Wednesday, March 26, 2014

After initially posting about traditional and quartet gospel music,I actually found some places where Quartet and traditional music is thriving and keeping this genre of music flowing.I attended the Parade of Quartet Musical in Augusta Georgia on March 1,2014.This Event was held at the Augusta Visitor Center,with an array of Gospel Quartet Groups,Choirs, and inspirational singers.Some of the artist that appeared were Dr Bobby Jones, The Williams Brothers,Richard Smallwood, Lashun Pace, and Sunday's Best season 4 winner up Andrea Helms.So being that I am working toward a degree in the Entertainment Business Field I put on my media hat and actually got the chance to interview the producers of the show.To my dismay I found out that this is an annual event going into it sixtieth year,and it was started by a gentleman name Steve Manderson ,who was a television show producer."Most of the shows were done live and left little room for error by its guest" as explained by Mrs Valerie Howard Smith one of the show producer. Mrs Smith said "my dad kinda took the event over and made it more or less a way to give back and award some of the traditional artist for a job well done". Mrs Smith along with her brothers and family, sponsors the event yearly and they draw a crowd of about four thousand patrons for a night of traditional gospel music.As the event producers used this platform to promote, a product thats still affordable in price at the right time and a perfect place. I asked Ms Smith how difficult is it to put together a show of this caliper and what were some of their most successful promotion tools? She explained, "most of the producers and employees were their family since this event was started by her father they have since young kids aways been involved with the productions of the show". Our team is so important to us everyone has a roll,like contacting the artist,getting the venue,flyer design,all the way down to responsibility for ticketing.Everyones roll was important and made the show a success. Ms Smith also explained that promoting the show was the big to do,We had to make sure that this was very well publicized and we use every avenue inside of one hundred miles to make sure it was heard  three times in three different means or media and Facebook was a big help along with word of mouth.
I complimented Ms smith and the Howard family on a job well done covering every aspect of marketing for a live production to be successful.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Parade-of-Quartets/99061123768?id=99061123768&sk=photos_stream
                                                    Terrence Williams & Andrea Helm
                                                     Sundays Best Season 4 winner-up

                                             Terrence Williams & The Williams Brothers
                                                                 Parade of Quartets

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Gospel Music

Traditional and Quartet gospel music has start to diminish.The music industry is not putting the money into the genre like all other because of the smaller audiences they are attracting. There needs to be a movement to bring the Quartet Gospel Music back into the mainstream.Traditional gospel music has rich history from the African American communities all the way back to the slave era.We need to support and make this and other gospel music a bigger portion of the entertainment industry.
                                                       The Related Gospel Singers Irwinton,Georgia 2013