Grace Community Choir is presenting “An Evening With Dottie Rambo,” American gospel singer and songwriter.

Celebrating six years of singing together, the choir is comprised of members from 12 different churches, all denominations. The first five years featured Gaither Music and this year will be Dottie Rambo.

Rambo was a Grammy and multiple Dove Award-winning artist. Along with husband, Buck, and daughter Reba, she formed the award-winning southern Gospel group The Rambos.

Her heyday was in the ‘60s and ’70s therefore printed musical choir concert books were out of date, so one choir member, Bobbie Dunham, put together the books for the choir members and Dave Stevens, the sound engineer, provided the listening CDs. 

“When we sang the Gaither music we were able to get a split track tape and books to match, but with Dottie Rambo’s music they never made one,” Dunham said. “Our song leader wanted to do Dottie Rambo, at that time he was sick, so I took it upon myself and just started typing the songs, buying CDs, and making the arrangements – using color coding for each part.

“The sound technician helped tremendously by changing the keys to accommodate a soloist. After we finished I put all of that in a loose-leaf notebook and made each choir member a book. I then took it to Doyle and said here is your Dottie Rambo.”

The Meridian concert will be at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2 at Grace Fellowship Baptist Church. There will be a love offering with refreshments afterward. The church is located at 7330 Hwy. 493, Meridian. For more info: 601-479-2285.

History of Grace Community Choir:

Southern Gospel concerts presented by local church choirs are rare. The thought to provide this type of music was actually an epiphany that awoke the choir director, Doyle McKee, in the middle of the night. It was in the year 2014. He wanted to provide music for singers who perhaps didn’t have the opportunity at their home church to present concerts or even to have a choir.

Also, the choir needed a new location, Grace Fellowship Baptist Church adopted them in 2018. With the new location, the choir changed their name from Liberty Singers to Grace Community Choir.

Have you ever witnessed a church choir where the members arrive early for practice and never seem to want to go home? This is Grace Community Choir. Choir practice each week becomes a praise service. Their theme song is “Loving God, Loving Each Other” which is appropriate for this group of Christians who love to praise the Lord by singing southern gospel music.

Cheryl Owens coordinates Religion page news. Items may be submitted to cowens@themeridianstar.com.