Suddenly this St Patrick's day, he was given more acclaim than I was ever aware of previously. Meanwhile it was also the Catholic celebration of lent this weekend. I tried to take my mom to the Friday night fish fry at the nearby Catholic church, but it was such a huge crowd as to be in probable violation of fire codes, and a waiting line out into the street. So we ended up at Ruby Tuesday instead.
Such a festive weekend definitely brought out the crowds. We even had an un-announced wedding right after church, and I was astounded that the band quit and turned on some recorded music for a few minutes, instead of "donating" a few songs to the happy couple. Apparently this was a low budget wedding, so they got recorded music, and not much of it.
There is one aspect that is difficult to get around, and that is that you get what you pay for. A few key people are usually paid a living wage for organizing this gospel music, with everyone else as a volunteer. I may have been criticized a few times by church folks for accepting payment when it was offered me in order to play in a wedding or special event at a church. However in the business world that is the normal practice, of being paid for services provided.
I give kudos to anyone who is playing and singing Gospel music. I only do it occasionally any more, as really, it has become a lot of work to make all the rehearsals, and to get it right. The defect/ turnover rate of the other performers has been major lately. This is due mainly to the fact that there only so many songs anyone knows by heart, before you really have to work at each and every new song.