Every concert and every town is a homecoming for Bill Gaither these days.
The gospel music legend, who performs Thursday night in a sold-out show at the SeaGate Convention Centre, has been on an astounding streak since 1991 when he filmed his first Homecoming concert.
That disc featured an all-star lineup of gospel greats including Hovie Lister, J.D. Sumner, Howard and Vestal Goodman, and Jake Hess, sitting around the room taking turns singing solos, clapping, and having a good time singing their favorite hymns and gospel standards.
The recording session was captured on film for Gaither s personal use, but when he watched the video he knew there was something special about it. He had it edited for television, and when it debuted on the CBN network, viewers flooded the station asking to buy copies.
Gaither has since gathered more of his friends and favorites together to record Homecoming concerts in venues around the world, from the Kennedy Center in Washington and the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver, to Australia and South Africa.
We ve recorded over 100 Homecoming videos so far, and the last number I heard of regarding sales was over 20 million, Gaither said in an interview from California, where he was touring recently.
I don t think it says anything necessarily about my genius or talent or any of that, but I do think it says something about people wanting to share some positive community, he said. When our family gets together at Thanksgiving, it s the music that brings us together. Especially gospel music. It has an extra whammy because it s about community and it s about what you believe.
Gaither, 72, actually was expecting to slow things down at the start of the 1990s after years of tremendous success. He had gone from singing for crowds of 10,000 to 15,000 in sports arenas and concert halls to performing for a few hundred people, mostly in church settings.
The Homecoming concerts turned it all around, reviving the popularity of Gaither s gospel classics such as He Touched Me, Something Beautiful, Because He Lives, and The King Is Coming, and sparking new interest in concerts and recordings for many of the genre s old-time pioneers.
Billboard magazine once said that Bill Gaither has done for gospel music what MTV did for rock.
Gaither is not ready to take all the credit for saving an entire genre, but he acknowledges his contribution to the revival of his favorite musical format.
I ll take it if that s what they say, but here again, I just have always done what I like, and I just happen to like this kind of music and I would do it for nothing and I have done it in the past for nothing. But it s also great to sell a ticket and have people pay for it.
Indeed, the Gaither Homecoming concerts have in the past outsold tours by some of the more well-known pop and rock stars, including Coldplay, B.B. King, and Tori Amos, and his tour is booked through June, 2009.
Gaither still lives in the same town in which he grew up, Alexandria, Ind. (population 6,028), just northeast of Indianapolis.
He first tried to break into gospel music while he was studying English at Anderson College (now a university), in Anderson, Ind.
I tried it when I was 18 and I failed. It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me, Gaither said. I went out on the road with four guys and we weren t that good. We failed. My keyboard skills weren t that good. My vocal skills weren t that good. I had to go back and develop my skills.
You never learn from successes. You always learn from failures, he said.
It s a lesson that the United States could take to heart now, Gaither added.
As a country, we have failed in a lot of ways. Economically and politically, we have failed. OK, let s learn from our mistakes and correct them.
Asked if he might run for political office, Gaither chuckled.
Well I m 72. I d better do that pretty quickly if I m going to do it, he said.
After graduating from Anderson, Gaither taught English at his alma mater, Alexandria High School, where he met his wife, Gloria, who was a substitute French teacher.
He continued to pursue gospel music on weekends, and founded the Gaither Vocal Band in 1963.
Gaither became a household name in the late 1960s with his breakthrough gospel hit, He Touched Me, a song that topped the charts and was covered by many other stars including Elvis Presley.
Over the next four decades, Gaither has won 28 Dove Awards from the Gospel Music Association and was nominated 12 times for a Grammy Award, winning four of them.
He was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1983 and in 2000 he and Gloria Gaither were named Christian Songwriters of the Century by ASCAP.
A savvy businessman, Gaither also was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 1997 by Entrepreneur magazine.
In Toledo, Gaither will perform with the Gaither Vocal Band and will feature guest stars Ernie Haase and Signature Sound, Jeff and Sheri Easter, the Isaacs, Janet Paschal, Lynda Randle, Mark Lowry, Gordon Mote, Ivan Parker, Ben Speer, Reggie and Ladye Love Smith, and Kevin Williams.
He will be featuring songs of the Christmas season, Gaither said, including such mainstream favorites as Winter Wonderland and White Christmas.
I think the church understands that there are a lot of wonderful secular songs that help make Christmas special, Gaither said.
The Gaither Homecoming: Lovin Life Tour 2008 comes to the SeaGate Convention Centre, 401 Jefferson Ave., at 7 p.m. Thursday. The show is sold out.
Contact David Yonke at
dyonke@theblade.com or
419-724-6154.
First Published November 29, 2008, 11:32 a.m.
