Friday was a mixture of the old and the new at Silver Dollar
City. The groups are park were very diverse from a traditional male quartet who
had been around for 80 plus yeas to three red-headed young girls just getting
their starts to family groups who are making a name for themselves.
My day started at Red Gold Hall with Red Roots. This was my
first time seeing these girls sing live. I was extremely impressed with the
level of talent these girls have. I’d heard them sing before, but I never
realized what talent they have as musicians. I think I counted eight different
instruments on stage, and they played them all!!
I was actually surprised that I was more familiar with some
of their songs than I thought I would be. They started with “Christian Country
Girl,” which I had heard a lot on radio. I also had heard “Seven Days,” but my
favorite of what I heard them sing was “Grow.”
I was impressed not only by these girls’ musical abilities
but also by what they said in between songs. You can tell these girls are
passionate about sharing Christ through music and living for Him. It was also
fun to see a lot of young girls in the audience who you can tell are big fans.
These girls are definitely making impressions on young fans.
From there, I went to see the Sneed Family at the Riverfront
Playhouse. I got the chance to interview them last year, but this was my first
time seeing them live. They had a full live band with keys, drums and two
guitars. They started the set with “Sail on Over to the Other Side.” Then Jeff,
the patriarch of the family, was featured on “I’ve Got More to Go to Heaven
For.”
They sang other familiar songs like “If You’ll Move Over,
I’ll Help You Carry Your Load” and “I Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey
Now.” However, the highlight of the set was Amanda singing “Hallelujah Square.”
She, Caleb and Seth repeated the chorus a cappella. Amazing job!!! They ended
the show with “He Is Leading the Way.”
My afternoon was spent with Karen Peck and New River
catching a couple of the group’s shows. Kari, Karen’s daughter, joined them on
stage singing for the last show. They repeated a few songs, but pretty much had
completely different sets each time. They repeated “Revival” and of course
“Four Days Late,” but I didn’t mind one bit. That song never gets old. I don’t
care how many times I hear it, it still speaks to me and you can see how it
still ministers to others. During the second show, Karen sang “Amazing Grace” a
cappella and then went into “Four Days Late!” Absolutely beautiful!!
It was good to hear other songs from their most recent
project like “Everybody’s Going Through Something,” “Finish Well” and “You Did
It Anyway.” “Finish Well” is becoming one of their most powerful and most
requested songs. Jeff gave a heartfelt testimony during the last show of how
his pastor died suddenly just days before they went into the studio to record
that song. They left straight from the funeral to the recording studio. He said
it was the last thing on his mind, but as soon as Karen started singing that
song the Spirit was in the room and he had the peace that passes all
understanding.
Karen made sure to close each show with prayer, praying for
those who were hurting and those who might not know Christ. I absolutely love
the heart of this group!!
The night concert featured Aaron and Amanda Crabb, the
Blackwood Brothers and the Bowling Family. This was my first time seeing Aaron
and Amanda live. It is so sweet seeing this couple minister together as a duo.
They sang several classics like “Going Home,” “He Looked Beyond My Fault” and
“Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand.” I also loved that they chose to sing a few
from their latest project “If I’m Guilty” and “Take Him to the Place.” Amanda
talked about the last one being her testimony song and how she had written it from
John 11 when Jesus said to take Him to the place where Lazarus lay. Incredible
song!!
The Blackwood Brothers took the stage next. They started
with “Feelin’ Mighty Fine” and then went into “Jesus Is Coming Soon.” A
highlight of their set was Butch Owens featured on “I’ve Got to Walk That
Lonesome Road.” Michael Helwig also sang “It Is No Secret,” another great
moment!
They had the entire audience on its feet standing and
clapping along with “I Wanna Be More Like Jesus.” They repeated the chorus a
few times. Normally groups would end with a song like that, but they chose to
end on a hymn “Blessed Assurance.”
The Bowling Family closed the night. They started with “I’ll
Be Alright As Soon as I Touch Calvary.” Then they sang two songs from Safe After the Storm, “Come Along Let’s
Fly” and “I Know Enough.”
They brought back an older song that Hope sang when she was
younger, “Jesus Pilots My Ship.” If you thought she was incredible on this song
before, you should hear her sing it now!! She, Troy and Mike repeated the
chorus a cappella! It was amazing!! They also brought up their younger
daughters to sing “My Country Tis Of Thee” in honor of the veterans. Their harmonies
at such a young age are incredible.
Kelly was featured on the Crabb Family song “Don’t You Wanna
Go.” Aaron was in the sound booth and ran down to join them on stage! It’s
always good to see a mini Crabb reunion!! Mike made the comment after the song
that he thought he would be cooked after being under those hot lights, but
Kelly said it was hard to cook a Crabb! Haha!
Kelly gave the testimony of the bus accident to set up “Your
Cries Have Awoken the Master.” This is always such a powerful song and a
highlight of the night! However, I think my favorite song from last night was “I
Still Glory in the Cross!” After that song, they ended on the barnburner “I Never
Shall Forget the Day” bringing up Duane Garren to sing the last part with them!
The girls were featured at the beginning of the night and had a full set. These girls sound amazing together. Their sister harmony is on point. They sang several songs from theirThe Beginning project including, "Stronger," "He'll Do It Again," "At the Cross" and "Higher Ground." Their a cappella arrangement of "At the Cross" is incredible!
