Day Five of Southern Gospel Picnic

It's hard to believe that the festival is almost halfway over. The most anticipated event of the day was Legacy Five with new bass singer Matt Fouch, but the entire day was full of good gospel concerts.

Pureheart
Pureheart's show was the first one of the day for me. This female trio sings at Silver Dollar City all the time. They normally sing several gospel songs in each show, but for the festival they had an all gospel show. If you are ever at Silver Dollar City, be sure to see them!

Reggie Saddler Family
I was able to catch two of the Reggie Saddler Family's shows this morning. During the first one he did a lot of his guitar tricks. He led the audience in singing I have decided to follow Jesus playing it on his guitar.

His daughter Ingra sang "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." It was beautiful and the highlight of that show for me! To close the show they sang, "Crown Him With Many Crowns."

They did a lot more singing in their last show on the park. Some of my favorites that they sang were "I've Got Me a Home," "Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere," and "All Over Me," which had a bluegrass flavor to it.They closed their final set of the day with "As the Old Fellow Used to Say," which I didn't remember hearing before. It was a fun uptempo song to end on though.

Old Paths
I was only able to catch part of an Old Paths show today. The theater was full so I watched from outside until moving on to another show. I definitely plan on seeing a full one of their sets I'd never seen them before but I was extremely impressed.These are the songs I was able to catch:

• "Someday"
•  "I've Got a Feeling"
• "O What a Savior"- Jeremy Peace's voice had already stood out to me on the earlier songs, but he really shines when he steps up and tackles this tenor song.
• "I Woke Up This Morning" - Daniel Ashmore, bass, did an outstanding job on this song.
• "I Know My God Can Do It"

I'm glad they will be on park two days, but I want to be sure and catch a full show next time!

Down East Boys
I saw the Down East Boys last year at Silver Dollar City, but that was my first time seeing them. Songs that stood out for me that they sang were:

• "Life Is Like a Mountain Railway"  - They sang this song a capella at someone's request. I'm glad they made the request, because this was one of my favorites they sang.
• "He Did It All When We Could Do Nothing - A beautiful song with a beautiful message
• "Ride that Chariot" - Bass singer Stuart Carey was featured on this one.
• "I Won't Trade My Crown" - Tenor Tony Jarman did an outstanding job singing this song. It was probably my favorite of their set!

Legacy Five
Monday I had the chance to see Matt Fouch in his last performance with Soul'd Out Quartet. And in just a little over 24 hours later, I was able to see him in his first performance with Legacy Five. I think this was one of the smoothest group transitions. During his introduction yesterday, Matt Rankin said that he would be joining Legacy Five. And tonight there was no elephant in the room, because Scott Fowler made mention of him singing just the day before at the park with Soul'd Out. It was very unusual circumstances, but I thought it was very classy of how both groups respected each other during this time of transition.

Legacy Five started the night with "It's a Wonderful Life" and then went into "God Cares for Me," both from the group's A Wonderful Life.

Gus Gaches sang "For What Earthly Reason"after his introduction. I love to hear him sing this song!

It was easy to hear Matt on the other songs, because a bass singer's voice does stand out. But after Scott introduced him, he stepped up to sing "I've Been Changed" for his first feature. He did such an incredible job on this song. The audience was on its feet after the song! I thing Matt's voice already blends in great with the group, and this will only grow with time. Legacy Five made a great hire with Matt!

They sang "Thankful for the Change in Me." And then, Scott Howard was introduced and sang "Destination Known."

Scott Fowler introduced Trey Ivey, and then he played his classical sonata before going into "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms." The crowd loved it! They closed the first half with "I Found Grace," which is one of my favorites!

They sang several more in the second half. Trey got his chance to be featured vocally. I knew that he sang, but had never heard him featured much, so it was good to hear him step out.

Scott Fowler told the story of Patty and Hanna to set up the song "Ask Me Why." They closed the concert with "We Shall See Jesus." Matt knocked this one out of the park! This was by far my favorite song of the night! Such a great moment and great way to end the concert!

Scott Fowler is known for making great hires as he has in recent years with Gus Gaches and Trey Ivey. Matt Fouch also makes a great addition to the group. The other guys were so encouraging to him last night in his first appearance. And I couldn't help but notice how Matt would mouth the words as other guys in the group were singing. He knows the songs well already, and you can tell that he loved being on stage with them.

I have several more videos that I took that I'll get posted later. But be sure to check out the video of Matt singing "I've Been Changed" with them.