(Keep your mouse pointer over the photos and each subtitle will automatically display)

Above is a slideshow of photos from the Country/Bluegrass concerts.  The Immanuel Singers presented four of them, and all had skits connected with the music. You'll see the Beverly Hillbillies impersonators: the bluegrass band performed the theme song from that show.  We also staged the Gilligan's Island cast and performed that theme song as part of the Sea Songs Medley. The Andy Griffith Show theme song called for another faux casting.  It was all part of the fun, but the bluegrass was authentic, with the classic band of acoustic guitar, 5-string banjo, fiddle, and string bass, all accomplished players. We did sort of sneak light piano and drums into the bluegrass, which is a tad progressive, but it still worked well and harmed nary a note of the idiom.  It should be noted that Alison was not naturally a bluegrass fiddler, but a professional symphony-level violinist and pianist (she plays 1st violin in the Messiah choruses offered in the audio files). She accepted the challenge to fiddle in the bluegrass style and succeeded wildly.  

                                   These medleys were presented in the various concerts: 

• John Denver Medley (20 min.                

• States and Cities Salute (32 min.)

• Trains (22 minutes)

• Western Medley (33 min.)

• Chariots (14 min.)

• Sea Songs (18 min.)

  The Immanuel Singers are likely the only church choir in Miami, perhaps Florida, and maybe the country to sing the

   following spread of choral pieces in concert, with some of the more diverse selections being in the same concert:

• Lift Up Your Heads (Messiah)

• Proud Mary

• Filiae Jerusalem (Gabrieli)

• Sweet Home Alabama

• A Little, Pretty Bonny Lass

• Hey Jude

• Medieval plainchant

• California Dreamin'

                        Several more lists could easily be compiled, but this sufficiently overstates the point.