The second night of the Mark Trammell Homecoming 10^th Anniversary Concert began with another video – this one titled, “The MTQ Olympics.”  Some of the categories that group members participated in were: Dancing, Diving and Gymnastics.  When Mark came on stage he pointed out that when he went “diving” into the pool on the Alaskan Cruise, one of the men who transferred his lounging chair to the pool was in the building that night.  His name is Gerald Wolfe!  Mark thanked Hill Crest again for organizing the event and then thanked everyone who came to be a part of the evening.  Before announcing the line up for next year, he asked how attendees heard about the event: through local radio, newspaper, Singing News, etc.  Homecoming plans for 2013 will include Greater Vision and The Whisnants!  Now that is something you won’t want to miss!

“Ya’ll ready to get started?” asked Mark, “will you help me make welcome the worship minister of this church, Jay Parrack!”  Jay bounced up on stage and made the announcement that everyone was waiting for.  “Well,” he began, “I didn’t win the golf tournament today…but, I did beat Mark!” LOL   Then, he reminded us that the evening was “all about Christ…” and prayed before introducing the first group.

Greater Vision!

“Help me welcome Greater Vision from Morristown, Tennessee!” Jay exclaimed.  With smiling faces Greater Vision came on stage and began their set with I Could Never Praise Him Enough.  Another tune tagged along right behind it and stimulated the crowd to clap – He’d Still Been God.  When that one ended Gerald let out a whoop as Chris started the next track, The Redeemed Medley.  “Thank you so much,” Gerald began as the applause died down, “we are looking forward to the next three, four, five hours…however long we’re here.”  LOL  Then he asked us to listen to a new song written by Rodney Griffin, No Longer Chained.  As We Are So Blessed began thereafter, Gerald turned to where Mark was sitting and dedicated the ballad to him.  Gerald thanked the audience once again for spending their evening with them, then gave us some counsel (that he learned the hard way) – DON’T take the new by-pass in Oxford!  GV’s infamous GPS system took Mr. Gerald (who was driving the bus at that time) down a (in Gerald’s words) beautiful two-lane road.  “It was beautiful, it really was,” insisted Gerald.  But, then the road ended, and the GPS said to turn left…and there was no left turn, so Gerald continued going straight on the new “dirt road,” and ended up at a dead end with a gate that had men with guns.  Turning to Mark, Gerald said, “And I hate to burst your bubble, Mark, but not everyone in Anniston knows who you are!”  Turning back to the audience he said, “You haven’t lived until you back a 49 foot bus up a dirt road for five miles!”  The audience laughed and Gerald drove the punch line home, “So not only are we glad to be here tonight…we’re lucky to be here!”  LOL  Gerald sat down at his keyboard and introduced Chris’s solo, I Know A Man Who Can.  The response was so strong while Chris was singing it and at the end with the standing ovation, that Gerald exclaimed, “That old man can still sing, can we do another verse of that?”  Chris sang it again.  When the last note ended, the music for The Only Way began and Rodney was featured on that upbeat number.  GV’s closing song was a powerful ballad called He’ll Carry Me.  Before the song began, Gerald said this about it, “I want you to listen to a familiar story with some background that you probably haven’t thought about before.”  When Rodney was singing the verses, you could see tears in Gerald’s eyes as the lyrics portrayed a moving image.  This ballad was very powerful and brought the crowd to their feet.

Jay came back on stage and brought our attention to the screens once again, as a video of the first ten years of the Mark Trammell Ministry played.  Mark’s voice reminded fans that when they first began the ministry, they had nothing, but 90 days later when they left for their first date, they had what was necessary…what was needed.

The Mark Trammell Quartet...

Without a word further, MTQ began their set with Tis So Sweet.  Next, a fast song began and Mark asked everybody to do “this” and led them in clapping to the beat of Meet Me Over On The Other Side.  There was such a great response from the crowd!  Mark introduced everyone quickly, not taking up too much time, and sang a request, Loving The Lamb.  That powerful ballad lifted Hill Crest right into heaven!  It definitely lifted the audience out of their seats!  Mark smiled, “I love it when you go to a concert and church breaks out.  Thank you for coming, and thank you for bringing the Lord with you.”  He went on to ponder aloud that over 10 years of singing means that they have recorded about 200 songs, and though they would love to be able to remember them all so they could sing them for us, “My brain doesn’t remember that they ever existed…hallelujah!”  LOL  On the other hand, Echoes From The Burning Bush is one they did remember, so they sang it for us.  Every time Dustin played a lick on the keys during this upbeat quartet number, Pat would glance over at him with that knowing smile.  Course, when they came to the “easy” part, Mark stopped the singing and commented to Eric on his high note, “That was cute…whatever it was, do it again.”  They did this twice more until the volume rose and the last notes rang out.  “Here’s another request,” Mark explained – How Big Is God.  Dustin rose from his keyboard and stepped out around to come sing the lead on Testimony.  When that song ended, Mark asked for the wives and children to come down to the stage.  Pausing a moment to clarify, he informed the audience, “Let me specify, we only have one each.”  LOL  After a few moments,

Carlie with her Dad and Mark before singing "I Love To Tell The Story"

Mark called out again, “Come on girls, Lauren where are you?”  A female voice answered from the back, “Coming!”  When all were accounted for, the guys introduced their families, beginning with Pat Barker and ending with Eric Philips.  Mark also sought out Dustin’s sweetheart, Blair, in the audience and had her stand and wave to everyone.  The families began to trail back to their seats, but Mark asked Eric’s little girl, Carlie, to sit down on the edge of the stage with him.  Now here was a moment that touched everyone’s hearts.  She sang I Love To Tell The Story, and as tears filled everyone’s eyes, you could clearly hear that her voice is high like her Daddy’s.  🙂  She received a standing ovation and Mark joked that everyone could go home now, because you couldn’t get better than that!  “Ya’ll listen to Pat,” Mark explained, “a man came all the way from Texas for tonight just to hear this song.”  It was the old Cathedrals song I Thirst.  After watching MTQ sing I Sing The Mighty Power again, Mark spoke about their Lifetime project, and reminisced that “I Sing The Mighty Power” was the first song that Greater Vision every sang.  “I’ll never forget that for as long as I live,” Mark concluded, then continued, “This particular song…you know what, I’m going to change my mind.  I’m grown and grey headed so I can do that.  Pat, I want you to sing what is the #1 song in the nation right now.”   Pat sang I Want To Know, and in Mark’s words – “they tore the lights out of the place!”  Two energetic encores later the crowd was on their feet and definitely not ready for the first set to be over.

Pastor Rick came up on stage and prayed for the offering, jokingly stating, “Ya’ll are going to think that the only thing I do is take up love offerings!”  LOL  Dustin entertained us as the plates were passed, and when intermission ended, we gathered in the sanctuary once more!

A photo with GV and MTQ together on stage...

Greater Vision and the Mark Trammell Quartet were introduced by Jay at the same time, and as both groups climbed on stage the guys teased, “Bye Jay!  We love you!  Go home Jay!”  LOL  Gerald settled down in front of his keyboard and looked at Mark, “Well, he introduced us and here we are.”  Mark replied, “Well, I had a request at my product table for you to do a song…but we’ll get to that later.”  LOL  Gerald formed a group to sing Plan of Salvation.  “Pat on the bass,” he instructed, then realizing that Pat was the only bass singer there, joked, “No, how about Chris on bass?”  Chris tried his hand on a low note, but no one was paying attention to him as Gerald called out for Rodney to sing lead and Chris tenor.  This little group sang Plan of Salvation with two pianists: Gerald and Dustin.  Finishing up, they went right into Masterbuilder.  Group members changed out so that all of the MTQ guys were singing with Mark.  (Loved the trills Gerald was playing on that keyboard!)  On the second verse Pat added a low “Yeah” and Mark messed up his verse because of the giggle that escaped.  Next, were some good old “Original Greater Vision” songs.  The first being New Wine followed by Sail Away.  “Man, that’s good!” Gerald exclaimed afterwards, “I love getting together with old people…”  LOL  Switching to a serious topic, he shared a request that he was asked to sing while at intermission.  The song was also his mother’s favorite – ‘Til The Storm Passes By.  As he sang the verses the music, lyrics and performance intertwined themselves together and weaved through the audience and touched every heart.  The crowd rose to their feet and Gerald shouted, “He’ll do it!  He’ll do it!”  With the Spirit prevalent Mark gave the invitation, and all too soon, Champion of Love closed off one fantastic evening.

Conclusion:  This was my favorite night of the Homecoming…hands down!  You can’t get two better groups together than Greater Vision and The Mark Trammell Quartet!  I loved how the second set was fully devoted to a segment of “Remember the Music.”  (And the few songs that were sung as the “original” Greater Vision were priceless!)  What a great night we had!  I don’t know about you, but if you’re not doing anything when the Homecoming rolls around next year…I’d be sure to be present in Anniston with Mark Trammell Quartet, The Whisnants and Greater Vision!