Catching up with me

I am finally getting caught up here. I have been a bit preoccupied with a life matter. But you can get burned out being so single-minded in your focus, so I think it's time to take a break and recap some other things that have been happening.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the Twin Cities Quartet Convention in Bloomington. It was in the same locale Mark Lowry's concert was a couple of weeks earlier. TCQC has been pretty much an annual event for this location, but I hadn't been there in about a year or so. It has its endearing traditions, like the pre-act Internet jokes read by genial host Jim Loving, and the barbecued chicken sandwiches. It seemed to be a smaller crowd with less product tables than past years, but it was a good afternoon of Southern Gospel music. There were some impressive newer acts such as Stand Your Ground from Crown College in MN as well as my perennial favorites, The Browns (who are doing very well on the national Southern Gospel scene), Higher Power and my friends in Wisconsin, Living River Quartet. The Living River guys dealt with some technical problems in their late afternoon set, but they handled them with class and earned a well-deserved standing ovation.

I've seen a glimmer of hope this year for Southern Gospel music in the Twin Cities. Along with this event and Mark, we've also had Ernie Haase and Signature Sound do a show for us this year, and we are also getting the Hoppers in town at the end of the year.

I also want to thank everyone for the great support for the "Ponder Cast". I've had listeners every day and I'm still in Cyberears' top 10 thus far (with many other new shows being hosted). I've also been getting a bit of encouragement about doing some voice work, so I will be doing a voice demo in the near future.