Consistency

While reviewing the latest Gold City CD yesterday (as well as checking out a very clever post by Brandon Coomer), I made an interesting observation....since 2002, only two Gold City CD's have had the same lineup (and on a technicallity, one of them rendered itself null and void).

Let's take a look....

2001: Pressed Down, Shaken Together, Running Over - Jay, Jonathan, Mark, Tim, Doug, Adam, Channing, Danny
2002: Walk The Talk - Jay, Jonathan, Danny, Tim, Doug, Adam, Channing
2003: A Gold City Christmas (Version 1) - Jay, Jonathan, Danny, Tim, Doug, Adam, Channing
2004: First Class - Steve, Jonathan, Danny, Tim, Doug, Adam, Channing
2005: Heaven - Steve, Jonathan, Danny, Bill, Doug, Adam, Channing
2006: A Gold City Christmas (Version 2) - Steve/Jay, Jonathan, Danny, Bill/Tim, Doug, Channing, Adam (although Jay, Tim, and Adam were not pictured on the new cover)
2006: Revival - Steve, Jonathan, Danny, Aaron, Josh
2008: Moment Of Truth - Steve, Bruce, Danny, Aaron, Josh

As you can see, the first two CD's had the same lineup, but when the album was rereleased a couple years later, several overdubs created a CD that was essentially made up of two different lineups. I understand that the past several years have been a "rebuilding" phase for GC, and it appears that they now have the steady, stable lineup to carry them for a while (I hope....I love this current group!!).

This is, sadly, another downfall in SG music. As soon as a group gets a solid lineup, someone decides to make a change (for whatever reason). A group notorious for it's many changes is the Gaither Vocal Band, although Bill has often stated that he prefers to bring in new talent, allow them to grow, then watch happily as they move on to their own careers. Mark Lowry even made light of the ever-changing lineup when he referred to the group as a "revolving door....Bill has an extra baritone waiting in the wings...."

Here's a rundown of the GVB albums over the same timeline as above....

2000: God Is Good - David, Guy, Mark, Bill
2001: I Do Believe - David, Guy, Mark Bill
2002: Everything Good - David, Guy, Russ, Bill
2004: A Capella - David, Guy, Russ, Bill
2005: Very Best.... - David, Guy, Marsh, Bill
2006: Give It Away - Wes, Guy, Marsh, Bill
2008: Lovin' Life - Wes, Guy, Marsh, Bill

In this case, at least two members have remained consistent, so it's not quite as bad (especially since the group has been based around Guy's voice since he joined in 1995), but you'll notice that the Phelps/Penrod/Hall/Gaither lineup only released a total of four songs (on the "Very Best Of" CD), so if you blinked, you missed it.

As Brandon has noted, not only has this turnover resulted in virtually every new release featuring at least one new singer, but has also resulted in multiple/alternate versions of albums being recorded/released. One talked-about example is when Jay Parrack left Gold City; he had already completed all of his work on their First Class project, and when Steve Ladd joined, he redid the tenor vocals before the album was released. According to at least one poster, GC gave Jay a copy of the album with his voice still intact as a "going away present." To my knowledge, the only copies that exist belong to Jay and Gold City.

Those are the two higher-profile groups I know of who have had trouble with consistency; the mid-tier groups see about as much turnover as an IHOP chef, which means that any album you buy from a group could be their only release with a particular singer (giving a lot of albums the potential to become collector's items). Think back to the Singing Americans....if you want a certain combo, odds are you only have one album to choose from to get it.

Another of Southern Gospel's idiosyncrasies....