Everything is finally winding down after the conclusion of the Singing News Fan Awards and I hope that those who saw the show in person enjoyed it. While I'll have additional observations about the show and the awards later, I wanted to post a brief note in appreciation to a few "behind-the-scenes" people who helped to make the show what I feel to be one of our best ever.

First, there's Phil Brower and Kim White. A wealth of award show ideas flow from these two and they are always looking to find a way to tweak it one notch better.

Chris White. He worked on several of the musical aspects of the program and his input helped greatly.

The "Old Men": Ed Hill, Buddy Burton, Derrell Stewart, Gerald Williams and Bill Baize. All great performers of the past who can still work the stage when it's time to. Many of the five made special efforts to be with us tonight and we appreciate it very much. (In the trivia department, this was Bill's first appearance on the NQC stage since 1975. That's way too long ago.)

The "Kids": Eric Phillips, Joseph Habedank, Scott Inman, Jeremy Lile and Josh Singletary. Yes, there's a rumor already floating around about this being a new quartet for the road. But it's just a rumor.

Debbie Bennett: She was the picture of grace. As Roger would say, "you done good, girl."

Ivan, Janet, Ronnie, Michael, TaRanda, Tim, Susan, Gerald. Yeah, you were right...the teleprompter got moved back a little bit. OK, so it was 80 feet...but y'all still did fine.

Brian Franklin and Brett Kirksey: The Singing News web guys who kept the world informed. Brian updated our site live from the stage just as each winner was announced and Brett kept everything up and running in Boone, despite still playing clean up from the internet service disaster that happened earlier this week in North Carolina.

There are plenty of others to thank, and I will in due time. Check the diary later for more from the NQC.