Reviewed by James Lidgett

In 1991, Southern gospel singer Bill Gaither decided to round up some of his peers and record a poignant one-off album. This recording session was also quite crudely recorded on video camera, which then became the first 'Homecoming' video. What followed took the music industry by storm and single handedly established Southern gospel as a big selling entity in the mass market. This DVD, like others in Bill Gaither's 'Favourite Homecoming Songs & Performances' series, cobbles together performances from a wide range of the Homecoming Friends videos ranging from 1992's 'Reunion' to 2003's 'Australian Homecoming: Encore'. As usual there's a wide range of performers including Cynthia Clawson, Jake Hess, the Oak Ridge Boys, Vestal Goodman and Alison Durham Speer. The florid rendition of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "You'll Never Walk Alone" by Imperials veteran Armond Morales stretches the classification Southern gospel a bit but then so do the black gospel performances by Lynda Randle, Larnelle Harris and Jessy Dixon. But throughout it all sung with aplomb and considerable vocal ability. If you haven't got the original vids you might want to investigate this repackage.

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