I arrived in Louisville around 2:45 PM, quickly checked in to my hotel, and dashed over to the East Wing by 3:15 PM hoping to catch the new Songfellows with Harold Gilley, Garry Sheppard, Tony Peace, and Nick Bruno joining Bob Jones. Unfortunately, I was fifteen minutes too late.

Showcases: I did catch the tail end of Sunday Edition’s last song (good song and a good sound, but over sung). I also heard Calvary’s Voice (they’re an excellent trio), Three Bridges (a bit shaky without their regular lead singer), Total Praise Quartet (very good SC based male quartet), and one of Forgiven’s songs.

Exhibit Hall: I checked out the quilt and met some folks from Southergospelforums.com at booth 1004. Robert York gave me one of his Coca-Cola cupcakes. A photo of me taking a bite may happen to show up later. Actually, I visited the 1004 booth twice. At 5:00 PM, the forums folks are gathering every day, so I went back by. I finally got to meet Jeff Foster who has been such a BLESSING as one of the editors at Musicscribe’s sister site, SGHistory.com. Also saw Dee Ann Bailey there and met Jaron Faulknor of Voices One.

At other spots in the Exhibit Hall throughout the night I also spoke with Jodi Hosterman, Mickey Gamble, Roger Talley, Eighth Day, Brad Strider and Greg Gainer of Mercy’s Well, the Perrys, the Crist Family, Danny Riley, Lottie Squires, Ben Harris (I’ll be back to chat more tomorrow, Ben!), my old pal David Stuart, and several others.

Main Stage: A choir of quartets opened tonight’s main stage performances…Brian Free & Assurance, the Dove Brothers, Gold City, and the Kingdom Heirs.

Gerald Wolfe then took the stage and led the crowd in a few hymns. This will happen every night except Saturday. It’s listed in the program book as Uncle Gerald’s Singing Bee. Also on the program for most nights is a “blazing piano” solo featuring a different player each night, “Frick & Frack” (Les Beasley and Claude Hopper reading announcements and telling jokes), and “Thanks For The Memories” (vintage video clips).

After the congregational sing-a-long, Louisville resident Larnelle Harris was introduced to say a word of welcome. He said Louisville loves it when NQC comes to town, because we spend a lot of money. He sang “Amen” and a medley. What a voice! I really like the way he communicates a song, but I’d also love to hear him stay close to the melody. He sang beside, below, above and beyond the melody tonight!

The Down East Boys sang several songs from their new CD.  They got the crowd going at the end of their set with “Living In Canaanland.”

The Skyline Boys, Soul’d Out and Priority all sounded good. Channing Eleton sat in on piano with the Skyline Boys. Priority in particular really connected with the crowd. They sang a song with just piano, which gave the drummer, Jordan LeFevre, nothing to do…so he came up on stage, grabbed his dad’s mic, and sang a verse. It was played for comedy and would have worked in that respect even if he was just a so-so singer, but he’s actually a good singer, which made it that much better.

Tim Lovelace sang “Don’t Sit In My Pew.”

Tonight’s “Thanks For The Memories” video featured the Statesmen.

Jeff Chapman was filling in for Brian Free & Assurance bass singer, JeremyLile. Lile’s father is at the point of death, so Lile is with his family. Please remember them in your prayers.

I was impressed again by the vocal tone of Dixie Echoes bass singer, Pat Barker. Tonight he sang “The Plan Of Salvation.” After the DE’s set, I roamed the Exhibit Hall for a while, missing sets by the Dixie Melody Boys, the Blackwood Brothers, and “Blazing Piano” with Jeff Stice. I had intended to get back in time to hear Triumphant, but I only caught part of their last song.

I DID hear Gold City, though. The NQC crowd was eager to hear Tim Riley, greeting him with a partial standing ovation when the group was introduced and again cheering eagerly later in the set when Daniel Riley introduced him. They sang a mixture of songs including “After Awhile” and “What Children Believe.” The full Band Of Gold wasn’t there tonight, but Roy Webb sat in on piano and regular Band Of Gold guitarist Daniel Addison was also on stage.

The Dove Brothers mostly sang songs from the new CD, including “He’s Gonna Smile On Me,” “A Little Good News,” and “Hold On.” They finished out with an abbreviated version of “Didn’t It Rain.”

Frick & Frack were next. Moving on…

The Kingsmen sounded great tonight. I was very impressed by their precision and their blend.

Ditto for the Kingdom Heirs. I’ve said it before and I’ll continue to say it. Arthur Rice is the best lead singer on the stage, and yes, I say that knowing that Michael English will be on the same stage later this week. The difference is that Rice sounds better than he’s ever sounded. English is still a major draw, but he has to strain now for notes that used to come to him easily. “The Rock’s Between The Hard Place And You” is such a great song to feature Arthur Rice, too.

The Inspirations were next. I was needing to get back to the hotel, but I stayed around for two of their songs. The two songs I heard them sing tonight are the best I’ve ever heard them sound. I absolutely enjoy the group from top to bottom now with the two young singers. Roger Fortner was playing bass tonight and a young kid was playing rhythm guitar. I left before hearing whether or not Myron Cook and Jack Laws made the trip this year.

After I took off, there were two groups left to go…Tribute and Legacy Five.

General Observations: The acoustics in Freedom Hall are still bad. No surprise there!

The sound men are doing better than they did last year…so far, anyway. Here’s the sort of thing that still blows my mind, though. Brian Lester introduced the Dixie Echoes using the Dixie Echoes’ mics. He checked both of them and made a joke about it, saying he wanted to be sure both were on before they came up to sing. A short video clip was then played showing Dale Shelnut and the old DEs singing “Trouble In My Way.” The group stepped up to the mics, began their first song, and yep, the mics were off! This makes no sense. What has improved, though, is that once a mic is turned on DURING a set, it stays on. At least they aren’t turning them off during songs this year…so far, anyway.

Throughout the evening, there were several points where multiple groups were on the stage. For example, when the Dove Brothers ended their set with “Didn’t It Rain,” they were joined by Gold City. The NQC crowd enjoys that sort of thing. I hope it isn’t done to the point where it becomes routine and expected after every two groups have sung, though. At a couple of points tonight, two or three groups started together, each group then sang their set, and they finished together again. The “special moment” quality of groups interacting might suffer if it’s going to happen five or six times every night.

I didn’t take the grand tour of the Exhibit Hall, but the booths appear to be close to sold out. The crowd in Freedom Hall also looked to be pretty good for a Monday night. NQC is alive and well.