Short Day Eight at Silver Dollar City

Isaac caused us to change our plans. We decided not to go to Silver Dollar City until the afternoon. Our family has followed Spoken 4 Quartet since they first formed, so we definitely did not want to miss them. We got to see all three of their shows and also the Collingsworth Family at night.

Spoken 4 Quartet 

This was my first time seeing Spoken 4 Quartet with new baritone singer, Steven Hickinbotham. I was anxious to see them, since Jeremy Wilkerson was the original baritone for the group. Steven not only lends his vocals to the group, but also plays the piano, which is a great addition. Spoken 4 made a great hire with him!

The quartet opened its first show with an a cappella arrangement of “Great Is Thy Faithfulness/ How Great Is Our God," which was great! :) They also sang "In the Garden" a cappella during their second show. I love hearing groups sing a cappella because it can really show you what a group is capable of vocally, and this group really shined on the a cappella songs!

They showcased bass singer Cecil Stringer's capabilities during each show. And each time he rattled the chairs and the speakers and everything in the theater! He's definitely one of the lowest in Southern Gospel and definitely that we have seen during the festival.

A song they sang that I had never heard before is "Give God Your Storm." This one features Jon Charles Taggart, lead, and has such a great message. I think this could be the song that really launches this group.

Jon Charles had Steven sing the song that he did when he auditioned with the group, "Who Am I." He played and sang it at the piano, and did an outstanding performance on it.

Another song that I love to hear them sing is "He's My Song," which tenor Brandon Britton sings.

Collingsworth Family
Silver Dollar City moved the concert to the largest indoor theater because of the weather. Kudos to Silver Dollar City for not canceling the concert and getting everything ready to go inside instead of in the amphitheater. But just because they weren't going to sing in the rain, didn't mean that we didn't have to wait in the rain... for an hour. Many people waited more than that, because we were probably at the halfway point of the line. Now, it wasn't raining extremely hard or anything, but the crowd that was there showed that they are some dedicated gospel music fans to wait in the rain!

That being said, I was really disappointed that instead of the usual hour and a half concert at night, it was only an hour. After standing in the rain waiting, I really was hoping that they would sing longer than we were waiting.

It has been since last year's gospel festival since I've seen the Collingsworth Family live. I was very impressed with Olivia this year. She seems to have really come into her own and turned out to be quite a singer. She sounds a lot like Courtney to me, which is a definite compliment. It seemed that the family is featuring her more as well.

The Collingsworth Family sang a number of songs from their Christmas project that they had just received. Phillip and Brooklyn sang "Silent Night," and it was gorgeous. However, the songs did seem a little out of place in August. But I guess not so out of place, since they just came out with a new Christmas album and wanted to showcase songs from it. Still it's August!

The highlights of the concert for me were "The Prayer" and "At Calvary." Brooklyn and Courtney played "The Prayers" on their violins. It was absolutely beautiful. I love the family's arrangement of "At Calvary," and it's what they ended the night on. Great song to end the concert on, but it ended too soon, if you ask me. I was really disappointed that they cut it short. We thought at first they were wrapping up for the intermission and not the end of the concert. The Booth Brothers earlier in the festival went over their time to show appreciation for the fans who waited in the rain, and you would think groups would tend to lean that way instead of cutting it shorter!