By Monique Murray, Staff Reporter THE NIGHT was cool with a gentle breeze and the stars to set the atmosphere of worship. Indeed, good things do come to those who wait, and wait, and wait.
In spite of its late start the 'Back To Basics: Restoring A Nation Through Music' concert launch, held at the Emancipation Park, New Kingston, was a good thing.
The event put on by Sam Wisdom and the Love Singers scheduled for 6:00 p.m., began at about 7:25 p.m. Mr. Wisdom took the microphone amid all the microphone checks and sound adjustments to usher the audience into an attitude of worship, firmly declaring that they were not there to simply entertain but to minister to souls.
Garth Lindsay did a good job of the praise session with songs such as Fire, Fire, Fire, It's Raining, When I Think About Jesus and He Has Made Me Glad, which left patrons ready to be blessed.
A vibrant Wyatt K.C. Davis of Love FM was MC for the evening and took to the stage and skilfully guided the audience through the line-up.
Leroy Smith, formerly of the Grace Thrillers, was first up and he did not disappoint when he did songs such as the up-beat Give God The Glory. Shortly after, he was joined by other former members of the Grace Thrillers as he went back to some of the groups well-loved songs such as Raise Yu Han', We Ready and Amen, Amen, Amen.
Next on-stage was Lubert Levy with his wife and two sons doing back up work. They did Sanchez's I Like The Christian Life and Levy gave his sons the spotlight with their gospel rendition of the popular oldies, Stick By Me, which again had the crowd out of their seats, especially when the younger son danced up a storm.
NOT MISSING A BEAT
Not missing a beat was the fiery Lisa Grant, with Pentecostal Fire, and It's Amazing What Praises Can Do, and All The Way To Calvary. She took the pace down for awhile as her true talent came through with Standing On The Promises. Patrons sang along and shouted praises.
No one was ready to sit down and be quiet as Leroy Richards brought some old time religion to the evening with My God Is Real after which he exited.
Brother West picked up where Richards left off with Going On With Jesus and his signature track Not One Broken Vessel at which the audience sang and shouted praises once more.
Birthright also blessed the audience with their reggae-inspired songs such as Hurry Up An' Join Di Race and Sooner Than You Think. Even at this point the concert-goers were still fired up and 'tarrying' for a blessing. The group had them jumping around with the calypso-like Jump And Shout.
Poet Andrew Bovell took the pace down a bit as he did two of his poems, The Blood Of Jesus and The Last Person Everybody Goes To as the crowd listened a few bursts of 'Hallelujah!' could be heard as he read. There was no cooling down this crowd.
The Katalys' Crew treated listeners to an excellent harmony as they sang the rootsy Hallowed Be Thy Name and We Give You Thanks. They took the audience into dance mode with their up tempo tunes and erupted into a dance class as they taught a few new moves, 'Whip The Devil Out' and 'Under The Blood'.
Love Singers were on-stage at about 9:25 with If Ever I Love Thee and continued their set with Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus which got a 'Pull up!'
True to the organiser's statement that the concert was not designed for entertainment, Rev. John took the stage and shared briefly from St. John 5 about the man at the pool of Bethesda, inviting the audience to try Jesus regardless of the hindrances, and then prayed for those who responded.
Canadian, Jerry Thompson later went on-stage wearing a black cowboy-type outfit complete with hat and led into The Green, Green Grass Of Home then stepped up the pace with some old school praise songs such as Closer Than A Brother, and even then there was no break for the hungry crowd.
It seemed the concert promoters were more anxious to leave than the audience as they sped through the rest of the programme, cutting short the performance of Lester Lewis, who was another favourite. He did manage to get Everytime I Read My Bible and Jesus Is The Winner Man in though, whew!
Then before they knew what hit them the show was over in what had to be the fastest and most abrupt wrap-up in gospel concert history.
Besides the rush, the lateness and the occasional microphone trouble, the event was well attended and the performances were short and effective in getting the message across, whether it was to 'build a vibe', to encourage, or to preach the gospel.
