Tuesday was the official release of the Gaither Vocal Band’s long awaited new album, Greatly Blessed.
Let me tell you - you will be truly blessed with this one!
Front start to finish they guys deliver what very well could be the best GVB album every!
As a self proclaimed expert on GVB let me tell you I have enjoyed every album they have done but
looking through the years I can go to an album and say I can do without this song or that song, but on this one…all 13 songs are very good.
The vocals are incredible! The arrangements are amazing as well.
He’s Alive is awesome.
The way they arranged Please Forgive Me is sweet
and You Are My All in All is amazing
If you have not had the chance to hear the 5 voice GVB you need to. They are truly amazing talents and this is the best group Bill has put together.
I give this one a 5 out of 5! Many who have read my posts in the past will say I always say that about a GVB album, but this one is truly the best!
I’d have to agree. Absolutely amazing. I was just saying last night that I haven’t found a song that I skip through. If this thing doesn’t win numerous awards there’s something wrong.
Michael English in his prime I think was one of the top four or five vocalist ever in SG music. While he’s no longer that guy, I like how he’s gotten a handle on what he can do now and redefined his sound. I really hope he can get his voice back completely from the surgery.
David Phelps sounds like David Phelps on here and not the David Phelps that sings with the GVB. I always thought he sang more “freely” when he was by himself. He totally sounds like that guy on this recording.
Wes Hampton is so verstatile and is an awesome singer and definitely holds his own with this all-star lineup. His vocals on He is Here actually makes me want to hear that song, and that’s saying a lot because I’ve never liked that song.
Mark Lowry. Mark totally embraces his role with these guys. Those low baritone notes that shape the song has always been the unsung greatness that he brought to the group vocally. The funny guy stuff is ok to me, but you don’t get that on an album. What you do get are those amazing harmonies that he is so good at.
if the Gaither Vocal Band ever decide to record a SG CD let me know i might check it out…
Yeah, there’s the comment that I knew would pop up somewhere in this thread.
Not even sure what “SG” is anymore.
Are The Perry’s SG? Can’t be, they use orchestral stuff.
Are the Booth Bro’s SG? No way, they have electric guitars
EH&SS;? Nope, they dance and use brass too much.
Primitive Quartet? Surely not, they are bluegrass.
I mean seriously, what in the world is “SG”?
This is not to debate or even say that GVB is southern gospel. It’s more of a note of where there use to be a definite line between the “contemporary” and the “southern”. Now it all just blends together.
I don’t even know why we have to label anymore because it seems all groups are incorporating more of the progressive or contemporary sounds into their productions.
I like this GVB album because they did an awesome job of incorporating many different styles of gospel music into a great album.
GVB sets the bar and you can take that for better or for worse. I just tend to really like it.
if the Gaither Vocal Band ever decide to record a SG CD let me know i might check it out…
Here we go again! I agree with andyk….what is SG anymore?
GVB has never claimed to be SG or CCM or anything. They are Middle of the road with the God given talent
and ability to do a SG song and pull it off well or a Contemporary song and pull it off well.
They can interchange parts and styles and do it well. There are not very many groups out there that can do it and do it as well.
I wish people would drop the whole “they aren’t SG thing” Get over yourselves and enjoy the music as it’s intended to be enjoyed. Maybe people should let it minister to them instead of being critical.
never said they were not outstanding at what they do, all the groups you mentioned i have heard in person and enjoyed, was blessed, laughed, cried and worshiped right along with the rest of the crowd. great groups all. SG seems now to be a catch all label that basiclly means “not contempary Christain, not country Christain, not black gospel, and the lines are really fuzzy, the limits are pushed by many goups with each new project they do. but i do think although when a group like the Perrys, Gold City, the Booth bros, legacy 5, GVB, SS do an old fashioned SG song on one of their CD’s you can hear the difference clearly.i’m an old coot and grew up with the statesmen, blackwoods, dixie melody boys, harvesters, happy goodmans and all the groups of the 50’s, 60’s 70’s. when you hear that music there is a very clear difference than the sounds of today, and i with my whole heart prefer that music to todays music. i don’t dislike any of todays groups and go to every concert i can get too.
I do NOT think it is their best. Some really good songs - That Sounds Like Home To Me, Please Forgive Me, You Are My All In All. I do not like Muddy Water, Ain’t Nobody, and not too crazy about Love Like I’m Leavin’ - all written by Benjy Gaither, oddly enough. The poor person who made the statement inferring the GVB isn’t SG did have a good point - these 3 songs do not sound SG - they sound trashy actually, and maybe that is because Benjy Gaither does not sing SG and cannot write a decent SG song.
And Michael English ruins Brighter Day as only he can ruin a song - why does he have to do all the weird stuff with his voice toward the end?! Yuk! I like most of the CD, but wish he would sing normal, and they would have left off the Benjy Gaither songs. Crucify me if you wish, but I’m allowed to have an opinion too
Sojourner,
That’s interesting. It’s neither here nor there, but “Muddy Water” is actually my favorite song on the CD. I like it when groups record songs that don’t sound precisely the same as what everyone else has recorded in the past.
I certainly don’t mind you expressing that you don’t like the new GVB CD. People have different tastes in music. I have strong opinions of my own about some artists in the Southern Gospel industry.
Calling their music “trashy” and saying Benjy Gaither can’t write a Southern Gospel song is a bit much, though.
Who is your favorite artist? Would you appreciate having their music demeaned in the same manner you have put down the Gaither Vocal Band?
To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with this CD. I’m not a Michael English fan and after listening to this CD….it just confirms my feelings of dislike for his voice.
I do NOT think it is their best. Some really good songs - That Sounds Like Home To Me, Please Forgive Me, You Are My All In All. I do not like Muddy Water, Ain’t Nobody, and not too crazy about Love Like I’m Leavin’ - all written by Benjy Gaither, oddly enough. The poor person who made the statement inferring the GVB isn’t SG did have a good point - these 3 songs do not sound SG - they sound trashy actually, and maybe that is because Benjy Gaither does not sing SG and cannot write a decent SG song.
And Michael English ruins Brighter Day as only he can ruin a song - why does he have to do all the weird stuff with his voice toward the end?! Yuk! I like most of the CD, but wish he would sing normal, and they would have left off the Benjy Gaither songs. Crucify me if you wish, but I’m allowed to have an opinion too
I agree with DBM how would you like it if someone trashed your favorite group the way you did?
Benjy Gaither like it or not is a good song writer and has written some very good songs.
As far as your comment about Michael..what he is doing at the end of the song is ad libs. Which takes some talent to do contrary to what people may think.
Sure it’s your opinion and you can voice it - I just think your comments were a little extreme.
I do NOT think it is their best. Some really good songs - That Sounds Like Home To Me, Please Forgive Me, You Are My All In All. I do not like Muddy Water, Ain’t Nobody, and not too crazy about Love Like I’m Leavin’ - all written by Benjy Gaither, oddly enough. The poor person who made the statement inferring the GVB isn’t SG did have a good point - these 3 songs do not sound SG - they sound trashy actually, and maybe that is because Benjy Gaither does not sing SG and cannot write a decent SG song.
And Michael English ruins Brighter Day as only he can ruin a song - why does he have to do all the weird stuff with his voice toward the end?! Yuk! I like most of the CD, but wish he would sing normal, and they would have left off the Benjy Gaither songs. Crucify me if you wish, but I’m allowed to have an opinion too
Like him and his music or not, Benji Gaither is a premier songwriter, and he gets the monthly royalty checks to prove it. You’re welcome to your opinion, but to say that he can’t write a decent song is pretty ridiculous in my opinion. Kind of like saying Steve Jobs isn’t a good CEO because you don’t like Macs.
if the Gaither Vocal Band ever decide to record a SG CD let me know i might check it out…
I understand your issue with the GVB, even if I don’t agree with it. I would assume that you are an old-time Southern Gospel fan, and the GVB’s current style absolutely doesn’t fit that mold. I’m assuming you probably don’t care for Jason Crabb, Austin’s Bridge, etc. for the same reason. It’s simply a matter of taste. I’ll spend my money on their CDs, you can spend your money on Stamps and Blackwood Brothers best-ofs, and we’ll both be happy. Just play yours real, real quiet, ok?
it’s hard for me to respond to this kinds of posts, because it’s one of those darned if you do or darned if you don’t things. no matter how one answers one upsets somebody. i personaly wonder in this day and age how many of todays groups could hit the stage with 4 singers and a piano and mesmerize 5 or 6 thousand folks for 2 hours, every group i’ve named from out of the past have done that over and over again. to me some groups today turn the band and the tracks up so loud i always sit ther wondering what they are trying to hide does someone not know their part, are these songs so new they don’t have them down or ready yet? i always wonder. two weeks ago we saw SS great show had a good time, the boys worked hard and sang hard, yet some of the songs you could not hear the words at times even the solo part or lead part, because the music and or tracks were way to high. i don’t go to hear the band, or 24 extra voices booming through the PA. greater vision has been in concert out here for years, sometimes they are “stacked” so much that it sounds like a 100 voice choir up there yet you see the stage and it’s 3 guys up ther standing alone, don’t understand it. a short while ago got a gather vocal band CD don’t know what one, and the choir backing them up was so domanate that i could not hear any of the vocal bands voices on several of the songs, don’t even know if they were singing on those songs or not? now if i went to the store to buy a choir CD i would have been really pleased (they were a great group of singers) but i didn’t i wanted to hear the vocal band and check out a new CD by them. so i remain a SG fan and i realy like most of todays groups that i’ve heard, but my heart remains to the groups of days gone by, to each his or her own…
[ Edited: 08 September 2010 02:52 PM by mightymic]
