Oh, wow! The concert was so awesome!!! :D Sorry I'm just now getting on to do a report, but things have been crazy. I don't have pictures yet; my mom is going to have to e-mail them to me. Hopefully I'll have them up soon!
Throughout this "concert report", I've made the song titles links to YouTube videos of that song...not from the Wichita Falls concert, though. So they aren't exactly the way we heard them Saturday night, but they're pretty close! :D Also, this list of songs is NOT comprehensive; I can't remember every song everybody sang. :D
We just barely got to the coliseum in time, but we did manage to find our seats just as Rory Rigdon finished the announcements and the music got started. Rory is the Gaithers' soundman and part of the comedy duo known as "Kevin and Rory"...more on them later!
We were pretty far up in the balcony, so for the most part we didn't take pictures during the concert. I think Mom took a few towards the end of the first part, though. The concert was split into two parts; can't really call them "halves" because the second part was considerably shorter than the first!
"The guys", as we like to refer to the Gaither Vocal Band and Ernie Haase & Signature Sound singers, came out singing Holy Highway (minus a lead singer for the GVB). The seven of them sang a few songs:
Love is Like a River, Swing Down Chariot, and Sweet, Sweet Spirit are the ones I remember. After a couple of songs, Bill paused to say "hello, Texas", and then he announced, "I'm Bill Gaither, and I'm running for president!" :D Kevin Williams, the guitarist and main funny-man, said, "Everyone else has, I think you should!" They kept the "president" joke running throughout the evening.
Gordon Mote and Janet Paschal each did their "set" next--Janet sang God Will Make a Way (one of my favorite songs she does!), It Won't Rain Always, and one other one I can't remember the name of. Gordon sang "Good Old Gospel Ship", Wake Up Dancing, and one I'd never heard before that was awesome, Don't Miss the Glory!
After the two of them, Signature Sound sang. They were in great form (as usual)! Tim was wearing his GREEN shoes, and Ryan had on his suit jacket with the bright green squiggly mark on the back. Again, I don't remember everything they sang, but here's some of the ones they did (in no particular order):
Reason Enough
My Heavenly Father Watches Over Me
Then Came the Morning
Good Heart (with the last part of the last verse of Away in a Manger)
Since Jesus Passed By Tim's solo...gotta love that big, deep bass voice! :D
Old Landmark They played this clip from the Dream On video during this song!
My Heart is a Chapel This clip doesn't have real great sound quality, but it's what I could find!
Old Fashioned Meeting We love the intro to this song! Some of it you can catch on the video clip, but the very first part isn't on there. Ernie is introducing the song, which Ryan is going to sing, and he asks Ryan, "Do you remember those old campmeeting days, Ryan, with the tent revivals and all?" Ryan says, "No, not really." So Ernie asks him, "What year were you born?" Ryan says, "1979." Ernie pauses, then says, "Ryan is going to sing you a song about something he knows nothing about." :D Then Ryan starts singing--"Oh, how well I remember..." and that's where the YouTube clip picks up, you really ought to watch, it is SO funny. :D
The guys did such an awesome job, of course. I LOVE all those songs, but I think Then Came the Morning would have to be a favorite; it's so awe-inspiring and majestic, and it sounds even better LIVE than on CD or DVD. Reason Enough is also rapidly becoming one of my favorites, as is Good Heart. When Ernie puts his hand on each of the guys' chest while he sings, it's so sweet! :D
Then David Phelps came out singing End of the Beginning, and the crowd went wild! I think they like David...later, somebody in the crowd yelled "We love you, David!" :D He did a great job with the GVB (Gaither Vocal Band), though for the most part he sang the tenor part and Wes and Marsh traded off singing Guy's part. On these clips, keep in mind that none of the combinations are going to be what we heard Saturday night since Guy wasn't there, and some of them are from videos, etc. far enough back that they have totally different GVB members! The GVB sang:
Alpha and Omega This clip has the GVB when it was David-Guy-Russ (Taff)-Bill
Jesus and John Wayne This kind of surprised us, since it is one that is rather definitely "Guy's song"...Marsh did a tremendous job on it, though!
Journey to the Sky Poor Marsh...he started this song at least 3 times, but every time he got to the part where it's supposed to speed up and the other guys join in, Bill or Kevin would start talking. :D Oh, and at one point David, Wes, and Marsh were snapping their fingers and moving their hands real fast with the beat, and Bill "couldn't" keep up...it was funny! Some of the comedy you just had to be there to see... :D
Give It Away We got to shout "Give it away!" with the guys on the chorus; you should have heard Amber and I, waaaaay up in the balcony, yelling our throats sore. :D
Let Freedom Ring I never compare Wes and David, being perfectly content to leave it at "they both have GREAT voices and I love to listen to them both", but this is one song that I just don't think would be the same without David. And we were so thrilled to hear them do it!!! One of our favorite GVB songs of all time...
Always A Place at the Table That clip just has the recording of "Always a Place" with a slideshow of random pictures; if you want to see Wes sing it, you can watch this one that was taped at a solo concert Wes did. He does SUCH a great job on this song! :D
The Love of God Bill said, "I love this...I have two tenors tonight, I can wear them out!" :D And Wes and David traded around on the chorus of this beautiful song.
I know they sang at least one more, because there was one we didn't know; I remember it was good, but I can't remember what it was called.
All of this was interspersed with Kevin and Rory's hilarity, of course! When Bill was doing the "sales pitch", Rory was holding up the stuff as it was mentioned and Kevin called him "a regular Vanna White". :D Those two are both funny, but in combination they're hilarious! :D Again, though, a lot of the comedy you'd have to be there to get it. One other specific funny moment...Bill was having each of the guys tell how many kids they had, starting with Gordon. I'll just type this out in dialogue form:
Bill:Gordon, you have three kids, and David, you have four, right?
David:Right, 2 girls and 2 boys.
Bill:Wes, how many kids do you have?
Wes:We have two, and one in the oven. (Andrea is due in November...getting close!)
Bill:Marsh?
Marsh:We have 2...one just came out of the oven.
Bill:Rory, how many do you have?
Rory:We don't have any, but we have one in the oven.
Bill:Kevin?
Kevin:We have two beautiful girls, and our oven's broke!
OK, then there was the intermission, during which we went to Buddy Greene's table (Buddy plays harmonica) and bought a couple CDs and talked to him about his amazing Classical Medley that he does on the God Bless America video. We were then very (pleasantly!) surprised when they opened up the second "half" of the concert with Buddy doing that Medley!
In the second part of the concert, where they have everybody out on stage, they sang:
Heaven's Joy Awaits (just the GVB and EHSS) It was even funnier than the Together video, which is what this clip is from...all I can say is, you've got to see them do it live!! This clip has the whole comedy intro, which makes it longer but SO worth it! Oh, during the second verse, where they stand in a circle and alternate stepping in and stepping out, somebody messed up the first "step in" part...and they all laughed their way through the rest of the verse! :D
First Day in Heaven This clip is of The Imperials (the current group) singing this song...I couldn't find a clip of the Gaithers doing it, but this is the closest to the version we heard Saturday. At the concert, they played clips of various singers who have sung this song with them over the years, most of which I think are now in heaven--James Blackwood, Jake Hess, J.D. Sumner, George Younce, Squire Parsons and Robbie Hiner are the ones I remember; it was cool!
Oh What a Savior (EHSS only; this is Ernie's signature song!) I never get tired of hearing Ernie sing this song...when we heard them do it in Ft. Worth in July, having recently been told that my grandfather was terminally ill with cancer, the last verse made me cry--"Death's chilling waters, I'll soon be crossing; His hand will lead me safe o'er. Then I'll join that chorus in that great city! I'll sing up there forever and ever more!" I got teared up on that verse Saturday night, too!
I Then Shall Live This one is definitely a favorite!
Because He Lives Bill started it, then had Wes take over the first verse ("how sweet to hold a newborn baby..."); Wes started, then Bill asked "is that too high for you?" Wes said, "we're about to find out" and then he sang the next part. It was definitely high, but Wes did good! Then Bill said, "Vestal always said we are people of faith, not people of fear, and if she were here tonight she would say, 'Young man, sing that phrase again in your full voice' " so Wes sang it again--and did SUCH a great job! There is so much more power behind that voice than a lot of people realize! He gave me chills...
I'm sure I've missed a lot of songs and such, but this report is getting to be too long anyway... :D Some of you are probably thinking, "did we really want to know all that?!" *shrug* Oh, well, so I wrote the kind of "concert report" I would want to read from someone else!! Once I got past the "wow", I just couldn't stop!!
I'm going to save my "after the concert" bit for when I have pictures to go with it. For now I'll just say, I had fun!! :D The whole night was absolutely awesome; these guys are amazing, on and off the stage. If you ever have the chance to go to one of their concerts, I strongly suggest you do! You will LOVE them! :D
I'll stop now and post this; any other news or anything to blog will wait until tomorrow (at least!).
May the Lord bless each of you richly with His grace and JOY! :D
Throughout this "concert report", I've made the song titles links to YouTube videos of that song...not from the Wichita Falls concert, though. So they aren't exactly the way we heard them Saturday night, but they're pretty close! :D Also, this list of songs is NOT comprehensive; I can't remember every song everybody sang. :D
We just barely got to the coliseum in time, but we did manage to find our seats just as Rory Rigdon finished the announcements and the music got started. Rory is the Gaithers' soundman and part of the comedy duo known as "Kevin and Rory"...more on them later!
We were pretty far up in the balcony, so for the most part we didn't take pictures during the concert. I think Mom took a few towards the end of the first part, though. The concert was split into two parts; can't really call them "halves" because the second part was considerably shorter than the first!
"The guys", as we like to refer to the Gaither Vocal Band and Ernie Haase & Signature Sound singers, came out singing Holy Highway (minus a lead singer for the GVB). The seven of them sang a few songs:
Love is Like a River, Swing Down Chariot, and Sweet, Sweet Spirit are the ones I remember. After a couple of songs, Bill paused to say "hello, Texas", and then he announced, "I'm Bill Gaither, and I'm running for president!" :D Kevin Williams, the guitarist and main funny-man, said, "Everyone else has, I think you should!" They kept the "president" joke running throughout the evening.
Gordon Mote and Janet Paschal each did their "set" next--Janet sang God Will Make a Way (one of my favorite songs she does!), It Won't Rain Always, and one other one I can't remember the name of. Gordon sang "Good Old Gospel Ship", Wake Up Dancing, and one I'd never heard before that was awesome, Don't Miss the Glory!
After the two of them, Signature Sound sang. They were in great form (as usual)! Tim was wearing his GREEN shoes, and Ryan had on his suit jacket with the bright green squiggly mark on the back. Again, I don't remember everything they sang, but here's some of the ones they did (in no particular order):
Reason Enough
My Heavenly Father Watches Over Me
Then Came the Morning
Good Heart (with the last part of the last verse of Away in a Manger)
Since Jesus Passed By Tim's solo...gotta love that big, deep bass voice! :D
Old Landmark They played this clip from the Dream On video during this song!
My Heart is a Chapel This clip doesn't have real great sound quality, but it's what I could find!
Old Fashioned Meeting We love the intro to this song! Some of it you can catch on the video clip, but the very first part isn't on there. Ernie is introducing the song, which Ryan is going to sing, and he asks Ryan, "Do you remember those old campmeeting days, Ryan, with the tent revivals and all?" Ryan says, "No, not really." So Ernie asks him, "What year were you born?" Ryan says, "1979." Ernie pauses, then says, "Ryan is going to sing you a song about something he knows nothing about." :D Then Ryan starts singing--"Oh, how well I remember..." and that's where the YouTube clip picks up, you really ought to watch, it is SO funny. :D
The guys did such an awesome job, of course. I LOVE all those songs, but I think Then Came the Morning would have to be a favorite; it's so awe-inspiring and majestic, and it sounds even better LIVE than on CD or DVD. Reason Enough is also rapidly becoming one of my favorites, as is Good Heart. When Ernie puts his hand on each of the guys' chest while he sings, it's so sweet! :D
Then David Phelps came out singing End of the Beginning, and the crowd went wild! I think they like David...later, somebody in the crowd yelled "We love you, David!" :D He did a great job with the GVB (Gaither Vocal Band), though for the most part he sang the tenor part and Wes and Marsh traded off singing Guy's part. On these clips, keep in mind that none of the combinations are going to be what we heard Saturday night since Guy wasn't there, and some of them are from videos, etc. far enough back that they have totally different GVB members! The GVB sang:
Alpha and Omega This clip has the GVB when it was David-Guy-Russ (Taff)-Bill
Jesus and John Wayne This kind of surprised us, since it is one that is rather definitely "Guy's song"...Marsh did a tremendous job on it, though!
Journey to the Sky Poor Marsh...he started this song at least 3 times, but every time he got to the part where it's supposed to speed up and the other guys join in, Bill or Kevin would start talking. :D Oh, and at one point David, Wes, and Marsh were snapping their fingers and moving their hands real fast with the beat, and Bill "couldn't" keep up...it was funny! Some of the comedy you just had to be there to see... :D
Give It Away We got to shout "Give it away!" with the guys on the chorus; you should have heard Amber and I, waaaaay up in the balcony, yelling our throats sore. :D
Let Freedom Ring I never compare Wes and David, being perfectly content to leave it at "they both have GREAT voices and I love to listen to them both", but this is one song that I just don't think would be the same without David. And we were so thrilled to hear them do it!!! One of our favorite GVB songs of all time...
Always A Place at the Table That clip just has the recording of "Always a Place" with a slideshow of random pictures; if you want to see Wes sing it, you can watch this one that was taped at a solo concert Wes did. He does SUCH a great job on this song! :D
The Love of God Bill said, "I love this...I have two tenors tonight, I can wear them out!" :D And Wes and David traded around on the chorus of this beautiful song.
I know they sang at least one more, because there was one we didn't know; I remember it was good, but I can't remember what it was called.
All of this was interspersed with Kevin and Rory's hilarity, of course! When Bill was doing the "sales pitch", Rory was holding up the stuff as it was mentioned and Kevin called him "a regular Vanna White". :D Those two are both funny, but in combination they're hilarious! :D Again, though, a lot of the comedy you'd have to be there to get it. One other specific funny moment...Bill was having each of the guys tell how many kids they had, starting with Gordon. I'll just type this out in dialogue form:
Bill:Gordon, you have three kids, and David, you have four, right?
David:Right, 2 girls and 2 boys.
Bill:Wes, how many kids do you have?
Wes:We have two, and one in the oven. (Andrea is due in November...getting close!)
Bill:Marsh?
Marsh:We have 2...one just came out of the oven.
Bill:Rory, how many do you have?
Rory:We don't have any, but we have one in the oven.
Bill:Kevin?
Kevin:We have two beautiful girls, and our oven's broke!
OK, then there was the intermission, during which we went to Buddy Greene's table (Buddy plays harmonica) and bought a couple CDs and talked to him about his amazing Classical Medley that he does on the God Bless America video. We were then very (pleasantly!) surprised when they opened up the second "half" of the concert with Buddy doing that Medley!
In the second part of the concert, where they have everybody out on stage, they sang:
Heaven's Joy Awaits (just the GVB and EHSS) It was even funnier than the Together video, which is what this clip is from...all I can say is, you've got to see them do it live!! This clip has the whole comedy intro, which makes it longer but SO worth it! Oh, during the second verse, where they stand in a circle and alternate stepping in and stepping out, somebody messed up the first "step in" part...and they all laughed their way through the rest of the verse! :D
First Day in Heaven This clip is of The Imperials (the current group) singing this song...I couldn't find a clip of the Gaithers doing it, but this is the closest to the version we heard Saturday. At the concert, they played clips of various singers who have sung this song with them over the years, most of which I think are now in heaven--James Blackwood, Jake Hess, J.D. Sumner, George Younce, Squire Parsons and Robbie Hiner are the ones I remember; it was cool!
Oh What a Savior (EHSS only; this is Ernie's signature song!) I never get tired of hearing Ernie sing this song...when we heard them do it in Ft. Worth in July, having recently been told that my grandfather was terminally ill with cancer, the last verse made me cry--"Death's chilling waters, I'll soon be crossing; His hand will lead me safe o'er. Then I'll join that chorus in that great city! I'll sing up there forever and ever more!" I got teared up on that verse Saturday night, too!
I Then Shall Live This one is definitely a favorite!
Because He Lives Bill started it, then had Wes take over the first verse ("how sweet to hold a newborn baby..."); Wes started, then Bill asked "is that too high for you?" Wes said, "we're about to find out" and then he sang the next part. It was definitely high, but Wes did good! Then Bill said, "Vestal always said we are people of faith, not people of fear, and if she were here tonight she would say, 'Young man, sing that phrase again in your full voice' " so Wes sang it again--and did SUCH a great job! There is so much more power behind that voice than a lot of people realize! He gave me chills...
I'm sure I've missed a lot of songs and such, but this report is getting to be too long anyway... :D Some of you are probably thinking, "did we really want to know all that?!" *shrug* Oh, well, so I wrote the kind of "concert report" I would want to read from someone else!! Once I got past the "wow", I just couldn't stop!!
I'm going to save my "after the concert" bit for when I have pictures to go with it. For now I'll just say, I had fun!! :D The whole night was absolutely awesome; these guys are amazing, on and off the stage. If you ever have the chance to go to one of their concerts, I strongly suggest you do! You will LOVE them! :D
I'll stop now and post this; any other news or anything to blog will wait until tomorrow (at least!).
May the Lord bless each of you richly with His grace and JOY! :D
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