Sounds like a great night, Ron!

I just put together a compilation CD for the three guys from the doo wop group, The Sentinels, who practiced with us on Tuesday. Tom my ears, it's as good as black gospel gets. And of course, it has a track with The Soul Stirrers: If I could Touch The Hem Of His Garment, with Sam Cooke on lead. We will learn a lot from my friends in the Sentinels, but they'll learn just as much because they are unfamiliar with the whole world of black gospel, which contributed so mightily to rhythm and blues and soul music. I'm starting to grasp the differences between white and black doo wop groups, in the process. Somewhere along the line, I'll start a thread on that, for those who are interested.

I got a call yesterday, booking the Messengers for a concert with the Swanee Quintet. The average person has never heard of them, but they've been around for at least 40 years, and perhaps longer than that. We do two songs I learned from their albums. A couple of years ago, we did a concert with the Dixie Hummingbirds. They had recently celebrated their 70th Anniversary! And the lead singer had been in the group almost from the beginning. He was in his 80's, but when he got up on stage, he was 20 again. And here we are, excited about celebrating our 10th Anniversary...

Jerry