Earlier this week, I was doing a little research for something I'm doing for the next issue of Singing News and as I was going through the April 1998 issue (Jake Hess was on the cover), I found an article and an ad for an event in Atlanta, Georgia.

Remember Bill Gaither's All Day Singing At The Georgia Dome?

Yes, June 27 will be the 10th Anniversary of that one time event. Ten years, folks.

I was there that day, along with about 35,000 other people. Even though the Georgia Dome holds slightly twice than that number, 35,000 people was nothing to sneeze at. After all, list all the other events in Southern Gospel music that can claim a single-day attendance of 35K...

Looking back, I'm not sure all of us who were there realized at the time just how "magical" that event was. Here was the talent line-up: Gaither Vocal Band, Jeff & Sheri Easter, the Bishops, Larry Ford, Jim Hamill, Karen Peck & New River, Ben Speer, Howard & Vestal Goodman, Bob Cain, Sue Dodge, the Hoppers, Candy Hemphill Christmas, Hovie Lister & The Statesmen, Janet Paschal, the Martins, Mark Lowry, the Nelons, Squire Parsons, the Isaacs, Anthony Burger, Jan Buckner, Jessy Dixon, James Blackwood, Ivan Parker, the Hayes Family, the Kingsmen, Poet Voices - and more that I'm sure I'm forgetting. It was a 12-hour marathon of Gospel music that began at 10 a.m., and by the time the hour hand of the clock rotated 12 times, everyone was ready to go home - well, kinda. Truth be known, they probably could have sang another 12 hours and no one would have minded.

In the ten years that have followed, we've lost several of those friends I've just listed. Some others have retired from road life or moved on to other things. Fortunately, that day was preserved forever on at least two of Bill's videos (and I'm sure the entire raw footage is safely preserved in a vault somewhere).

Last week, I talked with Triumphant Quartet's Jeff Stice quite a bit while at Bill Bailey's annual Winter Convention. Now, if you hang around Jeff long - or Karen Peck Gooch, for that matter - it won't take long for him (or her) to bring up Rex Nelon. Without fail, stories of traveling on the bus with Rex come forth like a rushing waterfall and I haven't heard one yet that I didn't think "Someone needs to be writing this down." Jeff and Karen could fill entire books with what they experienced as part of the Nelons - some funny, some serious, some musically enlightening, but all entertaining. I've told both of them numerous times to write these things down before it's too late. These are just too good not to be enjoyed for generations to come.

So let me take this opportunity to encourage everyone who has traveled in Southern Gospel music to take the time to record these memories for the future. Great stories about Howard and Vestal, Jake, Jim Hamill, Anthony, Glen, George, Rex and scores of others will be lost forever if they're not preserved on tape or on paper. The same can be said about those "younger" ones: Gerald, Karen, Janet, Libbi, Scott, Jonathan, McCray and many others.

Ten years will go by before you know it.