The Salvation and Deliverance Church Choir of Tarboro, N.C., proved to have the sweetest sound Thursday at the Verizon “How Sweet the Sound” church choir competition.

The Tarboro group beat out seven other regional choirs – including two Qcity churches -- to advance to the national finals Nov. 13 in Washington, D.C.

Charlotte was one of 14 stops on the national tour, which is sponsored by Verizon Wireless and seeks to crown the best gospel choir in America.

While nearly all the choirs on Thursday represented churches from North and South Carolina, one group – the Muster Project – came from Beckley, W.V.

The eight choirs, separated into two groups -- larger choirs and smaller choirs – performed before a packed crowd at Time Warner Cable Arena. The regional winner was decided between the winners of the respective groups.

Salvation and Deliverance came from the small-choir group. To win it all, they beat out the Kingdom Voices of the Park Church in Charlotte, which won in the large-church category and appeared to have the largest fan base.

The event was hosted by legendary artist CeCe Winans and Charlotte native and super-producer Donald Lawrence. Joining them on stage and as judges were Marvin Sapp, Fred Hammond and the Rev. John P. Kee of Charlotte, arguably gospel’s top-three male artists.

“This is a wonderful time and a wonderful event…” Hammond said. “The people are happy. It’s a blessing.”

Although the event was certainly a contest, it also was a gathering, a fellowship of folks enjoying praise music. Donald Lawrence spoke to this when he called it “a celebration of choirs.”

While all the groups were highly touted, Salvation and Deliverance and the Kingdom Voices were clearly the most intriguing.

The judges appeared speechless when Kingdom Voices finished its rendition of the Walter Hawkins classic, “Going Up Yonder.”

Reaction was similar following Salvation and Deliverance’s performance of “It is Well With My Soul.”

The Tarboro choir walked away with an all-expense-paid trip to the finals in D.C. and $10,000 for winning the small-choir category.

“It’s a surreal moment,” said Jeremy Herring, one of the choir’s soloists. “We have been in rehearsal about two nights a week for the last two months, and it’s been a lot of hard work. But it paid off tonight.”

The group also won $5,000 for taking the people’s choice award, no small feat considering the number of Park Church fans in attendance.

In addition to the choirs, the audience also was treated to performances from the five superstar artists.

Sapp sent the audience into an uproar performing the immensely popular inspirational tracks, “Never Would Have Made It” and “The Best in Me.”

Winans sang her upbeat hit “I Pray” and a new song “More” from her greatest-hits album, which hit stores this week.

Kee and Hammond blew off what was left of the roof with their duet “They That Wait.”

Lawrence performed with the combined group of choirs to open and close the show. He had the audience join in singing his hit, “Back to Eden.”

Lawrence extolled the St. John Baptist Church choir of Columbia for having the boldness to sing one of his songs, “The Best is Yet to Come."

In addition to Kingdom Voices, a choir from Our Lady of Consolation Catholic Church also represented the Queen City

Sign up for our Weekly Email Newsletter Email: For Email Marketing you can trust

Other Ways to Share Twitter Del.icio.us MySpace

Discussions and Submission Agreement