Danny's Diary

Danny's Diary

- Danny Jones : Singing News Editor-in-Chief

A Little of This, A Little of That (#315)

Friday, August 18, 2006

As I write this, I'm in a hotel room near Seminole, OK. It's 104 degrees outside and it's barely noon here.

Naturally, Seminole is an outdoor sing.

Nonetheless, things roll on. With Southern Gospel music's "Silly Season" in full swing (that's what I call the time of each year when there seems to be a rash of personnel changes), there was a lot of talk last night about who would be singing with what group when. So, far in the past few weeks, there have been announcements of the departures of John Rulapaugh from the Palmetto State, Trecia Cisneros from the Lesters, Loren Harris from the Perrys and now, the recent news of a vacany within the Dixie Melody Boys.

We know what Rulapaugh's plans are. Same for Trecia, Loren and the departing lead singer of the Dixie Melody Boys. The real question - as evidenced by the traffic on the Internet - is who will take their places.

Nope, I don't have inside information that I'm about to reveal. Nope, groups are not withholding information until NQC. The fact of the matter is this ... the groups are looking.

But I will tell you this: last night brought to the forefront a possibility for the Perrys. Nic Trammell, son of legendary baritone Mark Trammell, sang the baritone part for the Perrys (Joseph Hadebank sang lead). With basically only one practice session, Nic stepped up the plate and did a fine job in front of the Seminole audience - and Joseph did a good job in his first outing as a lead singer. Will this be the new line-up for the Perrys? Only time will tell...but based on the comments I heard from a lot of groups and fans, they were very pleased with the sound of these two guys with Tracy and Libbi Stuffle.

Since the field at Seminole does not have excessive lighting, many audience members probably did not see the figure that was standing off to the side watch the Perrys' performance. It was a short guy ... Mark Trammell. I'm sure it was a special moment to see his son on stage with a top group ... and you could tell Mark was proud (and rightly so). He grabbed a few pictures and it looked like he was holding his cell phone so the folks at home could hear what was happening on stage.

However proud he was, though, I know Mark well enough to know one of the thoughts that was going through his mind as he was watching Nic sing..."Dang, I'm getting old."

Stay tuned.

----------------

While here at Seminole, several Singing News subscribers have come to the table and expressed their happiness with the new enchancements that have been made to the magazine in recent months. We certainly appreciate your opinions and we are very pleased that you seem to be enjoying the progress. There's a sizable upswing in the momentum of Singing News and people like you are directly responsible.

----------------

Speaking of people like you, I've had tremendous response to the last entry into Danny's Diary. Readers have submitted many great questions for us to pose to an upcoming cover feature artist - the problem now is going to be narrowing down the questions to fit space allotments.

Even though we've got plenty work with, feel free to e-mail if you come up with a novel question.

----------------

That's it for now. Aaron Wilburn is knocking at the door - he's invited me to lunch. The last time he INVITED me to lunch, it cost me $38.00

I think he's been taking lessons from Michael Booth ... who now has INVITED me to lunch on several occasions and it's only COST me about $400.00 thus far.

 
 
SOUTHERN GOSPEL NEWS
Southern Gospel News
Listen to Solid Gospel Radio Live
NOW PLAYING
Southern Gospel Rewards