What a great trip I just got home from. This could be a rather lengthy post, I apologize in advance. On Thursday morning, Jennifer and I left to go to Nashville, TN. We were very lucky to be able to get Thursday and Friday off from work. We made it to Nashville to the hotel without any problems. After catching our breath, some family of mine came to take us out to lunch. It was great! I had not seen Kevin and Christy my cousins in many many moons. They live in Nashville where Kevin is a doctor. We got to visit for just a little while. After returning to the hotel, we got ready for the Dove Awards!
The Dove Awards were pretty amazing. What you might not know is that they give out a lot more awards then what is shown on the television part. The awards ceremony started a little bit after 4:30 and didn't end until 10:30. While we were waiting for the doors to open, we saw Daniel Carson. Any guesses on who he is? He plays guitar and does backup vocals in Chris Tomlin's band. We also ran into Mama and Aunt Gomer. During the pre-televised part of the Dove's, they gave out most of the awards. They had three performances as well. Meredith Andrews performed, "You're Not Alone" and they had a hip-hop artist play, and Downhere also performed, "Here I Am." I was happy to see that Third Day took the award for best pop/contemporary album for "Revelations" and DecembeRadio won best rock album for "Satisfied." Steven Curtis Chapman took the songwriting award. When they announced that SCC had won the song writing Dove, he got a standing ovation. This portion of the awards also saw the special event album award going to Passion for "God Of This City." Around 6:30 or so, the pre-televised show was finished. At 7:00, the televised portion of the Dove's cranked up. It was being shown around the country, live, on the Gospel Music Television Channel. This portion was filled with lots of performances and a few of the bigger awards. I was a little dissapointed to see that Third Day, Skillet, or David Crowder Band did not take home the Group Award. All three bands have had a great year. It's not that I don't like Casting Crowns, but they had not even released a new cd this past year. I thought that Natalie Grant was a great choice for female vocalist and that Brandon Heath was a good choice for male vocalist. The performances were really good during this part. Mary Mary kicked off the show with one of their newer singles. Brandon Heath performed "Give me Your Eyes" complete with a set of dancers behind him. Chris Tomlin performed "I Will Rise" with a string section. Natalie Grant performed a song with Group 1 Crew. They also had all the artists up for "New Artist Of The Year" do an abbreviated performance (minus Fee and Addison Road). This included: Remedy Drive, Chris Sligh, Francesca Battistelli, Jonathan Nelson and Tenth Avenue North. Tenth Avenue North took home the award. A Dottie Rambo Tribute also took place led by Sandi Patty and others. The most moving moment of the evening though happened towards the end. The last performance of the evening (not counting the closing) was done by Steven Curtis Chapman. He performed his song, "Cinderella." Before starting the song he simply said, "For Maria Sue" I'm sure by now everyone knows about the horrible tragedy that he and his famly had gone through. The last award of the night to be given was "Artist Of The Year." Although I was pulling for Third Day to win, I was not at all disappointed with it going to Steven Curtis Chapman. When he was named as the winner, he got a thundering applause and standing ovation. I doubt that there was a dry eye in the crowd. He took his wife with him to accept the award. One word to describe that moment was, "wow!" That pretty much wraps up the Dove Awards. It was my first ever trip to see the awards, and hopefully it will not be my last.
We went to downtown Nashville on Friday and had lunch at Hard Rock. We then came on back home. All in all the highlight of the trip was seeing the SCC performance. He must be so amazingly strong to be able to do what he did.
