Rainy Day at Silver Dollar City

Day 2 of Southern Gospel Picnic at Silver Dollar City was a little soggy. However, rain does not deter gospel fans as evidenced by the crowd. Despite the number of ponchos and umbrellas I'm sure were purchased, most fans stayed until the last note of the concert!

We got to Silver Dollar City in time to catch the Freemans at 12 and 1. I think Chris Freeman has the most recognizable voice in gospel music. It had been several years since I have seen the Freemans. One of the highlights for me was them singing "Three Rugged Crosses," which I have heard a lot on the radio recently. It's a great song! Caylon Freeman was also featured on "Sending Me Angels," another one of their great more recent songs.

Chris tore up the Hinson class "Seawalker." I love this song and was really glad to hear them sing it!

They also sang two hymns in the second show, "Hold to God's Unchanging Hand" and "What a Day That Will Be." It was absolutely beautiful! 

Misty was also featured on a song during each set. During their last show, she sang one that her mom had sung with the Hinsons, "Let Me Fall." I was not familiar with this song, but I will be looking it up and seeing if I can download it!

After the Freemans, we came out of the theater and this is what the sky looked like:

Needless to say, the bottom fell out of the sky about 10 minutes later. After waiting close to the same theater since the Mark Trammell Quartet would have a show just a little later in the afternoon, Silver Dollar City thankfully had pity on us and let us in. The Mark Trammell Quartet was still finishing up their sound check and getting things set up, but hopefully they didn't mind a wet audience!

I was able to see their first two shows of the Mark Trammell Quartet. I glad to see both Dustin and Nick with the group. Dustin is mainly playing piano, but he's also singing some and even came forward to sing "One Drop" during their second show. It was good to see him sing one last time with the group. Nick already seems to fit naturally with the guys.

They sang several from their most recent project "Lifetime." I loved "Wonderful Time Up There" and "Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus."

They also sang "Glory Road," which features Eric, and Mark talked about how much he hates the song. Eric did an encore of the song, and the audience loved it! Mark said that when we all left the theater every dog in the county would be outside the doors!

They closed their second set with "I Want to Know." I'm so glad that this song went #1! It's one of my favorites that they do, and I enjoy seeing them sing it live!

After the second Mark Trammell Quartet show, the line was already backing up for the Booth Brothers, so I got in line.

Despite rain, gospel fans stayed, 4,143 to be exact, to see the Booth Brothers. Michael said the audience should go in the concert-goers Hall of Fame for enduring the rain to see them. You could tell they really appreciated people standing and waiting in the rain to see them. They even came out wearing ponchos! After a couple of songs they lost the ponchos, and Michael said the choir was a getting a little contemporary and losing the robes.

Here were the highlights for me:

• "Hello, Mama" - They sang this song of Squire Parsons and Jim set it up telling the story behind the writing of the song. I'd never heard it before, but loved it!
• "Look for Me at Jesus' Feet"
• "Because He Lives" - This was simply beautiful, and the rest of the audience thought so too, giving them a standing ovation.
• "He Saw It All"
• "Masterpiece of Mercy"
• "Played in the Band" - This song closed the show tonight. They did several encores of the song with the audience on its feet loving every minute of it! At one point, they thought they were done, and the audience still wanted to hear more, so the sound man started the music again. Ronnie and Jim both ran to pick their microphones back up!

It's easy to see how the Booth Brothers have become one of the most popular groups in Southern Gospel music. A sign language interpreter was sitting at the front for a group of hearing-impaired people. All the guys made sure to gesture to them or wave at them. Not only are they great singers, but it's easy to see they are so sincere in what they do. Now they definitely like to have fun and joke around too, which makes for the dynamite combination that they have going on!

So the wait in the rain was worth it to get to see them! Praying for no rain tomorrow!