In all of my years of attending concerts, I’ve seen some pretty unique places hold Gospel Sings, but the most unusual, yet exciting, has to be the Superman Festival in Metropolis, Illinois. Yep! – For four whole days the town lives and breathes everything “Superman.” Tents are raised and given names like “Metro Tent,” “Smallville Tent” and “Man Of Steel Area.” There is a costume contest every year, so, as you walk around town, no matter where you look, you’re bound to see someone dressed up like Superman or another superhero character. You can get your picture taken by the giant Superman Statue that stands 15 feet tall, visit the Superman Museum…well, you get the picture! But the thing that makes this Festival so special is the fact that the coordinators are not afraid to bring in Gospel Music and let the music about Christ be a testimony to everyone who hears it.

The 33^rd Superman Festival began on Thursday, and scheduled that evening was a concert with Brian Free and Assurance at the Metro Tent…so as soon as I rolled into town, that’s where I headed. There are advantages and disadvantages of seeing an artist sing in an outdoor tent in the summer time – and I bet you can guess one disadvantage – it’ll be HOT! Sure enough, the temperature was in the upper 90’s that day and everyone in the Metro Tent was making use of free water and paper fans to cool off. (A special thanks to the Southern Most Area Rural Transit, SMART, for providing those)! One advantage though (because of the heat) if you get to the tent early enough, you can get a front row seat no problem! When I claimed a seat and began taking in my surroundings, the first thing I noticed was that the tent itself was different from the one last year. You probably wonder how I would know this and why it would matter. Well, the tent last year had this big steel pole smack dab in the middle of the stage! I wasn’t looking forward to having that pole in my video and pics this year, and thankfully, I didn’t have to worry about it – it wasn’t there! *sigh* The members of Brian Free and Assurance are: Brian Free singing tenor, Bill Shivers fulfilling the lead spot, Derrick Selph supplying the baritone position and Jeremy Lile providing the bass vocals.

Every year, a local trio called Cross Harmony opens for the featured artist. (Now, a little note just between me and you, while they were singing the first few songs of their set, I was out recording my intro for my video blog, so I didn’t get to see Cross Harmony sing, but I got to hear them!… and this is what I heard …) The Country/Gospel tune Long Black Train was their opener and another song originating in Country Music, There Is A God, followed. The later, There Is A God, was a treat for me to hear, because when I attended the Steve Hurst School of Music last summer, this was one of the songs that the songwriting instructers raved over. (Lyrically, it truly is a gem.) A slow song written by Gerald Crabb, Sometimes I Cry, came next. He’d Still Been God and Don’t Let The Sandals Fool Ya’ picked up the beat a little, after that their tenor was featured on another Jason Crabb ballad, Walk On Water. Cross Harmony did some more songs that SGM fans might recognize, such as: What Salvation’s Done For Me, What A Beautiful Day (for the Lord to come again), In That Land We’ll Never Die, etc. Before their last song, one of the singers was poking fun at their own group for not having any Cd’s to sell. Now, I personally didn’t think his joke was all that funny, but what made me giggle was the response from the lady sitting behind me (after the concert I found out she’s been following Brian’s singing from all the way back in his Gold City days!). So the baritone begins, “We want to do one more song before we close, but afterwards, be sure to visit our record table…” The lead singer cut him off, asking, “Uh, our record table?” The baritone continued, “Yeah, our record table,” (motioning towards BFA’s product), “I don’t know what happened at the printer, because it has Brian Free and Assurance written all over it and pictures of some ugly guys on it…we even have an economic special – buy one, get the rest of the table free! That’s why they call it Brian ‘Free.’” Instead of laughing, the lady sitting behind me said, out loud, “Aghhhh, someone’s fixin’ to get a whoopin’!!!”

Upon the closing of Cross Harmony’s set, the MC announced a short intermission, but came back on stage with a little boy a few seconds later and said, “This youngin’ came up to me and said, ‘I want to sing some Gospel music.’ We have some time, so here he is, his name is Mason Ramsy and he is four years old.” Little Mason was dressed up like a cowboy – boots, hat, guitar, everything! He sang I Saw The Light while pretending to play the guitar along with the track he was singing to. It was a looooong version too! He sang all the verses and knew all the words. It was amazing to see such a young boy keep time with the track! When he finished, both Brian and Bill were wearing huge grins and shook the little guy’s hand when he came off stage.

After a rousing introduction of the group, Brian Free and Assurance launched their concert off with their accapella version of Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee, receiving cheers and a rumbling applause when taking the stage. Upon closing the song, Brian suggested, “Clap those hands together and you’ll keep the air moving in here!” – even though folks had to put their fans down to clap – everyone did! Go Tell The World was the selected number to keep the beat to, and Bill did a great job on it. Keeping the beat going, Anything Is Possible With You, followed. Before the second verse, Bill asked the crowd, “Do you believe that?” Then declared, “We love You, Lord,” when the song finished. By way of introduction to BFA’s current radio single, I Believe, Brian inquired, “How many today still believe in the Holy Infallible Word of God?…I know we do.” Next, came Glory Road, Brian invited the audience to sing along with him if they knew the words on this oldie but goodie, and once again, when he hit those high notes, the crowd loved it and let the guys know with a lot of noise! Towards the end, Bill turned to Brian and asked, “Can you sing just a little bit more of that?” Brian pretends to look upset and desperately responded, “No! It’s TOO HOT!” ~ then jumped into another encore. Brian stepped up front and asked the crowd, “How may of you are glad to be here tonight? Say ‘praise the Lord.’” A whole host (or at least that’s what it sounded like!) – answered, “Praise the Lord!” (We had a very interactive group in the house, I mean tent, that night)! Brian began, “It’s a good thing that you know the Lord as you personal Savior, and if you don’t we would love to introduce you,” (in referance to the heat, he mentioned this…) “cause it’s a LOT HOTTER DOWN THERE!” That little illistration combined well with the message of the following quartet number, Just A Little Talk With Jesus. I’ve seen a lot of people perform this hymn, but this was the first concert where I actually heard someone introduce it by talking about salvation, heaven and hell. (Way to go guys!!!) Brian asked how many were seeing Assurance for the first time, many raised their hands, so he went on to introduce the guys. Bill (lead singer) was first up. Grabbing a spare fan that was laying on some equipment, Bill began fanning Brian as he talked. Brian said, “Yeah, just keep standing there doing that buddy!” When Derrick (baritone singer) came up for his introduction, Bill handed him the fan, and it was Derrick’s turn to fan Brian. “This here is a big one,” said Brian, referring to Derrick’s height, proceeding matter of factly, “you’d make a good superman, you’re a big ole’ dude!” Someone sitting behind me made a comment about spandex while Brian tried to find out from the audience how tall superman was. Gesturing towards the giant superman statue, Brian says, “That one’s about fifteen feet tall, you’re not as big as him!” Passing the fan off to Jeremy (bass singer) Brian looks at the other guys and comments, “Ya’ll are just passing that off to one another?” (From what I hear, Brian isn’t a big fan of hot weather). Jeremy is a big superman fan, Brian told us, and then he told this really funny story about Jeremy’s little four week old son, Logan. (I’ll try to retell the story, but you just have to hear Brian tell it, so be sure to hear this story on the video blog that will be up in a few days)! Brian mentioned how he was in the delivery room when his sons were born, as was Jeremy… continuing on, “and when the youngin’ comes out, if the doctor isn’t sure the baby’s breathing or something, he spanks em’, and we all know what takes place…it kind of sounds like me singing! But, when they spanked Logan, Jeremy’s son, this is what it sounded like…” Leaning the microphone over to Jeremy, he goes “whaa” in a very, very low voice. Everyone laughed and Brian said, “It kind of freaked the doctor out!” Bill introduced Brian (tenor singer) and pointed out that Brian’s son, Bryce was on the road with them that weekend. When the into’s were finished, Bill was featured on You Must Have Met Him. Brian began talking about the songs on their new Cd, “These songs truly have blessed our hearts since recording this project.” He went on to introduce their number one hit Never Walk Alone, and why it’s such a special song, when suddenly the biggest gust of wind came in the tent and made a huge racket! You could hear that something in the back of the tent fell over, everyone began talking and making comments like, “Oh! It’s going to blow the roof right off!” The spiritual battle taking place was very evident. What are the chances that when Brian starts to share about his parent’s passing, and his walk with the Lord and the promise that we’ll never, ever walk alone – that something as simple as a gust of wind would blow in and distract everybody? It was very obvious and a little freaky too! (I guess someone there really needed to hear what Brian had to say and the words to that song!) In addition to all the weird things that happened on that song, I can add one to the list myself! – My camera decided that it did not want to video that song and stopped recording! No way, no how would it function! Yep, there was some battling going on! Anyway, Brian did an awesome job singing Never Walk Alone, everything settled down after that, and we even enjoyed a light, cool breeze every now and then. I was soooooo excited when Derrick stepped up to sing the next song – Turn The Page. This is my favorite song from their Never Walk Alone Cd, and hadn’t seen them do it live before…I don’t know who requested it, but they are my new best friend! LOL! I thought Derrick did a great job with his solo on the verses, and I guess Brian thought so too, ‘cause when the song ended you could hear Brian tell Derrick, “You sang it boy – you did!” Another new song I’ve yet to see performed live was Jeremy’s solo, God Will Close The Door. In reference to the lines in the chorus (example: God will close the door, when the storm clouds gather round me…) Brian declared, “Yes, He will!” – at the close of the up beat song. Bill came and shared with the audience that he was saved when he was twenty years old, and that he sees salvation as a miracle. “God can take the blackest heart, then take His mighty hand and the blood of His Son Jesus, and wipe all the blackness and sin away…that’s a miracle!” (That was also the Lynn paraphrase)! What a great intro for The Part Where You Come In! This song featured Bill, and when he sang it, you could tell that it was special to him. Brian took a moment and told about their product and specials, then finished off the evening with a few more songs. The first of which was a beautiful ballad that Brian sings called For God So Loved. In between verses, Brian quoted John 3:16 ~ “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but what?” The audience finished the verse by saying, “Have everlasting life!” Which Brian echoed again before going into the second verse of the song…the emotion that he put into it was so, so very real! With the heat and all, he could have just sang the song and been done with it, but instead, he gave it his all. Everyone else must have thought so too, because the whole crowd stood in ovation while they held that last note. When Brian saw everyone standing and applauding, his response was, “Praise God! – What a song! And as long as we got King Jesus, we don’t need anybody else! That’s what the Word of God says!” Then they jumped into Long As I Got King Jesus and everyone clapped along! This upbeat “barn burner” closed the concert (way too soon in my opinion)! Before the guys stepped off stage, Brian thanked the Festival for letting them come, and turning back to the audience said, “We almost wore our Superman T-Shirts, would that have been all right with ya’ll?” He chuckled while the audience howled their approval.

Conclusion: BFA did a terrific job at the Superman Festival! Even though it was very hot outside (upper 90’s), the guys put on their best and gave it their all. I was especially impressed with Brian’s ability to keep reaching those high notes again and again in the heat! It seems like all the other tenors wilt at outdoor summer sings. When he hit that last note on For God So Loved, I was in awe…then, he took it up again! Once again, their song selection for the evening was top notch lyrically. We will only know when we get to heaven who heard those songs while walking around the festival. That’s one of the things I love about that place – the Metro Tent is set up right by the Superman Statue and if you are anywhere near the statue at concert time, you are going to hear the Gospel in song.

Be sure to come back in a few days! A video blog of BFA’s concert at the Superman Festival and another great give-a-way are coming soon ~ you don’t want to miss ’em!