Dave's Top Eight

1. Jerry Reed...Revisited by Darrell Toney (reviewed 6/07) (5 Stars)
2. Sounds Like Sunday by Janet Paschal (reviewed 5/07) (5 Stars)
3. True To The Call by Kingdom Heirs (reviewed 3/07) (4 1/2 Stars)
4. Revival by Gold City (reviewed 10/06) (4 1/2 Stars)
5. Get Away Jordan by Ernie Haase & Signature Sound (reviewed 2/07) (4 1/2 Stars)
6. Breakin' Chains by Three Bridges (reviewed 5/07) (4 1/2 Stars)
7. Big Sky by The Isaacs (reviewed 4/07)
8. Skywriting by Mercy's Well (reviewed 7/07)

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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March 24, 2007

Concert Report: Oak Ridge Boys

Here's a set list for the Oak Ridge Boys concert I attended in Johnson City, TN on Friday, March 23.

1. You're The One In A Million
2. Come On In
3. American Made
4. Dig A Little Deeper In The Well
5. Crying Again
6. A Little Love Song
7. This Crazy Love
8. Dream On
9. Something In The Water
10. Dream On Me
11. Hard To Be Cool In A Minivan
12. Y'all Come Back Saloon
13. Ozark Mountain Jubilee
14. Leaving Louisiana In The Broad Daylight
15. Calling Baton Rouge
16. Beautiful You
17. Thank God For Kids
18. Glory Bound
19. Didn't It Rain
20. Jonah, Job, and Moses
21. Angels Watching Over Me
22. Heaven's A Small Town
23. Closer To Home
24. Elvira
25. Heaven Bound

Freedom Hall Civic Center was not sold out...the floor was probably two thirds full, while the upper levels were only a fourth full at most...the place seats 6600, so it was still a decent crowd. Tickets on the lower level were $36 a pop...$26 in the upper deck. This is a very fair price, in my opinion, but I suspect numbers like these would give the average Southern Gospel fan a mild stroke. NASCAR being in Bristol, TN (just north of Johnson City) this weekend probably didn't help matters.

The Mighty Oaks Band consists of six members...a keyboard specialist, three guitar players, a drummer, and a utility player who switched from steel to fiddle to mandolin to guitar. Joe Bonsall also picked a banjo some, though you could never really hear it in the mix. There was a light show...nothing fancy, but adequate.

The four Oaks exude stage presence. Bonsall is all over his part of the stage. Duane Allen is more reserved, but still quite expressive with his body language when a song calls for it. All William Lee Golden has to do is stand there. He delights the crowd with a sort of rough shuffle dance on a couple of songs. He begins the concert wearing shades and a hat, but soon loses the shades. Richard Sterban uses his hands to spell out each phrase he sings...not literally, just figuratively...he wasn't doing ASL. The group works the mics on stands and off. Bonsall completely inverts his mic stand at one point, singing into the mic while he holds the base of the stand five feet in the air over his head.

Songs come in rapid fire fashion, one right after another. Bonsall acknowledges the crowd after three songs, then they deliver eight more in a row, including three cuts from their current CD, Front Row Seats. At this point, Bonsall tells of their struggles as a group when they were first getting started in mainstream music during the mid-1970s. This leads into their initial hit song from 1977, "Y'all Come Back Saloon."

A bit later, they pause to sign a pink guitar for a nine year old girl, with Bonsall saying, "We're only stopping the concert to sign this guitar because you're so cute." The crowd eats this moment up. Bonsall pauses at another point to talk about their satellite TV reception on their bus. He says the fact that you can watch TV while moving down the road will probably keep them traveling another ten years. He says, "Alabama retired...the Statler Brothers retired...we bought a new bus!"

After a few more classic songs, "Thank God For Kids" transitions the concert into gospel territory...well, sort of...the title of "Glory Bound" is deceiving. After that, they do three gospel songs in a row: "Didn't It Rain" and "Jonah, Job And Moses" from their Front Row Seats project and "Angels Watching Over Me" from From The Heart. "Heaven's A Small Town" shifts back to a secular focus, leading into the ending segment of the concert with "Closer To Home" and "Elvira" (which brings most of the crowd to their feet). After "Elvira," the Boys close with an up-tempo gospel song called "Heaven Bound." The house lights come up. The Boys remain on the stage. The fans come up to the stage, and begin shaking their hands. The concert is over. I look at my watch, and it's only 9:15 PM. The concert started at 7:30. They've sung 25 songs in an hour and 45 minutes.

Thinking about the concert in general, I thought the mix could have been better. The music mix was somewhat muddy and the vocals weren't boosted enough in some spots. That being said, we were in a large basketball arena, so you have to expect this sort of thing. Overall, it was a great show...a truly professional show...something I don't get to see often enough in Southern Gospel.

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posted by David Bruce Murray @ 1:19:00 AM


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