Brighter Day

Brighter Day was performed in Hobart’s historic City Hall in July 2011 to celebrate the iconic Southern Gospel Choir’s 10th Anniversary, bringing together the largest African American-inspired gospel choir in the southern hemisphere! Featuring The Festival of Voices Choir & The Melbourne Mass Gospel Choir.

Details

Tracks

Track	Title	Time
1	Jordan River
2	I Will Say
3	I’ll Trust You
4	We Bless Your Name
5	Thankful
6	Looking Out For Me
7	Brighter Day
8	I Pray
9	Journey
10	King Of Kings
11	Ode To Oli
12	Take It Back
13	How I Got Over
14	Hallelujah!

Brighter Day was performed in Hobart’s historic City Hall in July 2011 to celebrate the iconic Southern Gospel Choir’s 10^th Anniversary, bringing together the largest African American-inspired gospel choir in the southern hemisphere!

In this historic concert the SGC was joined on stage by the Festival of Voices Choir and the Melbourne Mass Gospel Choir, many of whom have participated in Tasmania’s international Festival of Voices from the beginning. We remember with great fondness our first Festival of Voices gospel gig with the late Dr Horace Clarence Boyer (if you are going to make a start, you may as well begin with gospel
royalty). Horace shared his music with a depth of soul that we will not soon experience again this side of heaven. However, thanks to him and all those who have followed, the Southern Gospel Choir and Festival of Voices Choir can now justifiably lay claim to being a significant part of the early African- American gospel music tradition in Australia!

In this wonderful new DVD, you will see and hear the Southern Gospel Choir, Festival of Voices Choir and Very Righteous Band as perhaps never before. Having outgrown all previous concert venues, we took over Hobart’s City Hall for one night of power, exhilaration and musical passion. In this context, the City Hall was quite reminiscent of the big gospel halls in the US during the 1950s where, under the influence of artists like the Five Blind Boys and the Dixie Hummingbirds, “young women were needing of medical treatment after becoming unconscious, and young men were seen to throw themselves off the upper floors into the audience below, all under the amazing power of the music and the spirit”.

With this line-up, in this wonderful space and with the power and exhilaration of African-American gospel music bouncing off the rafters, a truly splendid time was guaranteed for all – and is now faithfully captured here in this fantastic DVD. The Southern Gospel Choir has always been about participation, community, power, passion and spirit. So now, from the safety and security of your home, you are free to make as much noise as you like.

My own passion for gospel music began before I can remember. Brought up on a diet of Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Keith Green, Anglican hymns and the music of the Charismatic Renewal, I listened for and sought out every gospel remnant and artefact I could find in all the music I loved – from Dr John and Mick McDonald to even Billy Joel and Elton John! It has been my life-long passion, and I am genuinely overwhelmed that so many Australians now share this same passion and love for a music that is absolutely and irreversibly life-changing.

I first met my mentor and great friend, the late Dr. Anthony Campbell in 1996 and his generosity and belief enabled me to become a regular visitor to the United States and the Gospel Music Workshop. Tony opened the doors of the African American community to me; by not only arranging my debut performances at the Gospel Music Workshop of America, but also inducting me as his “Minister in Music,” legitimising my honoured position within the broader African American church, and graciously accepting me into his own family and life. I owe a great deal to Anthony Campbell and the faithful people of the Russell Street Missionary Baptist church in Detroit. I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to Pastor Clarence Noble the congregation of the Greater St. Mark’s Baptist church in Tuskegee, Alabama; the late Dr Horace Clarence Boyer; Myron and Timberlyn Butler and the Potters House Church in Dallas; and finally to the formidable and inspirational African American gospel music community at the Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMWA). In sharing with me their community, music and faith, they have together become a most significant catalyst for the transculturalisation of gospel music into Australia and Tasmania.

So don’t be afraid to lose yourself in the experience. It’s all about being together in this moment and experiencing the uncontainable, irrepressible joy and spirit that is African American gospel music.

Andrew Legg
Director and Founder of the Southern Gospel Choir

Stamp your feet!

Clap your hands!

Stand up in your living room, raise your hands, dance and sing with us like there’s no tomorrow!