11/3/08

Kenny Bishop concert review - Union Baptist Church Knoxville

This is a review of my recent attendance of a live taping of the television show, Southern Style Praise, in which Kenny Bishop and the trio HisVoice was performing. It took place at Union Baptist Church in Knoxville, TN. I was honored to be their special guest Music Minister for the evening.


I've seen Kenny Bishop sing live several times in my life, mostly with his former family group, The Bishops. I met him one time, about 10-years ago, at the National Quartet Convention. I guess the thing that I've always liked about Kenny is his natural Kentucky country voice. I've always thought that he could probably have had a really successful career in Country Music. I'm glad he chose Southern Gospel instead.

I've seen more than my fair share of folks in the gospel music business that treat it as a job instead of a ministry. I can say first hand that Kenny Bishop is not one of those people. He appears to have an open and honest heart for the ministry. I watched him pretty closely because I was sitting just 2 rows behind him. He sat in the congregation with two older ladies in which he appeared to know. I saw and heard him shouting "amen" and praising God while HisVoice was on the stage. And, while he was on stage he spent more time talking about the grace and mercy of God than he did actually singing. He spent very little time talking about himself, he was fully focused on spreading the gospel message.

I enjoyed every song that Kenny sang, however, I've got to say that my very favorite was, 'The Prodigal's Dad.' It's track number 9 on his latest CD, simply titled, "Kenny Bishop." The parable of the Prodigal Son is one of my very favorite passages in the Bible. In fact, the next night after hearing Kenny sing that song, I preached a sermon on the Prodigal Son at my church. I also thoroughly enjoyed the Woody Wright penned, 'Under the Influence of Mercy,' which was a play on the old Buck Owens tune, 'Under the Influence of Love.' Another great tune was, 'More Than Amazing,' which was also written by Woody Wright, specifically for Kenny. According to Kenny, it is a song for everyone.

At the end of his performance, Kenny gave a very touching invitation for anyone that may have had a need. I could really feel God's presence during that time. Afterwards, I was privileged to get to meet and shake hands with Kenny. He said that he thought I looked very familiar and wanted to know if we had met before. I told him that we had but that it had been several years ago at NQC. I didn't hang around and bug him any because he was busy talking to other fans and selling his CD's and signing them.

My whole family enjoyed our evening of Southern Gospel and I left there an even bigger fan of Kenny Bishop than I was before I came. If you have yet to go to one of his concerts, you should make a point to do so. I know you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Read my separate review of the HisVoice portion of the evening HERE.

See all of the pictures that I took of the evening HERE.

Visit Kenny's Official Website HERE.

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