Every year at the Gospel Announcers Guild meetings during the Gospel Music Workshop of America, one artist takes the room by surprise.

So far this year, that artist is Pastor Seon Thompson.

This tall, bespectacled, mild-mannered gentleman preacher from Flint, MI got in front of the gospel announcers Wednesday afternoon and tore a gaping hole in the room at the Duke Energy Center with his hard-shouting, range-leaping performance of “I’m Out.”

He laid people out like nobody’s business. After his singing, he sat down quietly while everyone else in the room struggled to stand on unsettled legs.

Thompson is with Just Wait Records out of Flint. Check out his website at www.seonthompson.com and watch for his project, I’m Out, scheduled for release August 25, 2009.

Speaking of unsettling, did anyone else who attended the Quartet celebration on the third floor ballroom yesterday evening feel the floor actually swaying under them and watch the spotlight supports swinging back and forth? I eyed where the exits were just in case…

At right are the Miracle Lights of Miami, Florida, this year’s Quest winners in the Quartet Division, performing at the Wednesday evening Quartet spectacular.