Category: Southern Gospel

Gary Casto on faith, gospel music, and the project nobody believed in

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AMY TURNER

After forty years in the industry, Gary Casto still lights up when he talks about gospel music.

Since 2006, Tribute Quartet, Casto alongside Josh Singletary, Gus Gaches, and Ian Owens, has built a reputation as one of southern gospel’s most reliable forces: a multi-Dove-nominated, award-winning act that’s managed to stay both beloved and dynamic in a genre that doesn’t always reward both at once. Now they’re back in the studio, kicking off work on their fourth Quartet Tribute project, having just wrapped a song selection session with longtime producer Gerald Wolfe.

Gary Casto (tributequartet.com)

Casto, a West Virginia native who’s spent decades in nearly every corner of gospel music, is the group’s manager and lead vocalist, and he’s the one who dreamed up the Quartet Tribute concept in the first place. It wasn’t an easy sell.

“I try to always pick the right songs,” Casto says. “You know, when we started doing the quartet series, several folks told me, industry leaders says, that’s a great idea, but you’ll never be able to mix those songs in with your national projects. There’s no way.”

He wasn’t deterred. If anything, the skepticism lit something in him. “I love a challenge,” he says. “And I just said, Lord, we’ve got to do this. And we do it nightly.”

That stubborn faith has paid off. Tribute Quartet has spent years proving that classic and contemporary material can share a setlist without friction, that southern gospel audiences don’t need to choose between nostalgia and novelty; they want both, often in the same evening. It’s a small rebellion against the industry’s instinct to keep things tidy and categorized, and it’s worked because Casto refused to back down when people told him it wouldn’t.

As the group dives into its fourth installment in the series, that same restless mix of reverence and reinvention is driving them forward: music built to feel timely without losing its center, relevant to the moment without forgetting what brought the audience there in the first place. For Tribute Quartet, the mission underneath the music hasn’t moved an inch, even as everything around it keeps shifting.

One dead after tent collapses during Craguns performance in Moneta, Virginia

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STEVE MORGAN, SPECIAL FOR TEXAS GOSPEL

MONETA, Va. — A sudden, powerful wind gust collapsed a large commercial tent during an outdoor celebration at Eastlake Community Church on the evening of June 13, killing one person and injuring several others.

The church was marking its 20th anniversary with an outdoor service featuring The Craguns when the wind struck without warning, according to witnesses and a statement released by the group.

The victim has been identified by witnesses as Bob Stouffer, a longtime member of the church congregation.

A witness at the event said the wind lifted the tent into the air, estimating it rose roughly 100 feet before crashing back down on the crowd below. The witness said the church’s pastor, sensing the danger, tried to warn attendees to get to their cars, but the wind hit before he could finish delivering the warning.

The number of people injured in the collapse has not been confirmed.

The Craguns, who were performing under the tent at the time, said in a statement posted online that their family was unharmed.

“Tonight while singing outdoors (under a large commercial tent) celebrating the 20th anniversary of Eastlake Community Church in Moneta, Virginia, a VERY strong wind came through suddenly and without warning and blew the tent down,” the group wrote. “We are thankful to report that our entire family is safe and unharmed. However, there were multiple injuries and at least one fatality (that we are aware of).”

The group said they released the statement after receiving hundreds of messages asking about their safety, noting the incident had become national news.

“We ask that you help us pray for everyone who is injured, the church staff and all of the precious souls who attend this church,” the statement continued. “They are hurting tonight and they need our love and prayer support. Eastlake Community Church is a wonderful, God honoring church. After 20 great years, they will have a few hard weeks ahead.”

The Craguns expressed confidence that the church and its members would recover from the tragedy.

“But based on God’s word, we know that somehow, someway, God is working all things together for good to those who love him… and by God’s grace we believe brighter days are ahead,” the statement read. “Thank you for your prayers.”

Services for Mr. Stouffer were held June 20, 2026 at the EastLake Community Church.

LeFevre Quartet’s Jordan LeFevre on finding honour in the ordinary moments of parenthood

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CHERYL QUIGG

There was nothing glamorous about it. A tour bus, a bucket of soapy water, and a little boy trying to keep up with his dad. But for Jordan LeFevre of the LeFevre Quartet, that quiet Saturday chore turned into something he is still thinking about.

“My son was helping me wash our tour bus,” LeFevre recalls, “and if we’re being honest, I probably could have done it faster by myself. But that’s not really the point.”

For a man who spends much of his life on the road, performing for audiences across the country, LeFevre has a gift for recognising what actually matters. And what matters, he will tell you, is not the stage. It is the small, unremarkable hours in between, the ones most parents are tempted to rush through.

“As we scrubbed and rinsed, I was showing him how to do the job the right way,” he says. “Teaching him, guiding him, working alongside him.”

It brought to mind a verse he knows well, Proverbs 22:6, which calls parents to train up a child in the way he should go. LeFevre sees that scripture not as a task to complete, but as a posture to hold. “God doesn’t just give us instructions and walk away,” he says. “He teaches us, corrects us, and patiently works alongside us as we grow in faith and character.”

That patience is something every parent recognises and struggles with. The mess, the inefficiency, the slower pace that comes with letting a child participate rather than simply observe. It takes a certain kind of discipline to resist doing it yourself, to honour the process over the outcome.

And yet, those are exactly the moments children carry with them. A home, after all, can be a place of peace or a place of noise and confusion. The difference often comes down to whether parents are willing to be present, not perfectly, but consistently, and with intention.

LeFevre puts it plainly: “Sometimes the greatest lessons aren’t taught in the classroom. They’re learned side by side, in doing life together.”

For Christian parents, that is both a comfort and a challenge. Every errand, every chore, every ordinary Tuesday holds the potential to shape the next generation’s understanding of faith, character, and what it looks like to follow Christ. The colour of those moments, whether they feel significant or not, is rarely obvious in real time.

But a soapy bucket and a willing child are a good place to start.

Eighteen Mile’s debut album Peace Be Still brings bluegrass gospel’s most compelling new voices into focus

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AMY TURNER

They grew up inside someone else’s ministry. For years, the five young musicians who now call themselves Eighteen Mile built their chops and shaped their faith on the road with the Steve Pettit Band, learning what it meant to play music in service of something larger than themselves. It was formative, honest work. But it wasn’t entirely theirs.

“As a band of songwriters, this album is special,” says Carson Aaron, one of the group’s founding members. “It’s the first project we’ve worked on where we’ve written almost every song.”

That shift in ownership, from interpreters to authors, is what makes Peace Be Still, the group’s debut for Mountain Home Music Company, feel like more than just a promising first record. It feels like an arrival.

Formed in South Carolina by Aaron and his partner Savannah, alongside siblings Jack and Hallie Ritter and vocalist Emily Guy, Eighteen Mile signed with Mountain Home in the summer of 2025. The label’s A&R Director Jon Weisberger wasn’t hedging when he described their appeal. “Eighteen Mile’s distinctive identity and commitment to their vision deeply impressed us,” he says. “We’re excited to help bring their music to a wider audience.”

That vision is already part of Bassist Hallie Ritter’s lead single “Above the Clouds.” It has become a reliable presence on the Bluegrass Today gospel chart, followed by Aaron’s “What Mercy Means” and a luminous take on Kristyn and Keith Getty’s “Living Waters.” Each release has built momentum in the way that matters most in this corner of the music world: steadily, genuinely, without shortcuts.

Produced by Andy Leftwich, Peace Be Still carries the emotional weight that only comes from lived experience. The arrangements are polished without feeling laboured, and the performances carry a confidence that doesn’t announce itself. Whether the band leans into straightforward bluegrass or lets the arrangements breathe into something closer to contemporary folk, the result is music that feels at home in both the church hall and the festival field.

The album’s title track is perhaps its centrepiece. Written and sung by multi-instrumentalist Jack Ritter, with Rob Ickes contributing resonator guitar work that is as sympathetic as it is technically masterful, the song crystallises everything the band is reaching for. Its lyrics trace a prodigal arc familiar to anyone who has taken a longer road back to themselves, and arrive at a refrain that functions almost like a breath:

“Peace be still” He says to me / Grace unmeasured, boundless, free / Keep me Lord from unbelief / Let me rest in perfect peace.

The rest of the album moves through doubt overcome by faith, fear quieted by the certainty of salvation, and the recurring recognition of grace that costs the receiver nothing but demands everything in return. Two covers round out the set: a tender treatment of Ron Block’s enduring “He’s Holding on to Me” shows the band’s roots, while “Living Waters” confirms they can bring reverence to someone else’s song without losing their own voice in the process.

“We know the stories behind each song because they are our stories,” Aaron says. “The common thread through all these songs is the grace of God that has transformed our lives. In several of the songs, you’ll hear a clear invitation to consider His grace; we offer that invitation because each of us have heard God say to our souls, ‘Peace Be Still.’ We hope you find the peace of God in this album.”

There is something quietly remarkable about a group of young musicians who spent their early careers playing other people’s music and emerged not bitter or impatient, but grateful and ready. Eighteen Mile didn’t need to reinvent bluegrass gospel. They simply needed to find the words for what they already knew to be true.

Peace Be Still is out now on Mountain Home Music Company.

The Rogers Family keeps right on blessing Southern Gospel with their joyful new single

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JEFF TURNER

There’s a moment near the top of “He Keeps Right On Blessing Me” when Kim Shields’ piano intro gets gently shouldered aside by a brass section so unapologetically jaunty that you half expect it to tip its hat on the way in. It’s a musical entrance that announces itself without apology, and it sets the tone for everything that follows.

The track is the third single from the Rogers Family for Horizon Records, and if you’ve been paying any attention to the Southern Gospel world lately, you already know this North Carolina family has been building something quietly remarkable in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

“We are so excited for the release of ‘He Keeps Right On Blessing Me,’” the group said in a newsletter sent to Texas Gospel Canada. “When we heard it for the first time, we knew immediately that we needed to record it. It’s a toe-tapping, hand-clapping song that will get stuck in your head, in a good way! We pray that as you listen you will be reminded of the many blessings of God in your life.”

That description, “toe-tapping,” isn’t marketing copy. It’s a clinical diagnosis.

Once the brass section hands things over to Samuel Shields, his delivery of the opening verse carries the kind of soulful assurance that sounds lived-in rather than performed:

When I wake up in the morning / And I don’t know what awaits / Cause every new day seems to have a trial / There’s one thing I am sure of / With every step I take / My Jesus will be there for every mile

Producer Roger Talley’s arrangement doesn’t stay in one place for long. It moves through key changes with the ease of a family that has been singing together long enough to communicate without words, and then sisters Rebekah and Hannah Shields step forward to carry the second and third verses, their voices adding texture and personality to a song that already has plenty of both.

At the centre of it all is the Adina Bowman-penned chorus, a melody so hooky it feels like it must have existed somewhere before:

And He keeps right on blessing me / Keeps right on keeping me / Oh, the Lord has been so good to me / He protects me from the enemy / He’s providing all I need / My Jesus keeps right on blessing me

The story behind the Rogers Family is the kind that Southern Gospel was practically invented to tell. The group traces its roots to Northeast Georgia, where Ray and Helen Rogers sang in local churches alongside their daughter Kim, who played the piano from the start. Kim later met Sammy Shields at a church in North Carolina, they married in 1999, and together they put down roots in the Blue Ridge foothills and raised three children: Rebekah, Samuel, and Hannah.

When Ray Rogers passed away in 2010, the next generation stepped forward. Not as a replacement for what had been, but as a continuation of it. Helen and Kim stayed close, remained active, remained passionate, and the family kept singing. That kind of tenacity has a way of showing up in the music, a quality of honouring what came before while making something that feels entirely present tense.

Today, the six-member group, Helen, Kim, Sammy, Rebekah, Samuel, and Hannah, travels and ministers together. Kim is still at the piano, which feels entirely right. Some things shouldn’t change.

“He Keeps Right On Blessing Me” is out now.