Rejoice! has been a favorite in Southern Gospel for a while. You recently went through a personnel change. Tell us about your new members.
Rachel Sellars joined us in March of 2009, replacing Maria Atkins, who after a wonderful 5-year time with us, had to leave the group. Rachel is a beautiful 21-year-old girl who lives in White Pine, TN on a big farm with her family. She is new to the gospel music industry as such, but she has been singing and playing the piano all her life. She sings the middle part with us and she is awesome! We are really excited about what she brings to the group vocally, personally, and spiritually. She was named Tennessee Country Music Association (Sevierville, TN) Female Vocalist of the Year in 2008 and enjoyed several other honors throughout her high school years, including being named Miss Jefferson County in 2006. (She was also named Miss Congeniality in that same pageant!) She is very personable and has a great heart for ministry, and it is her heart’s desire to travel and sing gospel music.
18-year-old Tyler Vestal is our bass singer! That’s quite different for Rejoice!, since that changed us from a female trio to a mixed quartet! Tyler, who is my youngest son, had traveled with us on a very part-time basis for a few years, but he wanted to join the group full time, and did so in September, 2008. People are always surprised when they hear that deep bass voice coming from him! As we were searching for a replacement for Maria, Tyler sang MY part (the girl’s low part) for several months and I moved to the middle part. He has a very good ear and is great with harmony parts, arrangements, and he is an awesome pianist as well. He can play anything he hears and does play some in our concerts. (There is a little video of him & me playing together on our website at http://www.rejoiceonline.org) We joke about having “two generations” in the group now!
One little tidbit about Tyler that people might not know is that he LOVES vintage quartet music! The Blackwoods, The Rebels, The Stamps, The Statesmen , and of course all the legendary bass singers like J. D. Sumner, George Younce, Big Jim Waits, Conley “London” Parris and Big Chief Wetherington. He loves the current quartets also and that’s the bulk of what plays on his I-pod. Tyler also enjoys a good game of basketball and any time there is a basketball court at the church, you will likely find him there after the service!
Having Rachel and Tyler does bring a new dimension to the group and we are finding it to be instrumental in attracting more young people to our concerts and in turn, our prayer is that we can be used to bring more people of all ages to Jesus Christ.
So what has the response been like for you as a mixed group instead of a ladies trio?
Wow! It really has been incredible! But everybody knows when you put kids on stage, they steal the show!! No really, the response has been great. Honestly, we struggled with making such a change at first, because Melissa and I have been singing together as Rejoice! for 12 years now, and we were a female trio for the first 11 years. So adding a bass singer wasn’t really in the plan for us. But Tyler and I were walking around at the National Quartet Convention back in September, 2008, and as we saw different groups, I told him I knew he would be singing bass with one of those groups pretty soon. He just stopped and said, “Mom, why can’t I sing with Rejoice!?” So of course, that really stopped ME in my tracks! So I talked with Melissa (who has been very close to Tyler for almost his entire life, too) and we decided to bring Tyler in fulltime. And what a thrill it is to have him on the road with me full time now and sharing the stage together. I just love it and the response has really been wonderful. He is very gifted and brings such a great sound and spirit to our program. And he’s pretty handsome, too, if I do say so myself!
You just released a new album. Tell us about that.
We released a new project in September. It’s called “Songs You Know By Heart”. A couple of years ago when we first started talking about doing a hymns album, Maria Atkins, who was still with the group at that time, said we should call it “Songs You Know By Heart”. We all loved that name because it is indeed a collection of hymns and classic southern gospel favorites that most people know “by heart”. And actually the response to this project as a whole has been the best of any we have ever done. I guess it is because of the familiarity of the songs. Have you ever tried to narrow down a lifetime of favorite songs of four people to 10 or 12 songs?! We ended up with too many of course, so we put some of them together and did a couple of medleys. We wanted to do songs that are not only familiar to people, but songs that have truly touched our lives down through the years – songs that we have held onto in times of storms and heartache – and songs that we have just loved singing all our lives. Even though Rachel and Tyler are young, they have both been around gospel music their entire lives and most of these songs were even familiar to them. We are enjoying doing the “new” songs in our concerts and the response to them is great.
Any plans for a new mainline release?
Yes, we have started reviewing new songs and plan to start work on a new project after the first of the year. We want this new album to be really special, so we are looking for material and have plans to work with a notable producer to help us take our ministry and music to a new level.
What are some of the most memorable aspects of your ministry thus far?
Wow, there are many wonderful memories over the past 12 years. Although many times people have filled the altar after a concert, probably one of the most special is when a lady in Virginia came to hear us at the request of her friend, and the week after the concert she went back to her church and accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior because of what she said she felt in our concert! Now THAT’S what it’s all about! There was an “Impact Moment” on our local radio station in Winston-Salem, NC that told the story of a man who was contemplating suicide and “just happened” to turn his radio on and the song, “I Will Carry You” was playing. The man rededicated his life and now has a new lease on life. Another song we released a few years ago, “God’s Got a Better Plan” had a similar response because of the awesome message of encouragement in that song. As far as memorable events, we did sing on the main stage at the National Quartet Convention in 2002 and 2003, and we have been to a couple of Gaither video tapings, which was really wonderful. We sang at the Gaithers’ New Year’s Eve Jubilate Celebration in Charlotte, NC a few years ago. We have been able to meet most of the people who have inspired us in this industry and have been able to form friendships with some of them. We love traveling, singing, and meeting people, and especially when someone is encouraged and uplifted by the music and message we carry. That someone would be ministered to or even be saved – that makes it all worthwhile.
Is there anything you haven't accomplished that you would like to as a group?
Sure. We recorded a song a couple of years ago (as did Gold City) that says it all, “Preach the word, preach the cross, preach redemption to a lost and dying world… until ALL have heard, preach the word.” There are heights of the ministry that we certainly have not yet reached, and we continue to strive to make our sound better, make our program better, live and walk closer to God, so that when He is ready to use us in a mighty way, we will be ready!
What has God been teaching you lately?
TRUST. We seem to constantly walk in a land of trust. We talk about it all the time, how God shows us that He knows what we need, when we need it, and yet we still do not fully trust Him. I hear Him asking me from time to time, “Just when are you going to believe that I am taking care of you?” I have made a lot of suggestions to God, even having the time period worked out, the people who could be involved, etc. But I do not know what tomorrow holds. My plan might only work for today. God’s got a BETTER plan which will work for today, tomorrow, five years from now, eternity. There was a song a few years ago, “How Many More Miracles Do You Need?” So how many more DO we need??
Any additional information you would like to share?
We want the ministry of Rejoice! to grow! If your church would like to have Rejoice!, we want to come and worship with you! Promoters, pastors, ministers of music – we want to hear from you! Visit our website at http://www.rejoiceonline.org for booking, group, and product information.
Author: AGM
| Author's Website: http://absolutelygospel.com/
Written: 12/16/2009
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Category: Feature Articles
Comments: 1
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I have heard this groups CD and it is wonderful, very fulfilling. Rachel Sellars is very talented and has an absolutely amazing voice. I believe with the new aditions this group has the potential to change the landscape of southern gospel music and eventually land on top. Congratulations and keep up the good work
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