Gatlinburg Gathering/ Hurricane Frances

Carolyn and I have been on the road and have not been in the office so I could update my Journal. This past weekend we were in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, for the Gatlinburg Gathering. Thirty seven years ago, we spent our honeymoon in Gatlinburg, so naturally we enjoy going back from time to time.
We had three nights of great Southern Gospel Singing, and some good eating, also. The concerts are held at the Convention Center in downtown Gatlinburg where hotels, restaurants and entertainment abound. On the program were Greater Vision, Isaacs, Gold City, Talley Trio, Greenes, Mark Trammell Trio, Pfiefers, Tony Gore, Integrity, Perrys, Michael Combs, Dove Brothers, Signature Sound, Ivan Parker and others.
Next to the singing, Carolyn and I enjoy our visits with our friends the most. We look forward to seeing our friends among the fans and industry. We are very blessed to be able to travel and meet so many wonderful people.
Gold City, under the direction of Danny Riley, did an excellent job and the fans loved them. Their new tenor, Steve Ladd, and new bass, Bill Lawrence, were magnificent. Jonathan and Danny were great as usual and the band, Doug, Channing and Adam were right on target. I know Tim would have been proud as a peacock had he been sitting there watching them.
Would you like to know what Tim was doing? Well, he was at home picking peas, cutting okra, shucking corn, and picking tomatoes. Barbara was in the kitchen canning and freezing - there's going to be some good eating this winter at the Riley home. I might just have to drop by sometime. I am really proud of Danny and the job he is doing with Gold City. He a fine young man with a big job to do so let's all keep Danny and Gold City in our prayers.
I have few photos for you from Gatlinburg and a couple from my house this morning. Carolyn and I thought when we moved from Pensacola, Florida, we had seen our last hurricane. Not so, Frances paid Boone a little visit. I had the pleasure of taking a shower in the dark this morning. I had no lights, but we have a gas hot water heater, so I had plenty of hot water. Be sure to check Danny's Diary and look at all the flooding we have today in Boone. With all this water, I would go fishing but I don't have any worms since I can't store them in Carolyn's fridge anymore.





A crowd of over 3,000 viewed the concert live and on three big screens.



The fans has plenty opportunities to purchase Southern Gospel Music products in the big exhibit hall.



Long time friend pastor/evangelist Phil Hoskins and daughter Madison Jade payed a visit to Singing News table



These two couples are true Southern Gospel Music lovers. They are from Norway. The are regular visitors of the Singing News web site. They learned about this concert from a advertisement on our web site and decided to come to Amereica just for this event. They are L/R Johan and Aud Halsne and Kari and Leif Jakobsen.



Buck and Daisy really ought to feed this baby. Isabelle Greene daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Toney Greene come by the Singing News table looking for a bite to eat.



This is the view from my front door this morning. And I did not get my morning paper either.

Posted by Jerry Kirksey at 4:30 PM - Send Comments - Email This Post