The Greenes' Annual Gospel Jubilee (now known as the Everette Greene Memorial Gospel Jubilee) got underway last night (Tuesday, August 9). The only problem was rain....

Actually, rain wasn't a problem. Tony Greene wasn't going to let a few raindrops stop him. When he realized that the weather forecast wasn't going to be the best one anyone has ever enjoyed, the wheels in Tony's mind started going into overdrive.

Since he always has a huge tent for the concert-goers, he decided to make the best of it.

First, he made the decision to move the singers from the fairgrounds stage to under the tent. He found a 16-foot flatbed trailer and made a make-shift stage. Then he moved in a set of lights. Then, a small pa system was set up - and in a matter of a few minutes, Tony looked like a genius. Instead of letting the rain dampen things, he turned last night's concert into an old-fashioned tent meeting - and the 1500 people who were there loved every single minute of it.

You can't have an event of this size without having an official T-Shirt. I overheard many fans saying they have a T-shirt from every year (that's about 22 previous shirts).

As you can see, rain didn't keep the fans away either.

The Freemans opened the program and sang hit after hit after hit. The audience truly enjoyed "Going Back," "Children Of The Dust" and all the other songs that has kept this family on the road. You might also note that Chris, Darrell and Misty didn't want Joe on stage, so they made him stand in the grass. (Actually, there was just not enough room on stage for everyone.)

Speaking of the Freemans, Darrell has some of the best "road stories" you'll ever hear. In this photo, he's surely telling a fan one of them - and I'll share one with you after we get done with the photos. As you can probably tell, Joe (R) and Caylon have already heard this one.

Despite rain during the day prior to the concert, the rain drops didn't fall during the most of the evening. But everyone sure did think it was going to downpour at just any moment. No wonder, with skies like these!

Master Songwriter, Big Mo (Milton Ostrander) and his family came to Boone to share their songs. Big Mo's not a bad singer, either!

These guys absolutely floored the Jubilee audience. Paid In Full garnered many new fans last night with their great singing and super personalities.

Fans from all over the nation stopped by the product tent to take home the cds and dvds of the artists they had just heard.

Now, Darrell's story. Back in the days of the Pathways (Darrell's family group), the group had recorded several albums and just like every other group on the road back then, they had the huge record racks they'd set up at concert. Each of these racks were about six or seven LP's tall, so you can see they were pretty tall.

One day after a concert, the group stopped at a Shoney's Restaurant and while they were in there eating, a couple of fans came up to Darrell and asked if it would be possible for them to buy a few records. Darrell said sure and started to get up and go to the bus. But Darrell's brother and the group's drummer told Darrell to sit back down - they'd go to the bus and get the records out so Darrell could finish eating. As they left, the fans sat down with Darrell and continued talking.

About 20 minutes later, Darrell finished and he and the fans started to leave. As Darrell opened the door of the restaurant, the first thing he saw was the group's record rack - AND ENTIRE PRODUCT TABLE - set up by the restaurant doors. His brother and drummer were no where to be found - but Darrell knew they had to be sitting on the bus, watching through the windows and laughing.

Well, Darrell wasn't going to let them get the upper hand. He just stepped to the side, got behind the table and started selling product - not only to those fans who had came to the table, but to anyone else who was interested. Darrell said he was doing a pretty brisk business until the Shoney's manager came out and asked them to put the stuff back on the bus.

Naturally, Darrell sold him a record before he packed the product up.

Back to this week's Jubilee. The weather looks much better for the rest of the week. In fact, there's blue skies outside my window as I write this. Coming to Boone this week are Gold City, McKameys, Perrys, Triumphant Quartet, Mark Bishop, Primitive Quartet, Ivan Parker, Greater Vision, Jeff & Sheri Easter, Down East Boys, Michael Combs, Chuck Wagon Gang, Mark Trammell Trio and many more.

Check back tomorrow for more photos.