Legendary quartet’s celebration to be a time of musical treasures and thanksgiving

By John Herndon, KentuckySings.com

LAWRENCEBURG, Ky. – Alan Kendall was a big fan of the Kingsmen Quartet while he was growing up but didn’t see himself as part of the legendary southern gospel quartet. And he probably never envisioned being onstage during the group’s 70th Anniversary Hometown Celebration.

“I always wanted to sing but I didn’t think it was something I could do until I was in my 20s,” remembers Kendall, the quartet’s baritone since 2018, “but when I started singing, I thought, ‘Boy, the Kingsmen would be an ideal place to go sing.'”

Indeed. For eight years, Kendall has known what Southern Gospel fans have known since 1956 – quartet music just doesn’t get any better than the group founded by the McKinney brothers in Asheville, N.C., 70 years ago.

“It was the songs,” Kendall says of his early fandom. “Plus, I grew up about two hours southwest of Asheville. They were one of the first groups I saw.”

Now the Kingsmen’s longest-tenured singer, Kendall talked about the 70th Anniversary Tour and Celebration after the group delivered nearly two hours of traditional hits and newer releases at Sand Spring Baptist Church on June 12. To say that he’s excited about what’s coming up for the Kingsmen is akin to saying there are a few mountains around the quartet’s home base.

The 70th Anniversary Tour gets underway on Wednesday, June 17 at the Memphis Quartet Show and will run through July 24 at Wilkinson, W.V.  Kendall says the anniversary tour will be different from the Still Jesus Tour the quartet had been performing recently. “It is a different tour. We will have a band with us on the (70th Anniversary) Tour. We will be doing a lot of stuff live but there will be some video of the Kingsmen through the years. We’ll have some surprises on it.”

There will be plenty of nods to the quartet’s past on the anniversary tour. “Bryan Hutson (who had two stints as the group’s lead/baritone singer) will be with us some. Jeremy Peace (tenor from 2004-2007) will be with us in Memphis. Mark Trammell (band member as well as baritone and lead singer from 1978-1980) will be with us in Seminole, Okla.

“We have some pretty neat stuff coming.”

The highlight of the anniversary tour will come on Friday, July 10 when the Kingsmen will host their 70th Anniversary Celebration at Trinity Baptist Church in Asheville. 

“That has been the home church for a whole bunch of Kingsmen. Arthur Rice (lead singer from 1984-1989) is the music minister there. On July 10 it will be (the current lineup) and about 15 Kingsmen alumni,” Kendall says. “It’s free and open to the public. If someone wants a reserved seat, we are doing a reserved seat with a name-your-own price, which we have never done before but it’s working pretty well. They can name their own price. We have everything from a dollar to a hundred dollars.

“Whoever is there, we’ll have fun with it. Whoever is not there, they’ll miss out.”

The latest Kingsmen album, Still Jesus: A Seventieth Anniversary Celebration, is set to be released in conjunction with the celebration concert. 

Kendall says that two of the founding members of the Kingsmen, Raymond and Everett McKinney are still living and hope to be at the celebration on July 10. “Raymond is 92 and Everett is about 90,” Kendall says. “The other two brothers, Reece and Louis tragically died when they were very young.”

The current lineup has two recent additions, tenor Harold Reed, who began his second stint with the group last year, and lead singer Josh Davis, who started traveling with the Kingsmen in May.  Joining Kendall is bass singer Brady Jones, a Morgantown, Ky. resident who is in his third year with the quartet. Soundman and tour manager Brandon Reese has been traveling with the quartet since 1999 while his father, bass singer and Southern Gospel Hall of Fame member Ray Dean Reese has been hitting the low notes for 57 years. Ray rarely travels now, but expects to be at the celebration.

Over the years, approximately 40 singers have been in the Kingsmen lineup and, Kendall says, the musicians who were part of a five-piece band bring the number of alumni to approximately 80. 

Over the years, those Kingsmen have recorded 80 Top Ten hits, the most ever by any Southern Gospel artist, according to Kendall. “As far as I can gather, that is the most by a southern gospel artist.”

Kendall believes that might be the most by any Christian artist, regardless of genre, but is not certain. The Kingsmen also have recorded 20 No. 1 songs, the most by any Southern Gospel male quartet.

Kendall has researched the Kingsmen Quartet’s history thoroughly and released a book, Decades of Music, Decades of Memories, Volume One: 70 Years Of Songs, Stories, and Moments From The Kingsmen last year.

Through it all, Kendall says, God’s hand has been leading. “We want to thank the Lord and look back at the songs and thank the people that have paved the way for us and kept it going,” he says of the 70th Anniversary Celebration.

**The Kingsmen will be in Kentucky often over the next three months. They will appear in Vanceburg on Aug. 8 and at the Ark Encounter as part of the 40 Days of Christian Music Festival on Aug. 26.  They will be in Bagdad on Sept. 11 and will be part of the Central Kentucky Sing at Butler County High School in Morgantown the following night. You can find more concert information at The Kingsmen.

**For more information about the history of the Kingsmen Quartet, see Southern Gospel History – Kingsmen Quartet.