The Singing Christians were a

Southern gospel music Southern gospel music is a genre of Christian music. Its name comes from its origins in the southeastern United States. Its lyrics are written to express either personal or a communal faith regarding biblical teachings and Christian life, as w ...

band. They released five albums on the

Canaan Records Canaan Records is a Christian record label and is a subsidiary of Word Entertainment. History The label was started in 1965, by Marvin Norcross, for the label's Southern gospel quartets. Their biggest artist to date is the Happy Goodman Fa ...

label and charted in the

Southern gospel Southern gospel music is a genre of Christian music. Its name comes from its origins in the southeastern United States. Its lyrics are written to express either personal or a communal faith regarding biblical teachings and Christian life, as ...

radio markets.

Wayne Christian Walter Wayne Christian (born September 26, 1950) is an American politician and financial planner from Center, Texas, who serves as a Republican member of the Texas Railroad Commission, having first won the position in the general election of Nov ...

led the band, performing at concert venues and ’All night gospel singings’ across the deep south and the southwestern United States. In 1975, the group became a regular headliner on the

Wally Fowler John Wallace "Wally" Fowler (February 15, 1917 – June 3, 1994) was an American Southern gospel music singer, manager, and music promoter and businessman. He founded the Oak Ridge Quartet, a gospel act that eventually became the Oak Ridge B ...

Show. The band hosted their own music festival in East Texas, featuring many

quartets, drawing thousands of Christian music fans each year. The Singing Christians became the first group to perform and headline on the Kerrville Gospel Jubilee. Several former Singing Christians members impacted the music industry beyond the scope of the group. Wayne Christian served as president of the

Gospel Music Association The Gospel Music Association (GMA) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1964 for the purpose of supporting and promoting the development of all forms of gospel music. As of 2011, there are about 4,000 members worldwide. The GMA's membership co ...

. Starting in 1997, Christian served 16 consecutive years representing District 9 in the Texas House Of Representatives. Gary Goss went on to travel with Governor Jimmie Davis. In 1986, Goss became the music and tour director for Country music singer

Johnny Rodriguez Juan Raoul Davis "Johnny" Rodriguez (born December 10, 1951) is an American country music singer. He is a Tejano and Texas country music singer, infusing his music with Latin sounds, and even singing verses of songs in Spanish. In the 1970s an ...

. John Mays played bass guitar for the

Speer Family The Speer Family was a Southern gospel family musical group. It was founded in 1921 by George Thomas ("Dad") Speer (1891–1966), his wife, Lena Darling ("Mom") Speer (née Brock; 1899–1967), and his sister and brother-in-law, Pearl Claborn (1 ...

after leaving the Singing Christians. He later served as head of

Benson Records Benson Records was founded by Bob Benson and John T. Benson, who formed the John T. Benson Music Publishing Company in 1902. The record label started out as Heart Warming Records, creating house labels such as Impact Records, Greentree Records, R ...

and Canaan Records. Emory Atkins became a record producer, singer-songwriter, and audio-recording engineer in Nashville, Tennessee. After the band ended their career as The Singing Christians in 1979, the remaining eight members rebranded themselves as a

Christian country music Christian country music (sometimes marketed as country gospel, gospel country, positive country or inspirational country) is music that is written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as (in terms of t ...

group, changing their name to the

Mercy River Boys The Mercy River Boys were an American Christian country music band who performed from 1979 to 1985. They were nominated for a Grammy Award for their first album, ''Breakout'' (Canaan Records, 1979). The album was also a finalist for the Gospel Mu ...

. In 2015, Wayne Christian, Emory Atkins, Danny Hollis, Ronny Ricks, Gary Goss, and all the band members of the Singing Christians and Mercy River Boys were inducted into the Texas Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

Discography

References

{{Reflist Southern gospel performers Musical groups from Texas Singers from Texas Shelby County, Texas Christian music Performers of Christian music American performers of Christian music Musical groups established in 1973 Musical groups disestablished in 1979 1973 establishments in Texas 1979 disestablishments in Texas Music of Texas