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Gaither Homecoming is the name applied to a series of videos, music recordings and concerts, which are organized, promoted and usually presented by Christian music songwriter and impresario Bill Gaither. [1]
On February 19, 1992, the Gaither Vocal Band had just wrapped up a recording session in a Nashville, Tennessee, working on an album called Homecoming, which featured many of the great voices of southern gospel music: The Speers, The Gatlins, Jake Hess, The Cathedrals, Howard & Vestal Goodman, Buck Rambo, Eva Mae Lefevre, James Blackwood, Hovie Lister, Jim Hill, and J.D. Sumner & The Stamps. After the session, the artists stayed around to chat, swap stories and sing old standards around the piano. [1] The impromptu session was recorded on video and later published. The recording was so well received that Gaither began a series of professionally produced videos with larger gatherings of gospel musicians.
The format for almost all of the videos in the series is very similar. A studio set or concert stage is home to a group of several dozen singers, with the front row featuring artists with longstanding and legendary careers in Southern Gospel music. They would be joined by younger artists, some of them up-and-coming acts in the Gaither Music Group publishing stable. Gaither would lead the group in several songs, with soloists and groups featured in additional songs. Comments by veteran singers, who would reminisce about their careers, are a staple of the series. In later videos, the inevitability of death found its way into the videos, as segments remembering artists who had died since the previous taping were featured.
Most videos also have accompanying CDs which can be purchased in a set or separately.
The videos and CDs regularly top sales charts, even many years after the series' inception and after the death of many favorite artists. The most recent videos, Gaither Homecoming Tour: Live From Toronto and Canadian Homecoming, were first and third, respectively, on Billboard's music video chart, and the companion CDs also hit the CCM charts. More recently, the 2007 recording of "How Great Thou Art" was nominated for a Dove Award.
In 1996, the video series gave birth to a concert tour, with a format similar to the videos but usually performed "in the round" in arenas. The concert dates are normally on Fridays and Saturdays, usually in separate cities.
In 2004, the Gaither Homecoming concert tour ranked 16th in Pollstar rankings of all tours, beating out pop music heavyweights such as Elton John, Fleetwood Mac and Rod Stewart. [2]
Many of the video series have been repackaged into a series of hour-long or half-hour-long television shows (similar to an infomercial). They can be found on the following Christian or family-oriented cable/satellite channels. (There is also an Internet TV channel – gaither.tv)
In the U.S.
In Canada
The Gaither Homecoming series has branched out into twice-yearly cruises. One cruise normally sails to Alaska in September, and the other to tropical ports in February.
It was on one of these cruises, in 2006, where regular pianist Anthony Burger, a longtime favorite of the Homecoming series, collapsed on-stage as a result of a heart attack while accompanying Gaither, his wife Gloria and the rest of the Homecoming Friends.
In 2009, for the first time, a Homecoming cruise was recorded for DVD/CD releases. Alaskan Cruise Homecoming and Majesty were released in January 2011.
This is an incomplete list of all the videos. Some of them may not be in the correct order.
Hall of Honor Series
An asterisk (*) indicates that the artist is deceased.
Numbers indicate how many videos the artist has appeared in as a featured performer.
The Gospel Music Hall of Fame, created in 1972 by the Gospel Music Association, is a Hall of Fame dedicated exclusively to recognizing meaningful contributions by individuals and groups in all forms of gospel music.
Jake Hess was an American Grammy Award-winning southern gospel singer.
William James Gaither is an American singer and songwriter of Southern gospel and contemporary Christian music. He has written numerous popular Christian songs with his wife Gloria; he is also known for performing as part of the Bill Gaither Trio and the Gaither Vocal Band. In the 1990s, his career gained a resurgence, as popularity grew for the Gaither Homecoming series. In 2023 he released a secular music album with the Gaither Vocal Band entitled “Love Songs”.
George Wilson Younce was a Southern gospel bass vocalist, known for performing with Southern gospel quartets, especially The Cathedral Quartet.
James Webre Blackwood was an American gospel singer and one of the founding members of legendary Southern gospel quartet The Blackwood Brothers. He is the only person in any field of music to have been nominated for a Grammy Award for 28 consecutive years. He received 31 nominations and won nine Grammy Awards.
Larnelle Steward Harris is an American gospel singer and songwriter. During his 40-plus years of ministry, Harris has recorded 18 albums, won five Grammy Awards and 11 Dove Awards, and has had several number one songs on the inspirational music charts.
The Statesmen Quartet were an American southern gospel quartet founded in 1948 by Baptist Minister Hovie Lister. Along with the Blackwood Brothers, the Statesmen Quartet were considered the most successful and influential gospel quartet of the 1950s and 1960s and had a wide influence on artists during that time from the gospel, country, pop, and rock and roll genre. Along with hits spanning many decades, The Statesmen Quartet had many notable successes including being the first Gospel group to receive endorsement deals. Additionally, they made television commercials, appeared on numerous radio and TV shows, and were signed to RCA Victor before launching their own record label, Skylite Records, with The Blackwood Brothers.
Russell Taff is an American gospel singer and songwriter who grew up in Farmersville, California. He has sung a variety of musical styles throughout his career including: pop rock, traditional Southern gospel, contemporary country music, and rhythm and blues. He first gained recognition as lead vocalist for the Imperials (1976–81). One of his best-known performances is the song "Praise the Lord". He has also been a member of the Gaither Vocal Band, and occasionally tours with Bill Gaither in the Gaither Homecoming concerts. As a solo artist and songwriter, Taff is known for the 1980s anthem "We Will Stand". Taff has received various Dove and Grammy awards either as a solo artist or part of a larger musical group, most notably the Imperials.
The Martins are a Christian music vocal trio composed of three siblings: Joyce Martin Sanders, Jonathan Martin, and Judy Martin Hess.
Guy Penrod is a gospel music singer. He is known for his work as the lead singer of the Gaither Vocal Band, a position he held from 1995 to 2009.
The Cathedral Quartet, also known as the Cathedrals, was an American southern gospel quartet who performed from 1964 to December 1999. The group's final lineup consisted of Glen Payne (lead), George Younce (bass), Ernie Haase (tenor), Scott Fowler, and Roger Bennett.
Ernie Haase & Signature Sound is an American Southern Gospel quartet founded in 2002 by Ernie Haase, former Cathedral Quartet tenor and Garry Jones, former Gold City pianist. As of November 2021, the group consists of Dustin Doyle (lead/baritone), Doug Anderson (lead/baritone), Paul Harkey (bass) and Ernie Haase (tenor). The group has released 33 albums and 16 DVDs, many of which feature other Christian and Gospel artists.
Rex Lloyd Nelon was an American southern gospel musicician, who had a career spanning over 40 years of both singing and publishing gospel music. He was a longstanding member of The LeFevres, which later became The Nelons after his own family took over management. Nelon was also a featured singer of the Gaither Homecoming series.
Raymond Ernest "Ernie" Haase III is an American Southern gospel singer. He is best known as the tenor vocalist and founder of Ernie Haase and Signature Sound since 2002, as well as being a former tenor vocalist of the Cathedrals Quartet from 1990 until their retirement in 1999. He along with Wayne Haun co-founded Stowtown Records in 2011.
Janet Paschal is an inspirational gospel vocalist. She has released numerous albums in that genre and has received multiple fan awards and Grammy and Dove Award nominations. She is also a songwriter and published author. In May 2019, she was inducted into the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. Paschal was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in October 2022.
David Norris Phelps is an American Christian music vocalist, songwriter, vocal arranger, and producer who is best known for singing tenor in the Gaither Vocal Band. He has also released several solo albums, including four Christmas collections. On January 13, 2008, Phelps appeared on Extreme Makeover Home Edition for the Woodhouse family.
Ivan Ray Parker is an American Southern Gospel singer.
This is a discography for the gospel vocal group Gaither Vocal Band.
The Nelons are an American southern gospel group based in Atlanta, Georgia. Group members are Kelly Nelon Clark, her husband Jason Clark, and Kelly's daughters Amber Nelon Kistler and Autumn Nelon Clark. The Nelons were inducted into the Gospel Music Association (GMA) Hall of Fame in 2016.
Kelly Nelon Clark is an inspirational Christian and southern gospel vocalist. She is associated with Bill Gaither's Homecoming events. Nelon Clark along with her family group, The Nelons, were inducted into the Gospel Music Association's Hall of Fame in 2016. She has won Singing News Fan Awards in the categories of Favorite Alto and Favorite Female Vocalist in 1980, 1981, 1982, 1987, and 1990.
JONES: There was a time back in the mid-'80s that Bill Gaither felt his trio had peaked, but he wasn't ready to hang it up. He wanted one more shot to make a gospel hit. So he reached out. BILL GAITHER: You know, and I called a bunch of the old timers and I said, ah, we're gonna come in and have fun. We're gonna have the radio days. JONES: And they came to join Bill and his Gaither Vocal Band—big stars from all over the country. Little did they know that this reunion with the Gaithers would turn into a concert series around the world called Homecoming. The themes—patriotism and religion.
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