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My daughter and I attended the NQC this year Wed-Sat. We had a great time although there were several adventures I could have done without (motel overbooked and us scrambling for a room on Wed or Alicia losing her purse) but they all turned out ok.

I’m a people watching and listener, I watch folks wandering, stopping at booths, talking to friends they don’t see often. This year I realized how much you need to stay in touch and at the same time realized I didn’t do it very well. Things just seem to get in the way. I plan to work on that, people are more important than things.

One thing I tried to do was speak to those folks in the booths with the ‘deer in the headlights’ look. The local and regional groups that seem to feel they need to be there but then often feel so out of place once they get there because no one seems to stop at their booths. I noticed something in trying to speak as I went by – with some of themm their face would light up when anyone spoke to them, they were really happy to be there. Others looked at me like ‘are you crazy, don’t you know we aren’t important?’ Those folks really touched my heart. They obviously have the desire but don’t know what to do with it. I hope they learn, I hope next year they are more comfortable.

I watched people going up to booths where the groups had their families with them. Often the family was invisible to the fan, thankful that isn’t always the case but it often is. What each fan really needs to realize is without the family’s support this person cannot be on the road each week. Those people reserve our respect, admiration and recognition.

And the conversations, they ran from the serious to the unbelievable! I heard artists giving encouragement to fans and other artists. I heard the complaints and the praises. Isn’t it amazing what people will say in a crowded place and actually think no one hears them?

Three things I heard a lot about, no matter where I was – at a booth, in the food court, taking to folks in lines for the showcases – the subjects were the internet, the awards and this year who wasn’t there.

Now the internet I listened intently to those conversations, I’m on it every day, I do an article each month; I wanted to hear what they had to say. I got some compliments and of course we all love those. But one thing I had affirmed is that more artists and industry people read the comments on message boards and forums than most of the fans realize.

They read the derogatory comments and the put downs, they read the argumentative conversations and they read the ridiculous suppositions. And these are real people with feelings who read this, their families have feelings too. The internet has given us all the impression we can say what we want and it’s ok. We say things there we would never say to someone in person. The impersonal feel of the internet has taken away, at least at times, our compassion, human kindness and just every day good manners.

Thumper’s mom had the right idea when she instilled that ‘if you can’t say something good, don’t say nothing at all’. But we’ve developed the ‘stir the pot’ mentality, whatever will start a good discussion, whether it is the facts or not, let’s talk about it.

This leads to a second topic, folks not at the NQC, most noticeably The Gaithers and Ernie Haase and Signature Sound. It was joked about, talked about and a variety of ‘reasons’ were given as facts. 1) The NQC had snubbed Gaither, 2) Gaither and EH & SSQ were snubbing the NQC, 3) They were in South Africa, 4) They weren’t in South Africa. I have one thing to say on that matter – They made a business decision, regardless of who agrees with it – it is their business to make that decision. If you are a fan of theirs you can let them know how you feel about that decision and if you aren’t a fan – why do you care? And why should they care that you care if you are not a fan?

Another thing I learned or more accurately was reminded of this week. Most of the time the people complaining about what a group does aren’t fans of that group but rather people who just complain or fans of another group. Now guess what? The fans pay for the tickets at the concerts, the fans buy the CDs. So if a group wants to please someone, who do you think it will be? Will it be the fans or someone who doesn’t like them anyway? I know who I would pick!

Fans, that brings up the last subject – awards. Two sets of awards are given out at NQC the Singing News Fan awards that get a lot of attention and are voted on by SN subscribers and the Diamond Awards, a little lesser know but also voted by fans that don’t have to subscribe to anything.

I don’t have time or space to go into everything that happened during the awards or what was said afterwards so I’ll hit some highlights. In the Diamond Awards, their musician award was renamed the Anthony Burger Musician award and fittingly, at least in my opinion, he won that in the last year he would be eligible. In the SN awards, of course the tie for favorite group with the Inspirations and EH & SSQ being the choices – now that was a big discussion item. The general opinion seemed to be that a tie was highly unlikely, to which I agree. However, highly unlikely is not impossible. Those believing it was impossible had a theory; the SN was trying to appease both ends of a very wide spectrum. Now I’ve said this before and I still believe it to be true. The SN could end the speculation each year of ‘are these really the fan votes’ by simply having an outside entity tally the votes each year. In every awards presentation you see in the secular world, either an accounting firm or other outside entity tallies the votes, not the group putting on the awards. And just for the record this goes for the Diamond awards as well. Avoiding this type of speculation would be a major boost for credibility in my opinion.

Also, although I know there are those who will not agree with me, I want to give a big kudos to the Perrys for showing what true love and Christian spirit means. When voted the mixed group of the year by the Singing News fans, they presented their plaque to the Crabb kids. For the record here, they could not give away winning the award, they are in the record books as the winner. They were not belittling or discounting the fans who voted for them. Rather they were saying, ‘the fans loved us, we treasure that and we in turn love you and want to give you something to show that love’. Because you see it’s not about earthly rewards, it’s about doing what the Father tells you to do. Tracy said he knew in his heart if they won, he was supposed to do this. It was a generous act of humility, it is one of the reasons the fans love them. And while I’ve heard a lot of talk about this, the comments I’ve heard from their friends and fans have been ‘classy’, ‘humble’, ‘caring’, ‘loving’, ‘generous’, etc. To which I say a hearty ‘amen’.

It was also great to see the tribute during the SN fan awards for Warren Parker, Doug Riley and Anthony Burger. These three young men will be great missed, in fact they already are.

Some random thoughts about the week – 1) You would have to be superman/superwoman to attend all the activities – my hat is off to those that make it. 2) With the walk being further to get in to the concerts, it would be great to schedule ‘like groups’ together so folks would have time to go grab a bite when certain ‘styles’ were on ( bluegrass together, very traditional together, trios together) probably wouldn’t work but it would be nice. 3) I think Compassion International and other things are very worthy causes but if you are going to put them on the main stage – schedule time for these occurrences so you stay on schedule. 4) I understand from Danny Jones that the Marvin Norcross award will be back next year – I’m glad, I believe honoring both Marvin Norcross for his many contributions years ago and any artist who has followed in his footsteps is actually more important that awards based on fan popularity. That award was missed this year. 5) It was great to see so many second generation artists on the main stage!

My very last thought to the NQC planners– about the awards ceremony – I love the SN awards ceremony but not a single year I have been there has it kept to 2 hours – plan for it to be longer. Either start it earlier (5:00) or do fewer groups after it or something to avoid having major groups on after midnight please!

Reader Comments

Terrific article! Couldn't stop reading it! I really enjoyed it. I've never had the chance to go to a NQC convention, but our music director and I really want to go to next years.
I loved the story about the Perrys. I did have the chance to meet them when I first started out in radio (when I was about 18, and had no clue who anyone was!) They were so sweet! I was a little intimidated but they won me over quickly! Ms. Libby is one of my favorite singers! She has such a beautiful and powerful voice. Wonderful people! I love them to death!
I think it amazes me how cruel people can be in this business. So... kudos to Thumper's mother!!!
And kudos to you! Great article!!

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