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From the broadcast the weekend of Sept. 13th & 14th, 2008: Our very special Featured Artist on this program was Ben Speer. Ben sang for 62 years with the Speers (as the younger brother of that bunch). In recent years he's been producing recordings, running his Stamps-Baxter Singing School each summer, publishing music and serving as the official music director of the Gaither Homecoming concert tour. This man is just too busy to retire! Although he was quoting someone else, I like what Ben had to say about the "good old days." He said, "these are the good old days!" Traveling with the Gaither tour, he sees crowds of 10,000 to 20,000 or more. And that goes far beyond the Southern Gospel concert norm. Songs from Ben on this program were from his recent solo CD, "Where No One Stands Alone." Ben is a member of both the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame. More information about him can be found on his website, www.benspeermusic.com. This was an All Listener Favorites Edition. I love these, on which each song (other than Featured Artist selections) is introduced by one of you who phoned our Listener Favorites Call-In line when it was opened recently. I especially enjoyed the introductions on which you told briefly why these songs were special to you, how they touched you, how they encouraged you, how they uplifted you, how they sustained you through difficult times. As I said on the program, that is, after all, what Gospel music is all about. In fact, that's what the Gospel is all about. On the Headline Update I mentioned about how our informal poll of several traveling Southern Gospel artists found that many concert venues — especially the major ones — have actually been seeing increases in attendance this year, despite gasoline prices that spiked a month or two ago and despite economic conditions that the media say are bad. (It is, after all, an election year.) I didn't mention this on the air, but our webstore, springside.com, has seen year-to-year increases in sales each month this year. We have seen this in the past, as well. When times are difficult, there's nothing like good Southern Gospel music songs to encourage and uplift. While I'm at it, please pray for traveling artists who have been hit extremely hard by the higher costs of diesel fuel in recent months. For some, they would come out ahead financially if they just left the bus parked and stayed home. But that wouldn't be fulfilling the calling they feel on their lives to spread the Gospel through song.

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