“It even snows on crooked roads!” – Gary Casto

The contact information on Tribute‘s website had a number to call for info. So I called the number and found out that it was to the radio station, and the lady who answered the phone didn’t know a thing about the concert! She told me to either call the church or call the station a week before the event. I had no luck reaching anyone at the church (no answer) until a few days before the concert. When I inquired of the details of the concert, the lady who answered the church office phone asked me, “Who’s having a concert?” I was dumbfounded for a moment and said, “Uh, I think your church is.” The lady replied, “Oh, we’re having our church Christmas play this weekend and I don’t think we’d do a concert so close to our event.” Then, before I had time to respond, I heard another lady in the office tell the lady I was talking to that they are having a concert at the church! For a few moments, the two office workers carried on a conversation about the whole thing as if I wasn’t even on the phone! It was so funny! Well, you could say that on Thursday I drove down to Arkansas wondering if there really was a concert to go to or not ……

The local quartet, Four Plus One, opened with one of the Perry’s popular songs, If You Knew Him, followed up by I’m Rich (a very well-known Gold City song). While they were singing this one, I happened to see Dennis of Tribute lean over to the sound board and make a few adjustments. That really impressed me, to see a professional change the settings on their board to accommodate a local group, just so they could sound their best. I’ve been to many a concert where a local group will open for the main act, and rarely, have I seen the main group sit and actually listen to and support the local group, yet alone, adjust their equipment to benefit the local groups sound. That shows a lot of character. Four Plus One’s third and final song was BFA’s Long As I Got King Jesus.

The pastor of the church came on stage and announced a few things. There were two people there from Gospel Music Today who filmed the concert for their viewers online. The pastor made mention that GMT is based out of Rhode Island, and remarked, “You know what that means don’t you? If the North is supporting Southern Gospel, that means that the South has won the war!” The audience roared with laughter. The next local group to sing was Southern Faith. Wayne, from the radio station, (yes, the SAME radio station that said they knew nothing about a Tribute concert!) his wife, and a friend from their church sang as a trio. I have to mention this little joke here, all who know Josh’s personality will enjoy this! Southern Faith used a laptop to play their tracks, and on their first song, it just wouldn’t play. So as they were standing there, Wayne remembered that he muted the track on the laptop and proceeded to fix the problem. When he un-muted it, the music began playing, though, by this time, it was in the middle of the song, so they had to start over again. When Wayne stopped the track to begin it again, Josh (who was sitting on the front row) being the silly person that he is, begins clapping really vigorously, pretending that they were finished already…and he got the audience to clap with him! It was a fun-loving bunch! Their first song was Won’t Give Up, Won’t Give Out, Won’t Give In. Following was a song that Wayne wrote himself, I think it was called something like I Won’t Cast the Stone. Their closing song was the one that surprised me the most, it was the Perry’s song, If You Knew Him. (Again???)  Wayne said that he really wanted to sing this one, and he hoped they won’t wear it out on us! Now what do you think of that?

Tribute Quartet was welcomed on the stage by a standing ovation – yep, before the music even started EVERYONE was on their feet to show their love for this group. All of the guys faces resembled that of surprise and gratefulness. The first song of the night was I Love Living In Grace, and the audience clapped along. I’ve Been Blessed followed, along with I Heard It, I Believe It. Gary took a moment to greet the congregation from stage, then he asked, “What was that road we drove in on?” Dennis said, “Highway 62.” Gary continued with his story, “Our two hour trip turned into four! I was sitting in the back of a 45ft bus doing some work…” Mid sentence, a lady from the audience calls out, “And that’s the GOOD road!” Gary stopped what he was saying and asked, “What? That’s the good one? Oh my, how do you get to Texas from here?” The lady cried out, “Fly!” Gary then asked, “Is there an airport close by?” (If any of you all are familiar with north Arkansas roads, you’ll know what we’re talking about! Hair pin turns and steep grades that say: speed limit 15mph!) Anyway, He Was In Charge (of His life) was next on the set list, and for this one Josh sat down and accompanied on the piano. When that number finished, Gary said, “Josh has a piano Cd out there, it’s just the old hymns of the church, how many of you still like the old hymns of the…” Meanwhile, Josh just happened to have a copy with him and stood up showing it to the audience, to which Gary teasingly says, …”Sit down Vanna White!” Then he tureds to Josh and said, “I’ll tell you what I want you to do, I want you to play my favorite song from this Cd, Every Day With Jesus.” Josh gets up and says, “Gary, tonight, if it’s all right, I would like to play MY favorite off the Cd,”  he looks at the audience, shrugs, and sits down at his keyboard. The crowd giggled. Gary asked, “Joshua, what might that be?” Josh replies, “Well, since it’s that time of year, it’s getting’ nice and chilly and all these decorations are up here, I wanted to play a good holiday song that everyone likes so much…Every Day With Jesus.” He flashes the audience a big grin, wait’s a moment, then adds, “He writes the check tomorrow,” as he points to his head in a gesture to silently suggest, “pretty smart, huh?” Josh gets about half way through his piano solo, and there is this lady on the front row and she’s really enjoying it, (a real cackler)… Josh turns to her (as he continues playing his solo) and asks in his most serious manner, “Are you okay?” As you can imagine, it just makes the audience laugh even more! Gary introduced the next song, His Tomb Is Empty. He told about how when they first heard the track to this song in the studio he thought it sounded like a John Wayne song, then engaged the audience with,  “Let me see what you think!” The first notes resonated into the Western sounding intro and Gary continued, “I can just see him riding his big ole’ horse across that crooked road I drove across today!” What a fun song containing a pertinent message. Riley was featured on a song written by Phil Cross over 17years ago…One Holy Lamb. Riley sang it with such passion, it was easy to see that he put his all into this song, not to mention the powerful message! Next, was Tribute’s former radio single that continues to be a favorite in concert, That’s Why I Love Him So. The powerful Calvary Wins Again closed their first set. If you’ve seen Tribute perform this live in concert, you know the commanding power and excitement each member puts into this song …. Very impacting!!

A short intermission gave everyone a chance to strech their legs and buy product. Before the second half began, they did a give away. There were four winners, and Josh was selected to hand out the prizes. The first person to win Tribute’s Cd was sitting in the back of the church, and Josh, in only a way he can do, yells out to that person, “Run!” Then, acting as if he just realized he asked an “elderly lady” to “run”, he left the stage, ran down the isle to the back, and handed her the Cd. Southern Faith sang two more songs before Tribute came on again.

The last half of the concert began with Gary talking about bass singers. He said, “We came in tonight and before the concert started, no one requested a bass solo, and we thought we were going to make it through the night without one; then, we had to stop and sell product… and you all came and requested to hear Dennis sing. Eat, belch and get paid!” So Dennis was featured on Ain’t Gonna Run From The Lord No More. The guys all had fun singing this one. Josh was playing his keyboard and his whole personality was expressed on his face during the song, which was absolutely hilarious! He sat facing the audience with legs crossed playing the piano with one hand! Who else could get away with that??? Gary came forward and told the audience the story behind the next song. He said that when they started their new project they told Josh he could pick any song he wanted to sing, and you know Josh likes old music, so he picked this one, Sweeter As The Days Go By. While they were singing it, on the chorus, Josh did the “Rockettes” leg kicking thing a few times…that was before Dennis and Gary noticed, then he had to stop. Gary asked the audience afterwards, “Did you enjoy that? Cause you may be the last people to hear that song if he acts like that one more time!” The church stage was decorated for Christmas, so the guys couldn’t help but do a couple Christmas songs. The first one they sang was White Christmas! During the first verse, the pastor flipped on the switch to their snow machine (that they would be using for their Christmas play the next night) and when the audience saw the “snow” falling, both – the audience and Tribute cheered! On the turn around Gary said, “I’ll tell you what, you have literally made my day! Isn’t this wonderful? It even snows on crooked roads!!!” After the song ended, Gary told the pastor, “Twenty-five years of traveling and that has never happened before! Now I have a story to tell all next year!” He went on to say that this year for Thanksgiving, he and Josh were by themselves and they went to a nursing home and did a Thanksgiving program for the people there. Gary said that he was the most blessed! There was a lady there who just turned 84years old, whose name is Miss Julia, and she kept telling them that she was so thankful that they sang her favorite Christmas song. She had no family to visit her, (she has one daughter, but she’s never came to see her since she’s been in the home), so Gary told her, “We’re going to take you out to dinner with us!” “We checked her out,” Gary explained, “whether they liked it or not, we checked her out! We just took her. I left an address at the front desk and said this is where we’re going to eat, if the cops need us, tell them to come and pick us up here, but we got her.” He went on to say that it was such a blessing to just sit at the table and hear her reminisce about the years. Miss Julia kept telling him that she was so glad that they sang her favorite Christmas song.  Gary thought it was going to be one of the big ballads, when it was actually a fun song. Miss Julia told them, “We need to have fun all year round!” So they sang a fun song … Come On Ring Those Bells! Before their closing song, Gary came off the stage down into the audience and spoke,… he talked about healing. Not just a physical healing, but a spiritual one, or an emotional one or financial one. How sometimes it is more important to have a spiritual or emotional healing, before a physical healing – a thought I think is often overlooked, and I’m glad Gary brought it up. “I don’t know your needs tonight,” he said, “But I can tell you about the One who knows it all. He’s the One who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He’s a God who will love us when nobody else will love us. He’s a God of grace and a God of mercy and a God of understanding. I don’t know who needs this song tonight, I wanted to end with a Christmas song tonight, but I want to sing this song, it simply says, that, I Am Healed.” I Am Healed was the last song of the evening, receiving a standing ovation. When they finished, Gary asked everyone to remain standing, b/c he felt lead to ask us to pray for our loved ones who are not saved. He said the Bible says that we’re not promised another minute, hour or day, but if we know Christ, we are promised heaven. It also says that God is no respecter of persons and that His hand is not shortened that it cannot save, and that He can use His Spirit to work no matter where our loved ones are at. He asked everyone to come down and pray for a few moments, and everyone did. Then, Gary had all of the members of Four Plus One and Southern Faith come up and sing Because He Lives with them as the closing song. Gary sang the first verse and Wayne from the radio station took the lead on the second. I must say, the most entertaining part of this song was when the guy from the radio station took the second verse and made up his own words b/c he forgot the lyrics to the second verse – which was quite a feat, considering the audience was singing along and they knew the second verse!

Tribute is one awesome quartet. If you have the opportunity to attend a concert, you won’t be disappointed! The songs they sing are pertinent and powerful, and it is very evident that every member of this group is not only excited about what they are singing, but they truly enjoy singing for their Lord and Savior. They have great stage presence and have a good repore with their audience, which they constantly engage. I think anyone who enjoys SGM will be delighted with this line-up and the message in the songs they are singing. Their personalities radiate with the love of Christ and it is very evident the Holy Spirit is at work through their ministry, which reaches far and wide. GREAT job Gary, Rylie, Josh & Dennis! Thank you all for an evening full of joy and blessing.