Going Over Home is Dean's first studio effort, recorded at B-Side Studios/Corn Crib Records and released in 1997. The album highlights Dean's vocal abilities and his acoutic guitar picking style. These arrangements are filled out by the work of K.B. Travis (bass), Steve Mayfield (keyboard) and Rick Paller (acoustic and electric lead guitar). Going Over Home was capably engineered and mixed by Mark Blackburn.
The album pays tribute to the hymns and bluegrass gospel that Dean grew up with. The opening track is an adaptation of The Gospel by Charlie Gearheart of Goose Creek Symphony. Dean has kept that piece of Goose Creek married to his gospel roots for over 35 years now.
The closing track is Mark Germino's "God Ain't No Stained Glass Window", one of many fabulous songs that never made it onto country charts. Dean learned the song from Kathy Mattea's self titled first album, and it remains a standard in his repertoire to this day.
In between, the disc walks through classic gospel standards and seldom heard gems of faith music, such as "If We Never Meet Again (This Side of Heaven)" and "I Need No Mansion Here". The disc also showcases Dean's vocal range with an a capella rendition of the bluegrass standard "A Beautiful Life".
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