Jubilee 3 must have been the most requested DVD by fans in Southern Gospel Music in the year 2012.  For instance, the groups that make up the Jubilee Gang – Legacy Five, Greater Vision and the Booth Brothers – did not plan on filming a companion DVD at the outset of releasing their third CD together, Jubilee 3.  However, fans changed that decision and on December 9, 2012, L5, GV and the BB’s filmed Jubilee 3 in Branson, Missouri at the Mansion Theater after filming their “A Christmas Jubilee” DVD earlier that afternoon.  After enjoying the Christmas concert, I was excited to return and experience another live taping that evening.  (You can read my concert review HERE – if you have, or, plan on purchasing this video and would be interested in a moment-by-moment retelling of the taping with mistakes and all, well, I think you’d be most entertained!)

The Jubilee 3 DVD was released in April of this year (2013) and I for one couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy!  As one who attended the original concert, I’ve been more than curious to see what the final cut would be; what scenes would be edited out and what shots would make the video.  Before we get started, I need to make a confession!  This is a really hard review for me to write – I’m torn between the knowledge that the edits had to make the video look professional and the shots had to seamlessly flow from one to the other….and the memories of how much fun the guys made it when they messed up and had to go back and re-record something! *smile*  Therefore, though there were many times during the taping where they stopped and re-cut some of the material, you would never guess that from the video.  From watching the DVD, it looked as if everything went smoothly from the beginning!  It felt like I was watching a completely different concert!  (For the truth of what really happened, watch “out-takes” and laugh along with the moments that sadly, needed to be edited out.)  Anything less would be un-professional from the singers standpoint, its just a shame that some of the things that made the most memories for me couldn’t be on there, because…well, they weren’t meant to happen!  LOL Secondly, though all 12 songs from the CD were performed that December night, not all made it on the video.  Two songs were omitted: Wedding Music and How Much More.  Though How Much More was interjected in between two fast tunes, the ballad is a bit long and I don’t believe the edit was unwarranted.  Wedding Music, on the other hand, will be sorely missed IMO!  This was the song where we not only had a group of singers from the Jubilee Gang singing, but a “Jubilee Band” as well!  They sang it with live music (which may be the reason for its omission) and it was very neat to see Gerald play the keyboard, Rodney the bass guitar and Michael the drums while Chris, Scott, Jim and Matt sang.  The only other time the “Jubilee Band” played again was on the encore of Beautiful Home, which was edited out as well.  Last but not least, I’m going to mention the quality of the video.  If you have the two previous DVDs from the Jubilee series, you may notice a considerable difference in the film quality.  Honestly, Jubilee 3 looks like it was recorded in the 1990’s on VHS and was converted to DVD later on – the color is terrible and you can hear where they switched back and forth from the “live” sound and the “dubbed” over sound.  I haven’t seen or heard such poor quality on a SGM video in quite some time.

Location: Mansion Theater – Branson, Missouri

Track List:
1.  I Just Feel Like Something Good Is About To Happen
2.  The Happy Jubilee
3.  There’s A Better Day
4.  Had It Not Been
5.  Leave Your Sorrows And Come Along
6.  Still Trusting In The Blood
7.  Treasures In Heaven
8.  Getting Ready Today
9.  Every Cry Is Heard
10.  The Galilean
11.  Beautiful Home

Highlights:  Trey Ivey (of Legacy Five) singing his solo on the second verse of Getting Ready Today is definitely one of the highlights of this video.  The Jubilee 3 CD was the debut project that featured him as a vocalist and this DVD captures that same song on film – the crowd loved him!  Another special moment was Jim’s ballad “Every Cry Is Heard.”  At the end of the song he asked the audience to sing along with him and you can hear them loud and clear!  It was truly a special moment.  On a funny note, because everyone came for the Christmas taping that afternoon, the outfits in the crowd were very festive.  When they panned a shot of the audience on Still Trusting In The Blood, I couldn’t help but giggle when they focused on a lady wearing Christmas stocking earrings!  LOL  Many in the crowd were still decked out in their Christmas attire…

Behind the Scenes:  As for bonus footage, there are three additional clips for viewing; Out-takes, the Jubilee Trailer and the Celebration Cruise Promo.  If you allow the DVD to keep playing after the credits are rolled at the end of the concert, it will automatically continue into those clips.  Out-takes were my personal favorite!  This group of footage consists of the material that was edited out of the video, more commonly known as “fixes” in the artist’s words.  You’ll get to see what the guys did as they waited for the “truck to get ready” along with some of the jokes they made while trying to correct a mistake.  In other words, this is the part of the DVD that will make you laugh the most!

Conclusion:  Legacy Five, Greater Vision and the Booth Brothers were great.  They conducted themselves just as any SGM fan would expect – top notch singing, good natured fun and ministry through and through.  Yet, watching this DVD reminded me that just because they do their jobs with class…doesn’t mean that everyone else does.  The fans wanted this video so badly and it didn’t turn out well.  I hope that doesn’t effect the sale of future Jubilee videos, especially since every other video in SGM is filmed in HD (high definition), the concert itself was a GREAT, but I feel the lack of quality hurts the value of the product – the noise and grain in the footage are a distraction.  I do hope the Jubilee Christmas DVD that is coming out in September has better quality, because I’m anticipating its release as much as I did this one!