A Homecoming Celebration
Tom Fettke
Arranger: Tom Fettke
Orchestrator: Dave Williamson
Publisher: Praise Gathering Music
Group Producer: Tom Fettke
Song Titles: "The Old Country Church," "Shall We Gather At The River," "Sweet By And By," "Leaning On The Everlasting Arms," "Redeemed," "Written In Red," "O The Blood Of Jesus," "The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power," "Down To The River To Pray," "Gentle Shepherd," "We're Marching To Zion," "Freedom Band," "We Will Stand," "Upon This Rock," "He Touched Me," "My God Is Real," "Standing On The Promises," "Promises One By One," "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus," "Daystar (Shine Down On Me)," "What A Lovely Name," "His Name Is Life," "There's Something About That Name," "My Savior's Love," "Boundless Love," "The King Is Coming," "Midnight Cry," "I Believe In A Hill Called Mount Calvary," "It's Still The Cross," "Jesus Is Lord Of All," "Above All," "Come On, Children, Let's Sing," "Praise Him! Praise Him!," "Amazing Grace," "Come, Thou Fount Of Every Blessing," "Sweet Beulah Land," "Until Then," "As With Gladness Men Of Old," "Beautiful Star Of Bethlehem," "Face To Face," "We Shall See Jesus," "Every Eye Shall See," "Gone," "Because He Lives," "Lamb Of Glory," "Worthy The Lamb," "Known Only To Him," "God Sits On High," "The Solid Rock," and "Cornerstone."
The new choral collection by Tom Fettke titled A Homecoming Celebration features 21 medley arrangements that include a grand total of 50 song titles. Pretty impressive for a 144 page book.
Several years ago, Praise Gathering released a collection called Southern Convention Songbook that used the original Homecoming series tracks. I had hoped A Homecoming Celebration would adopt a similar approach, but instead, these tracks are new simplified versions. The tracks are good quality, don't misunderstand. They're just more on a basic level compared to the tracks used for these tunes on the Homecoming videos.
One drawback to this book is the way the medley format is implemented. On songs that have multiple verses, you're only given the verse that's part of the medley. For example, on "Written In Red," only the first verse is printed in the book. There's no reason why the second verse couldn't have been printed in the book as an option for performance with church musicians.
Which brings us to the medleys themselves . . . aside from "The Old Country Church," these arrangements aren't true medleys. Rather than transitioning from one song to the next smoothly, each song comes to an end, pauses, then proceeds to the intro for the next song. It feels awkward to sing "Marching To Zion," end it with a flourish, wait for a couple seconds of silence, and then go into the intro to "Freedom Band."
Before you get the idea that I'm totally against A Homecoming Celebration , allow me to note a number of postive aspects about this release. I like the fact that the vocal arrangements are very easy. This makes the music very approachable for less accomplished choirs that want to sing the same songs they've heard on the Gaither videos.The spiral binding is also a nice touch on a 144 page book. In addition to the choral book and the CD accompaniment, Praise Gathering offers options like orchestrations and a keyboard accompaniment book that doubles as a soloist edition. Listening versions on cassette and CD are also available. The sheer number of songs in this collection (50) is also a mark it its favor.
I would recommend A Homecoming Celebration to small church choirs who don't have the time or musical ability to learn more challenging arrangements. My overall rating for this product is 3 stars, which is about average. I'd suggest Fettke's Highway To Heaven collection as a preferable alternative. It shares all the advantages . . . easy vocal parts, spiral binding, Homecoming standards, medley format . . . and none of the drawbacks. It just lacks the Gaither name and the Homecoming association in the title. Highway To Heaven is published by Lillenas.
Rating: 3 stars
--- by David Bruce Murray