In that this time of year, when the calendar turns over, we humans tend to look back or look forward … and in that enLighten recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, I woke up one night thinking about how many of today’s groups who have songs that regularly make it to the top half of the Singing News Top 80 monthly chart are ones who held sway on these charts in the latter half of 2004.
So, I sat down this morning and did a review … and found that more than half of the names are the same. Just look at this list (not in any particular order):
Whisnants
Greater Vision
Bowling Family/Mike Bowling
Karen Peck & New River
Perrys
Kingsmen
Gaither Vocal Band
Booth Brothers
Mark Bishop
Talleys
Jeff & Sheri Easter
Hoppers
Hoskins Family
Kingdom Heirs
McKameys
Ernie Haase & Signature Sound
Legacy Five
Mark Trammell Quartet/Trio
Gold City
Inspirations
Brian Free & Assurance
Freemans
Primitive Quartet
Triumphant Quartet
I left Triumphant till last on this list, as I wanted to note that they began their life and first appeared on the Top 80 chart as the Integrity Quartet, with a name change coming early in 2005.
I’m sure that I’ve missed a couple who should have been included but, as you see, more than half of the major artists/groups of today have been going strong for more than a decade. It seems like the Kingsmen, the Inspirations and the McKameys, to name just three, have been part of Southern Gospel forever. Then there’s Karen Peck, who still hasn’t reached her 39th birthday, yet seems to have been on the Southern Gospel music stage for more years than that, dating back to the Rex Nelon Singers.
A couple of personal notes:
One group from our early enLighten days that I truly miss is the Jody Brown Indian Family … their spirited singing touched my heart just about every time I heard them.
Early in 2005, just a few months after enLighten was launched, we were visiting daughter and grandchildren in Spring 
Hill, Florida. I discovered that on a Sunday evening while there – I was still an “infant” in the world of Southern Gospel – a group was presenting a concert at a small church just up the street, so decided to attend. It was a family trio made up of father, mother and son. Today, their recordings regularly make the Singing News chart, but then they were still in the “refinement” stage of their ministry. Their names are the Hyssongs. At that time, they were still unknowns, but I learned that they hail from about as far north in the United States as you can go … a small town that I was quite familiar with, Rockport, Maine. It been a joy to watch and hear how they’ve grown over this past decade.
Do you care to make any prognostications as to group/artist names that will dominate the Singing News Top 80 chart as the world enters 2025? That is, if this mighty ship called earth has been righted and the Lord has allowed humans to continue to occupy it!
Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.
Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day.
. . . Psalm 96, verses 1 and 2
