Music City USA lived up to its billing Sunday night, as some of its best musicians – who just happen to be Disciples – took the stage at Plenary Hall as the “Tell It!” assembly theme became “Sing It!”
Andra Moran, Michael Morton and long-time General Assembly music director Bill Thomas hosted the concert, which also served as a benefit for Week of Compassion. The evening featured performances by award-winning artists Craig Wiseman and Gabe Dixon.
Wiseman and Dixon were able to turn the large convention hall into an intimate club setting, performing solo on stage and dressed all in black – except for a few “sparkles” that the self-deprecating Wiseman blamed on a practical joke by Dixon.
Wiseman, originally from Mississippi, now lives in Nashville with his wife K.K., a Disciples minister. He noted that he learned to play guitar growing up at church camp as he treated the large crowd to his own country hits like “Summertime” (a #1 hit from Kenny Chesney) and “Hillbilly Bone” (Blake Shelton). Wiseman led the audience in a chorus of “Angels Watching Over Me” as an inspiration to his closing “Live Like You Were Dying,” which hit the top of the charts for Tim McGraw.
In true writer fashion, Wiseman noted that he was performing the original lyrics to “Summertime,” including a reference to “Tutti Frutti” snow cones, something that Chesney couldn’t understand since he didn’t grow up near a snow cone stand.
Dixon grew up in Nashville as the son of a Disciples minister. He told the audience from the piano that his time at the region’s summer camp – and an especially memorable rendition of Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire” at a camp talent show – inspired his love of performing music live. Dixon went on from that camp to collaborate with artists like Paul McCartney and Allison Krauss, and is embarking on a solo career after more than a decade at the helm of the Gabe Dixon band.
From “straight up love songs” like “Even The Rain,” to inspirational tunes like “I Can See You Shine” and the rousing “Find My Way” (featured as the opening to the movie The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds), Dixon effortlessly weaved his playing and vocals as the last set of the evening.
Thomas said that while each assembly traditionally includes a concert, this year’s location allowed the concert to primarily include musicians from the host city for the first time.
The evening opened with a barbershop quartet in honor of the convention center’s proximity to the national Barbershop Harmony Society. The quartet, including Thomas and three other Disciples musicians, performed snippets from the diverse musical styles that weave through the city, from the Fisk Jubilee Singers to Elvis Presley’s time spent recording at RCA Studio B. The energetic director compared the city’s musical diversity to the number of opinions at a Disciples board meeting.
Moran, a frequent performer at General Assemblies who lives in Nashville, performed a song that she had co-written with Dixon and included Morton on flute and Sam Huxley on guitar. Later, she led the hall in a three-part musical prayer.
After Wiseman left the stage to a standing ovation, Amy Gopp, executive director of Week of Compassion, spoke about the importance of Disciples’ giving for the last 67 years through the denomination’s relief arm. She reminded the audience of the difference they make in meeting human needs throughout the world.
“You provide caring for a hurting world, even when the hurt is our own,” Gopp said, referencing the 2010 Nashville flood. “We are there. Don’t let anyone tell you any differently – we are making an impact in the world.”
As a special offering was collected and Morton serenaded the audience with a solo flute medley, a long list of Week of Compassion’s tangible responses to events and struggles around the world since the 2009 General Assembly scrolled on the screen.
As Thomas brought out each of the evening’s performers to lead the hall in “Amazing Grace,” a “song of transformation from a former slave-trader,” many recalled Dixon’s words from earlier that night – “so great to be in Nashville, surrounded by not just so many great musicians, but so many Disciples.”
July 10, 2011
Richmond Williams
