Bill & Gloria Gaither & Their Homecoming Friends - Love Can Turn The World: Live From South Africa

Reviewed by Simon Eden

Recorded in Johannesburg, South Africa, this concert features a plethora of friends from the Southern gospel/country/bluegrass genre of the US, with Jessy Dixon and Lynda Randle providing a bit of black gospel flavour. In fact, so many friends that you may wonder if any were actually left behind. Each of the 20 tracks comprises a different group or line up, although Bill Gaither (pronounced alli - 'Gator' in a South African Boar accent) does make it into six. Highlights include the title track performed with the Gaither Vocal Band and the African Children's Choir, a mandolin solo by The Isaacs, and "Almighty" sung partly in Spanish by the Talley Trio. Characteristic is the country music close vocal harmonies of the various groups, with a strong Redneck Cowboy dialect. Signature Sound's bass singer Tim Duncan has an exceptionally deep voice which doesn't sound like it can be natural but has an amusing shock value. The concert is interspersed with individual comments of adulation from fans, and clips of their sightseeing visit to South Africa, but is well filmed and acoustically recorded.