As I turned the corner onto Dill Avenue in South West Atlanta, Georgia I was greeted by the welcome sight of busses and cars.  As usual when covering a “Live” event I find it best to arrive a little early just to check things out and get a feel for the venue and the atmosphere.  With plans of grandeur on tap, long time producers and record label owners Melvin Couch and Rick Sanchez were gearing up for not one but 2 recording sessions in one day.  A small crowd began trickling in as the hour of the first recording session (3 PM) quickly approached.   

As is the case with "Live" recording sessions in general, when something can go wrong it will.  As the time neared, they experienced a great deal of power problems causing two different generators to be brought on sight to supplement for the church power system.  As time passed and attempts to get started failed, two recording sessions suddenly turned into one recording marathon when the show kicked off at 7:30 pm.  Needless to say, the audience members were restless but we were definitely more in number and more spiritually charged after about an hour of some powerful down home devotional service beginning around 6 pm. 

For this exciting night of recording the program would be split into 2 parts.  First, we enjoyed the performances of 7 different groups and solo artists who were recording for a compilation effort for TV/DVD production.  The second portion of the recording was the “Live” Audio/Video recording of Rev. Tommy Spann & The Brooklyn Allstars celebrating their 60^th Anniversary. 

To get us started for the first portion, one of the two new groups on the Nu-Sound label The New Jersey based Uplifters featuring Tyrone Brown hit the floor with a mid-tempo arrangement of the standard “Glory! Glory!”. After getting the audience in the mood the fellas slowed things down with a one two punch of their current radio favorites “Shower Your Blessings” and “Sit Down Servant”.  “Shower Your Blessings” was a beautiful laid back ballad with plenty of testifying while “Sit Down Servant” was just what you would expect; a foot stompin’ good time. 

The next group to grace the stage was Atlanta, Georgia’s own Rev. Charlie Brown & The Saints.  As many know, Rev. Brown has had a long and fruitful singing career with such groups as The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Pilgrim Jubilees, and is most well known for his tour of duty with The Violinaires.  Needless to say, Rev. Brown would be pulling double duty on this night with his own group, and Lil’ Blair & The New Violinaires.  The Saints set featured a mixture of songs from their latest release “Jesus Will See You Through” and their previous project “I Really Love The Lord”.  With plenty of enthusiasm the group began their set with the guitar driven number “Stranger In The City”.  After leaving the audience in an uproar, they slowed things down a bit with the beautiful Violinaire number “You Been So Good”.  To close their set out, it was time for some hand clappin’ enjoyment as the Saints sang “Holy Ghost”. 

Next came the debut of a new group presented by Nu-Sound.  In fact, this was my first introduction to The South Florida Gospel Singers of Ft. Lauderdale Florida.  While their sound was great, their material was made up of standard hymns.  They opened their set with “On The Battlefield” which was given a rather bluesy feel.  Afterwards, they presented a beautiful slow version of the classic “Oh How I Love Jesus”, and closed with a up-tempo arrangement of “Let Jesus Lead You”. 

The Highlight of the night was by far the performance of Lil’ Blair & The New Violinaires.  Unlike most of the other groups The New Violinaires hit the floor with the sweet sounds of a ballad, “Stand By”.  This song which sounds very similar to “Praise Him” has become a favorite around the country. Yes, Rev. Charlie Brown was back on stage and this time he showed his background singing genius along with the rest of the New Violinaires. As an audience member myself,  I was actually very amused to hear so many comments from persons around me stating “I Can’t believe how much he sounds like Blair” and also shouts of “Sing Blair” as Titus “Lil’ Blair” Stallworth worked that song.  Just in case fans were not sure who the group was the New Violinaires then went into an all out shout session on “I’m Going To Serve The Lord”.  As many know, that particular song was very seldom sung in it's entirity by the late Robert Blair, nevertheless Lil’ Blair had a good time with it.  The New Violinaires closed their set with the beautiful ballad “I Saw The Light” which includes several old time hymns with the background singers taking their stab at various verses. 

Other non-quartet performances for the night came from the great Mrs. Katie Sankey of Birmingham Alabama and her powerful renditions of “He’s My Joy”, “He Mad Me In His Image”, and the classic “I Don’t Know Why I Have To Cry Sometimes”.  Also, we were treated with the likes of Bishop Richard “Mr. Clean” White and his COGIC praise singers.  They really brought back the old time feel, with a simple yet fiery organ and drum accompaniment on songs like “Jesus Dropped The Charges”, and the bluesy “More Than A Friend”.  We then were graced with the presence of TV and Motion picture star vocalist Melba Moore who stars in “The Fighting Temptations” movie.  Her set featured her new hit “I’m Still Here”, “You’ll Never Know” and some classic songs like “Lift Every Voice” and “Swing Low Sweet Chariot”. 

With part one finished, it was then time for the recording session of Rev. Tommy Spann & The Brooklyn Allstars.  As you can imagine, the hour was getting late but the audience still wanted to show their support for Rev. Spann.  When the Allstars hit the stage I couldn’t help but notice the personnel changes that had taken place.  For example, Highway QC former guitar player and tenor singer Jimmy Fluellyn were singing background for the Allstars.  Also, Brother Pettifold is back with the group, and who can forget Mr. Joe Yawn.  The group hit the floor dressed in smooth blue suits with their recent favorites and some classics.  While it would be to much to name every song the group sang, some of the featured selections were an interesting arrangement of the classic Keynote song “Rise Again” with Rev. Spann on the lead.  Among the classics recorded were “Same God”, “Stood On The Banks”, “Did You Stop To Pray”, and “Family Prayer” just to name a few.  The group also debuted a new drive number “Don’t Want My Soul” with Brother Pettifold really working the audience into a frenzy on that particular number. 

What started out as a day wrought with obstacles finally came to a close well past the midnight hour.  Brother Couch and the audience presented the Brooklyn Allstars with an award commemorating their anniversary and closed out with a finale which included the likes of Rev. Charlie Brown, Rev. Spann, and other artists singing the classic closing number and refrain of Amazing Grace, “Praise God”.  What a night of great gospel in Atlanta Georgia.  Now all we can do is wait with expectation for the finished product.  Congratulations Nu-Sound Entertainment on a night of gospel joy.