It was an evening of fun and fellowship as current and former members of Greater Vision, one of Southern Gospel Music's best-known and most popular trios, gathered together to relive 15 years of music and memories. It was a chilly Tuesday evening on October 25 in Mebane, North Carolina at the Mebane Arts Center where it all took place in front of a good size crowd of eager fans. I wouldn't call it a full house, but there were at least 200-300 people at the event and everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy the evening.
Original Greater Vision tenor, Chris Allman opened the concert with a welcome and a prayer before he introduced the emcee for the evening, Jesse Lee, son of former Cathedrals member, Steve Lee. As Jesse brought the Mark Trammell Trio to the stage, the group opened with "Stand and Praise the Lord" and then went straight into another former chart song, "The Love of Christ". The group then proceeded to sing a few songs from their newest release, "This Time" including the title song as well as "When Compared to God", "I Needed to Hear That" and "Keeper of the Keys."
Before their final song, Mark takes a moment to tell about a newspaper article in USA Today about things young people don’t know about (ie-8-tracks tapes, record LPs, crank windows in a car, etc.). The article went on to say that the #1 cause of death for people between the ages of 13-21 years old was suicide. The reason was they did not feel loved. As Mark speaks, he emphasizes that no one is unloved because Christ loves us far more than we could ever know or comprehend. This monologue leads into the final song for the group, "More than You’ll Ever Know". As the song finishes, the group receives a rousing standing ovation for their performance of the song.
Chris Allman takes to the stage next and his crystal clear, natural tenor voice fills the auditorium as he sings a few of his own compositions, "Won’t it Be Wonderful There", "I Still Believe" and "My Guilt is no Match for His Grace". Chris then takes a moment to sing one of the greatest hymns ever written, "The Love of God". As Chris’ final song, he sang one I hadn’t heard in years and to put it in simple terms, he sang the fire out of the classic, "Hallelujah Square" and left the stage with the crowd on their feet.
Greater Vision then took to the stage with "I was Blind, But Now I See" from their "Faces" recording. Then they went right into "All is Well" and "We Are So Blessed" from their brand new recording entitled, "My Favorite Place". After singing "Samaritan’s Heart" and the ever popular, "My Name is Lazarus", the audience delights in quite a bit of banter from Gerald Wolfe as he talks about the Happy Goodmans and the convention style singing that Greater Vision does so well, after which the group breaks into the classic, "Living in Canaan Now", complete with shape note singing and the crowd just ate it up.
After some fun between Gerald and Rodney (together these guys are absolutely hilarious), and before singing their 2005 Song of the Year, "Faces", Gerald takes a moment to share how the song has touched so many different people over the last year and a half including missionaries in Thailand. It was so neat to hear how people all over the world have been touched and encouraged by the message in this great song.
Before exiting the stage, Greater Vision broke into their newest single, the exciting "Paid in Full Through Jesus, Amen", leaving the crowd begging for more. But alas, it was time for intermission.
After intermission, Gerald, Mark Trammell and Chris Allman took to the stage for the reunion segment of the concert and started with the popular, "New Wine" before singing the old song, "I’ll Be a Friend". Gerald begins reminiscing about how he first met Chris while he was still with the Cathedrals. He told about how the group first sang together 15 years ago and that the first song they ever sang together was the old hymn "I Sing the Mighty Power of God", which the group sang and received a standing ovation.
Gerald moved to the piano and Mark put on the bass guitar and they sang the classic, "While the Endless Ages Roll" and "Treasures Unseen". The latter song was really a moment for me as I grew up hearing that song and obviously everyone in the audience loved it as well because just about everyone around me was singing along. The group then went into "No One Cared so Much" and "He is Mine."
Let me interject right here, that Gerald is probably one of the best emcees in Southern Gospel Music. I guess you could say he’s George Younce, Jerry Goff and Hovie Lister all rolled into one. Some of his one-liners from the platform were simply priceless. For instance, in telling how Greater Vision brought back the convention style singing back in the early 1990’s, Gerald asked how many people in the audience owned at least one Gaither video. Of course, everyone raised their hand and Gerald said, "That’s why he’s in Jamaica and we’re in Mebane!" As the crowd roared with laughter, Gerald jokingly said Gaither stole the idea from them and proceeded to break into "Hallelujah, I’m Going Home". With its shape note singing, this was one of the highlights of the evening.
As Mark Trammell bowed out, and Rodney Griffin steps in, they sing one of Chris’ compositions, "I Could Never Praise Him Enough". Before Chris exits the stage, Gerald plays piano as Chris turns in an excellent performance on one of my favorite hymns, "Blessed Assurance."
Jason returns to the stage as the current group sings a new song from their newest release called "Your Story", after which Rodney leads the audience in a couple of choruses of the old hymn, "I Love to Tell the Story" while Gerald played piano. With tears streaming down, Rodney shares how his little 7-year-old daughter recently got saved and how she now has a story to tell, just like everyone else who has come to the Lord. Rodney leads us into a time of invitation and prays a beautiful prayer of salvation and reverently leads us into the final song of the evening, "Champion of Love" with Mark and Chris along with Eric and Joseph from the Mark Trammell Trio joining in on the final chorus.
It truly was a night of magic hearing and seeing the original group singing again. Granted, a little grayer than before (Gerald, where’s your gray?), but sounding as great as they did when they first sang together 15 years ago. I remember the first time I saw Greater Vision in person. It was in September 1991 at New Hope Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Seeing the original group sing again in Mebane brought me back to that night 14 years ago when I heard them and knew, even then, I was listening to something great. The magic was still there.
*Special thank you to Mary Hamilton for the great pictures!
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Author: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Written: 10/31/2005
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Category: Feature Articles
Comments: 5
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Let me add to this story by saying that the one thing I was disappointed in was that Greater Vision did not sing "There is a River". That would have made the evening totally and completely, COMPLETE!
Wonderful review of what must have been a terrific night! It made me feel as if I had been there.
God is good all the time & all the time God is good.
Elaine Harcourt
I just wish they would bring that concert to Central Illinois!
James, Thank you for informing us of this great concert.I wanted to attend really bad,but we were on the road. Your comments are much better than my wife's decripition, she couldn't remember all the songs Etc.The concert was only 8 miles from my home.Chris is really making a diffrence in our comunity,the church is growing and people are taking notice of this new church.
Where can I get the guitar chords for "Treasures Unseen
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