Life happens. Things change. Just because you’re rewarded far beyond your expectations doesn’t mean time stops passing.
The Classic Gospel Sons, none of whom are exactly spring chickens, have decided to sing one more concert and say farewell as a group. That’s after a decades-long career full of surprising successes across several chapters.
“I feel really good about the way this has happened,” leader Don Smith said about this last chapter, which lasted for five years. “We heard from so many people that we inspired them when they needed it. But — I guess it’s time.”
Formed by Bible-college kids in the late 1960s and formally launched in 1971 at a church in La Center, the original Gospel Sons became a thriving musical ministry, touring the Pacific Northwest and beyond in their own bus and performing as many as 100 concerts a year. They recorded 10 albums. Members came and went at first, but the solid core of the group was lead singer Smith, tenor Terry VanderStoep, baritone Stan Kirschenmann and bass Jerry Watson; their piano accompanist, Stan’s wife, Bobbi Kay, was promoted to full-fledged singing member, too, and the “sons” became a quintet.
Musical success was sweet, but the challenge of touring to sing at churches and other events far and wide while raising families and holding down day jobs became too exhausting to sustain. Members started coming and going again; when Smith faced major surgery in 2001, the group came to a complete stop.
Nobody expected the next chapter, which started in 2010 only because Smith’s Gospel Sons touring jacket got noticed at a Starbucks. Smith found himself on the phone with a woman who said her only 90th birthday wish was to hear her favorite Gospel Sons one more time.
The music sounded too good to stop after the birthday party. “We started getting requests to sing in different places again,” Smith said. “And we started thinking of places to go and people we could call.”
So there were five more years of gospel stardom — or something like that. The group sang at megachurches like Living Hope in Vancouver and tiny chapels like one in Klamath Falls, Ore., Smith said. But once again, life happened to members of the group, who are all between 63 and 72: grandchildren and health issues, flagging energy and a desire to chase the retirement sunshine south.
Plus, Smith acknowledged, an old-fashioned gospel group just can’t compete with the amplified pop you find in churches today. “Styles change,” he said. “Considering what contemporary music has become, I thought we did very well. But it’s a little hard to adjust to the fact that we’re not the main event anymore.”
They will be, one more time. The Classic Gospel Sons will perform at 6 p.m. Saturday, April 25, at New Hope Community Church, 11731 S.E. Stevens Road, Happy Valley, Ore. Doors open at 5 p.m. The concert is free, but a good will offering will be taken. Visit classicgospelsons.com to learn more.
Smith added that he’s still raring to sing, and performs many solo concerts each month. “I just plain love to sing. I just do,” he said. “At 71 my voice is in better shape than ever. I’m going to keep going as long as I can.”
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