Kevin

Christian Testimony:

For me, it was a revival meeting on a warm night in 1976. I was 10 years old. My uncle Wilton Burns preached about scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites. Now I had always gone to church (‘cause my Momma took me, Amen!), but I saw myself in that sermon of people “play acting” their religion and not being real. I didn’t go forward, but later I asked my Mom to stop by the preacher’s house on our way home. We did, and that night Jesus saved me and I have never been the same since. I have failed him often, but I’ve always been His child. Thank God for His grace!

Music and Life:

I grew up around music. My mother (Ila Dean Chambers) was the pianist in every church she ever attended. My brother (Ronnie Chambers) plays guitar and sings. My sister (Georgia Hamrick) has been in several good gospel groups over the years and is one of the best southern gospel soloists that you’ll find. But early on, it seemed that I had been passed over in the music department. I just didn’t seem to have any innate musical ability. It was not until I joined the school band in 7^th grade (to get out of Phys Ed) that I started liking music… And I mean I really liked music! It was like my eyes were opened on a new world.

First, I played clarinet. Then I went on to drums in the jazz band. My band director believed every musician should also know how to direct, so he taught us that too. Soon I was playing drums and filling in as the song leader at church.

Then some things happened to change my life completely… A new family started attending our church… and they brought the cutest little blonde haired girl I had ever seen (now my wife, by the way)… The Busby family came to our church from a very different musical background. Mr. Busby was a honky-tonk singer that God saved and put on the right road. He didn’t see anything else to do with his guitar, except use it for the Lord… and he did! Soon the whole extended family was part of our church, and I was working my way into the family by dating their daughter Rhonda, and by playing music with them, in a group called The Family Circle.

Eventually I convinced Rhonda to marry me, and I joined the U.S. Air Force. We traveled a lot together in those years and learned to hold on to each other. During the Air Force days we didn’t hear much solid preaching, and though we never fell into obvious sin, we grew cold to the things of God. When we moved back to Alabama, God was letting me know I needed to get right! I said “Yes Sir!”

Darryle Wilson was laying it out pretty strait at Central Baptist Church in Jasper AL. So we joined there in 1991, and we are still there today. I’m now the Music Director, adult Sunday school teacher and a Deacon.

Today, I thank God for my wife, Rhonda and my son, Jonathan; they’re the ones who really make my life feel useful. A pleasant evening at home with them is my greatest pastime.

Influences:

So many well known artists influenced what I love and strive for in gospel music, just a few; The Hinsons, The Hemphills, The Paynes, The Crabb Family, New Tradition, The Isaacs, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, and of course The Inspirations.

People who have guided me more directly have to include; Ila Dean Chambers (my mom) who let me know by example that reading and learning never stops (in music or any other pursuit), Tommy Holland (my first band director), he started me down this road and without his encouragement I would have dropped out in the first year, Bill Busby (my father-in-law) whose acoustic guitar style I still try to duplicate every time I play, The Family Circle, for letting me travel and play with them, and for demonstrating what that good “family harmony” is supposed to sound like.

Thank you for visiting our website.

Pray for us, that Eagle’s Wings will follow God’s lead and not our own.

Kevin Chambers