BELFAST'S new Waterfront Hall will have several world famous artists performing in it this season. But we Northerners are a parochial lot. The Moscow Ballet, the Monkees or Art Garfunkel might borrow an audience's affection for the evening, but the Rev William McCrea steals its heart.
The DUP MP's two gospel nights at the Waterfront, which seats more than 4,000, were both sell outs at the weekend. He was delighted. "I like to sing for the Lord whenever I get the opportunity."
Willie is facing a strong nationalist challenge for his Mid-Ulster seat in the coming Westminster election, but at the moment he is concentrating on winning souls, not votes.
"I'm thinking of my music, not the election," he said as he prepared to go on stage. "A song can soften the hardest of hearts. It's wonderful bringing people back to the Lord."
Willie says he has many Catholic fans "A wee Roman catholic woman from Omagh phoned me one day. She was about to commit suicide because she thought nobody cared. Her family had gone and her problems piled up.
"She poured her heart out to me just because she had heard me singing on the radio. That woman is alive today."
He tells of meeting a Derry woman in a cancer ward. "This wee lady from the Bogside said she loved my music so I got her an LP from the car. I didn't have a bag and apologised in case taking it home unwrapped would be difficult.
"She said there was nothing to be embarrassed about. She would bring the record back to the Bogside with pride."
Still, there didn't seem to be many Bogsiders at the Waterfront, There was a heavy turn out of middle aged matrons from Ulster's Bible Belt. But the Free Presbyterian preacher has a strong youth following, too. "You can keep your Boyzone and your Take That," said one young man. "Willie is the boy for me."
Willie's fans are used to hearing him in the mission halls of Mid Ulster, and he was eager that they should not be intimidated by the Waterfront. The programme urged the audience to relax and imagine they were at home by the fireside. An old woman with a tartan blanket wrapped around her knees said it was the first time she had left the house in years.
Some people were overawed by their surroundings. A young farmer from Ballymena kept straightening his tie and asking his girlfriend if he looked OK. Once on stage, Willie put everyone at ease.
Among his guests were the Palmetto State Quartet from South Carolina and "two coloured lads", Paul Fleming from the Caribbean and Jewel Jones, who feeds 300 down and outs a day on the streets of New York.
Attending a Willie McCrea concert is not a sedentary affair. We were up and down from our seats all night. Willie had us praying, singing and clapping, along.
Like Daniel O'Donnell, he sings simple songs, tales of wretches in the depths of despair of ships sailing amid rocks of sin, of Satan's lion roaming free. But ultimately Jesus triumphed crippled men walked, the poor were fed, and the blind saw.
Unlike other stars, Willie doesn't sport extravagant clothes. He wore a simple checked jacket and navy trousers. There were no fancy props or routines either. Willie just walked about stage chatting, occasionally pointing heaven wards to remind us of his intentions.
Some, like the Rev Inn Paisley, who was there en famille, needed no reminding. There was a strong showing of other DUP politicians, who seemed amazed that The Irish Times was at a gospel night.
During the interval, the faithful filed out for a glass of orange or a cup of tea. Most politely ignored the photographs In the upstairs foyer which showed an IRA funeral, a Sinn Fein election parade, and three kissing couples celebrating the IRA ceasefire.
The bar was empty except for one noisy table. A group of young men in tuxedos and young women in slinky satin dresses sat smoking, drinking and laughing loudly.
"They must have been at another function," whispered one disapproving woman to her husband. "They can't be here to see Willie."
She shouldn't have been so sure. The Rev William McCrea has fans in strange places.