18 artists in 20 minutes! Join Holly and brenten gilbert from tru-datmusic.com for an “experience” as we dined with the artists from the Word Label Group roster over a 3-course fondue meal at The Melting Pot in Nashville, TN.

Total Running Time: about 20 minutes

An episode full of musical performances! First, the World Vision showcase includes a Rwandan Genocide survivor and his music, along with Shawn McDonald, Take 6, the Glory Revealed Tour with Mac Powell, Brian Littrell, David Nasser, Shane & Shane, and more!Then the Late Night Showcase sponsored by Street Level Artists Agency at Nashville nightclub FUEL includes several performances by Phil Keaggy, Wes King, Randy Stonehill, Jason Gray and downhere.

In this episode, Jason Germain and Marc Martel of the band downhere lead interviews of other artists in the Centricity Records Media Suite, including Jami Jamgochian, Circleslide, Tommy Coomes of the Franklin Graham Association, Will Graham (Billy Graham’s grandson), and Daniel Kirkley.

Total Running Time: Just over 9 minutes

I had to cut Monday evening’s video into two parts because the concert performances made the piece too long… so be sure not to miss Part THREE of Monday at GMA Week!

Monday, April 23rd, 2007 - Nashville, TN

A day of randomness! Features interviews with Mark Lee of Third Day, Javen, Urban D and Mark Mohr of Christafari, as well as a tour of the GMA Week Exhibit Hall, the National Pro-Life T-shirt Day press conference, and a Giant Walking Robot.

Total Running Time: about 20 Minutes

Part Two coming next with Monday night concerts and showcases, plus LOTS more artist interviews!

Sunday, April 22nd, 2007 - Nashville, TN

Includes Sunday night Worship Service with Hillsong United and Michael W. Smith, actor Jim Caviezel (from The Passion of the Christ), Nate Huss interview, and the Songwriters’ Showcase featuring Mandisa, Sanctus Real, DecembeRadio, Mark Schultz, Mark Hall and Chris Tomlin.

Total Running Time: 20 Minutes

Okay, so the idea was that I was going to blog at the same time as Holly and it would give the readers a kind of back and forth perspective of GMA Week and the Doves. Well, now I’ve seen what Holly has done and frankly, I can’t compete. She has provided some great timely coverage - better than anything CMC has done in the past. So I will take the lazy route and recuse myself and let you all enjoy her 2007 GMA Week and Dove Award coverage. Nice job, Holly!

Oh one more thing… Nancy has started uploading some of her photos to our Flickr site. You can see them by going here:

http://flickr.com/photos/cmcphotos/tags/gospelmusicweek2007

www.flickr.com cmcentral’s GMA Week 2007 photoset

Okay, so I just now put up the pink front page graphic that I created for this week because I forgot to do it yesterday.  I didn’t do it on Monday because I hadn’t had a chance to blog very much at that time yet, but now I think there’s plenty here to read!

Just so you know, there are more videos coming… LOTS actually! It will take me the rest of this week and possibly longer to get them all edited, but I will continue to add them here to the blog and also to the front page video player as they become available. So keep checking back! If you want to bookmark this location, it’s http://blog.cmcentral.com.

It’s very late now though, and I’m totally envious of Nancy and her sister who are already asleep. We just got back from a middle-of-the-night run to White Castle and McDonald’s, much to the chagrin of our friend Reese. By the time we left the Opry House, it was after midnight and we realized most restaurants were closed, despite the protests of our growling stomachs. We tried to go several other places, but ended up with the White Castle/Mickey D’s route, which actually makes it two years in a row for me and Nancy to hit up White Castle after the Doves.

So anyway, it’s sleepytime now…

The first episode in our series of Gospel Music Week 2007 Videos, from Sunday, April 22nd, 2007 in Nashville, TN.

More videos coming soon… it’s hard to find time to edit around here!!!

Total Running Time: 8 Minutes

We’re sitting here in the RNH Ballroom waiting for downhere to take the stage, watching a Daniel Kirkley music video. Incidentally that same video was just shown downstairs during another concert earlier tonight. It’s a been kind of a strange night, concert-wise. I wasn’t breaking down any doors to get to any of the shows on the list tonight. It seems like every show had 1-2 (MAYBE 3) interesting acts playing, mixed in with lots of other “unknown” acts. And while that’s typically the case, I’ve never seen such a “slow” night of concerts… more than once tonight, I’ve seen a bored-looking audience, just sitting in the chairs, many of them actually empty! Then there was this weird one-hour gap between the early show and the late show in the Renaissance, so most people seemed to go over to cram into B.B. Kings, a local nightclub to hear MercyMe play the end of the “Yellow Tangerine” showcase. I also caught a bit of Jake Smith, whom I really liked. He had a New Orleans jazz-sound going on inside the song I heard.

Anyway, Jeremy Camp & Adie both performed earlier and they had a the most packed room that I’ve seen all night. (Yet it was still only half of the ballroom instead of the whole room.) I missed Group 1 Crew, which I really wanted to see, but caught Jackson Waters as they finished up the showcase downstairs in the Convention Center. I really liked the way Ryan Hawk plays the drums for Jackson Waters… he’s INCREDIBLY tall and lanky, and so it gave him this unique style of slinging the drumsticks high into the air. If you ever get the chance to watch him play, see if you agree with me.

Well it sounds like Jason Gray is finished now and downhere might finally come out, so I better get my cameras ready. After the Jaime Jamgochian (”Jaime Jam”) music video finishes that is… The back of the room seems to be a little more full with “lurkers”… people waiting to see who plays next before deciding if they want to stay. Although Centricity is pretty smart because they are giving away a free Apple iPhone at the END OF THE SHOW tonight and you have to be present to win. I put my card in the fishbowl yesterday in the Centricity Suite, so I’ve got my fingers crossed!

Okay, downhere must be finishing up the set tonight because now Aaron Shust is taking the stage. I don’t have any pictures/video of him either though, so I’ll sign off for now.