro and other instruments. He and Sonya ultimately divorced, after which Surrett returned to sing with the Carolina Boys/Kingsmen. Sonya Isaacs released a self-titled project on the Lyric Street label in 2000 that was aimed at the mainstream Country market. Vince Gill produced several tracks and it was critically acclaimed. Isaacs also toured some with Gill as a backup singer and featured vocalist around this time. A follow up project with Lyric Street was planned in 2004, but the label first floated a single to radio to test the waters. “No Regrets Yet” peaked at #36 on the Billboard charts in February 2004, but the label and Isaacs parted ways a couple months later with the second recording left unfinished. Meanwhile in 2003, the Isaacs joined the Homecoming Tour full time and saw another song hit number one on the Southern Gospel charts, “Stand Still,” co-written by Sonya and Rebecca. The group released a CD titled Heroes in the summer of 2004. Labels: biography July 27, 2005Legacy V Biography Legacy Five(1999-present) Roger Bennett and Scott Fowler were members of the Cathedrals together from the time Fowler joined the group in 1990. The two men formed a friendship and became business partners, producing recordings for up and coming groups when they weren’t touring. When the Cathedrals completed their “Farewell Tour” in 1999, Fowler and Bennett formed a new group, hiring Glen Dustin (bass), Josh Cobb (tenor), and Scott Howard (baritone). In light of their heritage with the Cathedrals, they adopted the name Legacy Five. Highly acclaimed in 2000 with songs like “I Stand Redeemed” and “Stepping Out On The Water” from their Strong In The Strength recording, the readers of the Singing News responded by nominating all three of Legacy Five’s new faces as Horizon Individuals. (Bennett and Fowler weren’t eligible.) Josh Cobb won the award, but he and the group parted ways two days later. The group also won in the Horizon Group category that year. Tony Jarman was ultimately chosen to replace Cobb. Legacy Five followed up their debut with the recordings Heroes Of The Faith and London. The latter is reminiscent of the Cathedrals project Symphony Of Praise in that it mixes Southern Gospel vocal harmonies with a philharmonic orchestra. This release produced the group’s first number one single, “I Found Grace,” which topped the chart in September of 2003. Jarman resigned from the group to pursue a solo career in 2004, and was replaced at tenor by Frank Seamans, a former member of The Sound, the same group that brought Scott Fowler to the attention of the Cathedrals. Legacy Five released a project titled Monuments in 2004. See also: Discography, Members Labels: biography July 24, 2005Janet Paschal Biography Janet PaschalJanet Paschal joined the LeFevres in the mid-1970s, first appearing on the 1975 recording titled Experience...The LeFevres. She made the name change transition (from the LeFevres to the Rex Nelon Singers) with the group after Eva Mae LeFevre’s departure in 1977. The group released a recording called Feelings in 1979 and saw their single ”Come Morning” hit the number one position on the Singing News chart for the months of June, August, and October in 1980. Another popular tune that featured Paschal with the Nelons was “We Shall Wear A Robe And Crown” from the 1980 Expressions Of Love release. After leaving the Nelons in the early 1980s, Paschal ultimately embarked on a solo career. Her initial solo release was on the Shiloh label in 1986, titled I Give You Jesus. By 2004, she had added ten more releases to her solo discography. Paschal’s success as a soloist came in the Inspirational market. “God Will Make A Way,” “Another Soldier’s Coming Home,” and “Written In Red” are just of few of the songs for which Paschal is well known. Seven of her singles have reached the Top Ten on the Inspirational chart, including the 1990 number one hit, “Take These Burdens.” Labels: biography July 23, 2005Nelons Biography The Nelons(1977-present) The Rex Nelon Singers were formed in 1977 from the remnants of the LeFevres. The name of the group was ultimately shortened to “The Nelons.” Original group members included Rex Nelon (bass), Kelly Nelon (alto for the LeFevres since 1972), Rodney Swain (tenor), and Janet Paschal (soprano). The group’s first recording for the Canaan label in 1977 was titled The Sun’s Coming Up. A live recording followed in 1978 which included a song written and performed by Rex Nelon called “I Love To Call His Name.” In 1980, a song from the group’s 1979 recording Feelings became the Nelons’ first number one song on the Singing News chart. “Come Morning” actually hit the top position three times in non-consecutive months, which is rare. After Janet Paschal’s departure from the group in the early 1980s, Karen Peck became the soprano for the Nelons. Jerry Thompson married Kelly Nelon and began singing with the group as well. The group would enjoy a successful run of popularity with Peck and Thompson. Four songs that are now considered Nelons classics all came from a 1983 project titled We Shall Behold The King. Those songs are “We Shall Behold The King,” “When I Receive My Robe And Crown,” “Oh, For A Thousand Tongues,” and “Walk Right Out Of This Valley.” For the rest of the 1980s, the Nelons sang in a style that came to be labeled “middle of the road.” They were more progressive than most Southern Gospel groups of the time, but they weren’t full blown contemporary in style, certainly not compared to other vocal groups of the day like Second Chapter of Acts or the Imperials. Songs like “God’s Way Up,” “Don’t Give Up” and “Thanks” attracted a younger audience while tunes like “The Sweetest Song” continued to appeal to traditional Southern Gospel fans. By the early 1990s, Peck had left the group to form New River. The singing members of the Nelons were all relatives for a couple of years with Rex and Kelly joined by Todd Nelon and Kelly’s husband Jerry Thompson. Another Nelons song reached number one on the Singing News chart in 1992. The song was “I’m Glad I Know Who Jesus Is.” 1992 also began a series changes for the group. At a couple of points, there was a question of whether the group would continue. Jerry and Kelly left the group to pursue a vocal duo career around this time. Rex considered retirement at the time, but discovered a young talent in Charlotte Penhollow and carried on. Jerry and Kelly subsequently returned to the group in 1993. Amy Roth began singing soprano for the group in 1997. Jerry Thompson and Kelly divorced around this time, and Thompson left the group. The group then went through a number of personnel changes. David Hill was with the group for one CD, as was Paul Lancaster. Ultimately, Kelly married the group’s bass player Jason Clark, who began singing with the group. Jason’s father Dan Clark joined the group to sing bass and Kelly’s daughter Amber Thompson became the group’s soprano in 2002, making it a group with all the members related once more (though three of them now had the last name of Clark). Dan came off the road in 2003 and the Nelons subsequently became a trio consisting of Jason, Kelly, and Amber. The Nelons have won five Dove Awards, including four for best Southern Gospel Album. Kelly Nelon received seven Singing News Fan Awards in the categories of Favorite Female Vocalist and Favorite Alto between 1980 and 1990. See also: Nelons Discography, Rex Nelon Biography Labels: biography July 11, 2005Videt Polk Biography Polk, Videt Richard(1919-2002) Videt Polk was a noted singer, teacher and songwriter who lived in Baton Rouge, LA. There’s a street named after him in Baton Rouge. Polk served as president of several singing conventions, including the TriState Singing Convention for a period of 47 years and the Arkansas-Texas Singing Convention for 25 years. He was also president of the National Singing Convention for five years. Polk was in charge of the Jimmie Davis homecoming event for 20 years and was a co-owner of Stamps Baxter Music Co. Some of the gospel singing events Polk held at the Governor’s Mansion in Louisiana drew as many as 50,000 people. Polk published and compiled a number of gospel songbooks for Stamps-Baxter and Zondervan/Benson. He also wrote numerous articles on the subject of gospel music. He co-wrote several songs with Bobby Burnett. Their most popular song is the 1958 children’s praise chorus “God Is So Good.” Polk co-wrote a book with Mrs. J. R. (Clarice) Baxter in 1971 titled Gospel Song Writers Biography. Labels: biography July 4, 2005SG History Quiz
The quiz is currently being reset with new questions. Congrats to JCH, Robbie Maxwell, Cliff Cerce, Chris Unthank, skiprob, and a number of others who got all 40 questions correct.
-----------I'll try to make the next one more difficult. It looks like I'm going to have to find some different software for creating the quiz, though. The software I used initially won't let me reset the high scores. Labels: History July 3, 2005It's Ballot TimeClick over to Sgnscoops.com to vote in the Diamond Awards this year. The deadline for voting is July 8, but you can vote online.
If you are a Singing News subscriber, you have until July 15 to get your ballot to them...the ballot doesn't say "postmarked by," it says "must be in" their office...so for all practical purposes, you need to vote and drop that in the mail by July 8 if you haven't already done so. Who got my votes? Diamond Awards 1. JD SUMNER LIVING LEGEND AWARD - Chris Freeman (I'm not a huge fan of Freeman's singing style, but she definitely has all the characteristics of a living legend. All the other nominees are deserving as well, but all the others have been widely recognized in the past. Because of that fact, Freeman is the most appropriate choice for this award, IMO. We've recognized Southern Gospel's "golden age" of artists over and over for years now. It's high time to start recognizing some from our "silver age.") 2. INSTRUMENTALIST - Channing Eleton 3. GROUP - The Crabb Family (This has been their year...no doubt about that.) 4. CHRISTIAN COMEDIAN - Mark Lowry 5. TRIO - Greater Vision 6. BLUEGRASS ARTIST - Jeff and Sheri Easter (I voted for them hoping they'd win and in doing so, create an uproar, because they are NOT bluegrass artists by any stretch of the imagination. They might do a bluegrass song from time to time, but they are firmly in the country genre by any reasonable estimate.) 7. DUET - The McCraes (It's interesting that there are more well known comedians connected to SG than there are duet acts. There's some genuine unknowns in contention for this award.) 8. SUNRISE - Mercy's Mark Quartet 9. SOLOIST - Mark Bishop 10. WEBSITE - Sogospelnews.com (Now really...who did you THINK I was going to vote for in this category? :o)) 11. MALE VOCALIST - Guy Penrod 12. VIDEO - Walk The Talk 13. FEMALE VOCALIST - Lauren Talley 14. SONG - "Even In The Valley" 15. SONGWRITER - Kyla Rowland (I'm tired of seeing this category dominated by well known artists. Not that they don't deserve recognition for their skills, but so many good songs are written by songwriters who aren't part of a major traveling group.) 16. ALBUM - Driven Singing News Fan Awards 1. SYNDICATED RADIO - Gospel Greats 2. LARGE DJ - Ken Hicks of WUSY (carrying on my tradition of voting for any man who is secure enough in his masculinity to work for a station called "wussy" :o)) 3. MEDIUM DJ - Jerry Edgil of WBTG (carrying on my tradition of voting for the DJ with the most unusual name) 4. SMALL DJ - Beecher Hyde of WAVU (see Medium DJ comment) 5. MALE SINGER - Arthur Rice 6. FEMALE SINGER - Susan Whisnant 7. YOUNG ARTIST - Eric Phillips 8. HORIZON INDIVIDUAL - Josh Feemster 9. HORIZON GROUP - Mercy's Mark 10. FIRST TENOR - David Sutton 11. LEAD SINGER - Arthur Rice 12. BARITONE - Mark Trammell 13. BASS - Eric Bennett 14. ALTO - Debra Talley 15. SOPRANO - Charlotte Ritchie 16. SOLOIST - Mark Bishop 17. TRIO - Greater Vision 18. MIXED QUARTET - Crabb Family 19. MALE QUARTET - Triumphant 20. PIANIST - Channing Eleton 21. MUSICIAN - Tim Surrett 22. BAND - Gold City 23. VIDEO - Church In The Wildwood 24. ALBUM - Tribute To Mosie Lister 25. SONGWRITER - Mosie Lister 26. SONG - "I Know I'm Going There" 
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