Gospel Concert - French Style

Roger, our landlord, friend, and David's bike buddy, is a member of the Lions Club of Lyon, and his club was sponsoring a Gospel Concert to benefit the Alzheimer Association.  So, of course we bought tickets and anticipated hearing some good old gospel singing.  Well, not so fast, this IS France, after all!

The vocal group was actually started in 1997 by a local high school music teacher with a group of high school singers and musicians.   His inspriation was gospel choirs in the US, such as the Crenshaw Gospel Choir in LA and the Golden Gate Quartet. A brilliant way to recruit students for music classes and infuse them with an enthusiam for music, rhythm and performing!  He was very, very successful!  The group, Entre Ciel et Tierre (Between Heaven and Earth), now tours throughout the region and presents well-choreographed, enthusiastic performances.   But, they really don't perform what we would consider American gospel music.

There can be no doubt about the talent of many of the musicians and singers; several even stepped forward to  take a solo.  At one point they did stray from their home-grown version of gospel songs to sing "Proud Mary" (the Ike and Tina Turner version, minus the Ikettes) and nearly brought down the house!

Another uniquely French experience!