While Gina and I were visiting with my minister friend, John Lavaki, last night, we discussed the great Gospel song, How Great Thou Art. This motivated me to post the song on my page. And then I asked myself, which version? There are SO many wonderful recordings of this song. I considered the George Beverly Shea version. Like I told Brother John, this was probably the definitive version of the song when I was a young boy. Bev Shea would often sing it during the Billy Graham crusades just prior to Rev. Grahams sermons. And then I considered posting one of Elvis versions, as the man sang the song with a Southern Gospel flair like no one else. And too, J.D. Sumner and the Stamps Quartet backed Elvis up during those years (and with TWO deep bass singers - both J.D. and Richard Sterban, who went on to sing for the Oak Ridge Boys, and still does). Next, I considered the version performed by the great country artists Carrie Underwood and Vince Gill at the ACM Girls Night Out: Superstar Women of Country performance in Las Vegas a few years ago. I picked that version because of Brother Johns fondness of the electric guitar (he plays the electric guitar and sings in addition to preaching the Gospel, and sometimes he does all 3 at once!). Of course, Vince Gill is one of the very best guitar players in all of country music, or any other genre of music for that matter. He played a guitar solo during this version. And he backed Carrie up with that beautiful high tenor voice of his. At the end, the audience gave Vince and Carrie a standing ovation. Now, that audience wasnt a typical audience. It contained some of the biggest names in American country music today. All moved enough to get on their feet. This is for you, Brother John, my friend! Tagging some friends who I think will appreciate this recording: Regina Delos Santos, Arlene Lavaki, Larry Burks, Cheryl Forque Melton, Tommy Juarez, Danny Fain, Ken Thompson, Joel Ball, Pam McDaniel Kurz, Ednajo Forque, James Vandiver, Lee Blackman, Leon Steward youtube/watch?v=YMVkKA6xFe0
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 07:07:59 +0000