The Gospel Music Association was founded in 1964 and functions as the voice and face for the community of Christian Gospel music.
The association is committed to promoting, highlighting, and celebrating gospel music that has come to us in all sorts of styles such as country, southern gospel, rock, pop, praise & worship, R&B, black gospel, hip hop, and many more.
The Gospel Music Association community includes more than two thousand members, from church leaders recording executives, artists, and promoters, to agents, managers, radio hosts, songwriters, retailers, and many other music industry visionaries.
A top education is of course required, something that isn’t always guaranteed with our big class sizes, and you can easily apply to the best music schools if you use the “Common App”, an online college application tool that you can use for applying to almost 500 colleges and universities in writing individual applications to these schools.
The GMA additionally is producing IMMERSE and the GMA Dove Awards, and if you want more information please go to www.gospelmusic.org.
Let’s take a look at some of the famous inductees that are highlighted in the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and Museum:
The Lewis Family – This Gospel group was founded in 1951, and came to global recognition as one of the icons of ‘Bluegrass Gospel Music’ and is often referred to as has been called Bluegrass Gospel’s ‘First Family’. The Lewis Family started out from Lincolnton, Georgia, its hometown, and was entirely and continuously made up of members of the same family.
The group members have encompassed three generations, so all their shows offered an impressive appeal to folks of all ages. The first recordings were for Sullivan Records, and since 1995, the Lewis Family was recording their music for Daywind Music, but overall, the group has been recording over 60 record albums and 6 videos of their concerts.
The group members held their own annual festival, the ‘Lewis Family Homecoming and Bluegrass Festival’ during the first weekend of May in Elijah Clark’s State Park, close to Lincolnton.
The founder of the group, ‘Pop’ Roy Lewis, passed away in 2004, but the Lewis Family continued to pay together until in 2009, on November 7th, they gave their farewell concert in Lincolnton.
In 1992, the Lewis Family was inducted into Georgia’s Music Hall of Fame, and in 2006 the group was honored by induction into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor.
Hezekiah Walker – Bishop Hezekiah Walker is a well-known Gospel music artist. He is also and pastor of the ‘Love Fellowship Tabernacle’, an influential Brooklyn Hezekiah was born in 1962 (on December 24th) and became an overnight success in 1985 for his singing top quality songs with the ‘Love Fellowship Crusade Choir’.
The choir had won a Grammy Award for their musical excellence and membership was hugely desired by wannabe musicians who expressed their wish to become vocal artists at numerous career tests.
In 1994, Hezekiah Walker founded the Love Fellowship Tabernacle Church Choir, after which he became even more recognized for his heartfelt and hardcore messages. The world of rap music honored him by deeming him the ‘Pastor of Hip Hop’. See also this article: “Time Out With Gospel Artist Mark St. John Carson.”
The Love Fellowship Tabernacle Church Choir is among the best and most popular American choral groups and is singing great contemporary gospel.
Walker and his choir debuted with the Crusade Choir and rapidly became a top attraction on the church choir circuit. They earned their most famed success in 1994 when their recording ‘Live in Atlanta’ Morehouse College’ received a Grammy Award.
The Nelons – The Nelons are a well-recognized southern gospel group from Atlanta, Georgia, that was inducted in Georgia’s Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2016. The Nelons was founded by Rex Nelon and the group was initially named The Rex Nelon Singers in 1977.
Other Nelons members are Rex’s wife Kelly Nelon, her daughters Amber and Autumn, and Jason. The Nelons have been captivating the attention of audiences from across the globe for decades through their timeless songs, their passion for worship, their understanding of the three main traditions of Gospel Music, and tight family harmony singing.
The group continues to honor the legacy of the family tradition through unparalleled and unique vocal excellence, astonishing live performances, and incomparable vocal harmonies.
Through the decades, the Nelsons have been recording over 35 albums and their Southern Gospel repertoire includes classics like ‘O For a Thousand Tongues’, ‘Come Morning’, and ‘We Shall Wear a Robe and Crown’.