THE Gold City - HOT!  HOT!  HOT!

I've been putting my old records and tapes on CD, which is by the way, a lot of work. I found a few cassette tapes that I wanted to put on CD and one of those
was Gold City's "Double Take". It's a "live" recording with an Emcee introducing them thathappened to be Eldridge Fox. In his booming voice he ended his introduction with "Welcome the Gold City". I found that introduction interesting, but I didn't realize how prophetic he was being. The version of Gold City performing that night was Brian Free at Tenor, Ivan Parker at Lead, Mike LeFevre singing Baritone, Tim Riley on the Bass part and Garry Jones on the Piano. Without a doubt, most people will argue that this group was the best Gold City to be on the road. While I haven't heard a bad version of Gold City, this team was certainly at the top of the list.

If you were to ask the fans which Gold City was THE Gold City, you would surely start a good argument, but the winner would probably be this set of guys on the "Double Take" record. The very least you can say about this group is that they are the ones who launched Gold City into the national spotlight. I was pretty much in agreement with this analogy until just the other night when I heard Gold City again. Now I have heard every compilation of Gold City since the "Double Take" days and by the end of the program at Eastland Baptist Church in Nashville, TN I knew that I had heard THE Gold City. This group of guys has that something special that the "Double Take" group did. There was a spring in their step as they hit the stage that I hadn't seen for a while. There was a relaxed attitude on stage that drew you in to enjoy the program. These guys were loving what they were doing.

The newest member of Gold City is Josh Cobb. What can I say about this guy, but WOW, what a Tenor. Not only was his Tenor singing just outstanding, and his blend fantastic, he had an attitude both on and off stage that spoke humility. With his warmth and talent, he had the crowd eating out of his hand. One of the finest power Lead singers in the genre today is Bruce Taliaferro. Whether he is singing a solo or singing the Lead part with the group, the dynamic of his voice takes control and leads the group in the direction it's supposed to go in. Danny Riley is without a doubt the most under-rated Baritone in the business. He has the range of a Lead singer, but the blending ability of the best Baritone in the genre. Most Bass singers tend to get better with age, and Tim Riley is no exception. While he was a great Bass singer before he retired for a while, he has stepped it up a notch and seems to hit those ultra low notes with more ease than ever. Great Piano players are in high demand, and Roy Webb lets you see why. Roy keeps the show going by keeping everybody on time without a lot of frills until it's his time to show out. When it was Roy's time to perform, I could swear that I saw that keyboard smoking. When you have Roy's instrumental talents and his ability to keep Danny and the audience on their toes with his comedic portions of the program, you have a huge hit on your hands.

This bunch of guys that I saw in Nashville are THE Gold City. They are THE real thing. They were relaxed and having fun on stage. They were in tune with what the Holy Spirit was doing in the audience. Their sound was THE sound that Gold City fans have been waiting for and it is finally here. Gold City has never put out a sound that wasn't superb, but some of the groups just had THE sound, and this current bunch has THE sound. The next time Gold City is going to be in your area, do whatever you have to do to get there, because you are about to see THE Gold City.