Tag: Down East Boys

JEFF TURNER

This May, Ricky Carden will celebrate 34 years with The Down East Boys. His long journey in gospel music began when he was just 19 years old. The group became the second stop in what would grow into a lifelong career.

Carden recalls how it all started, crediting one man in particular for changing his path.

“Our ANR guy for Sunlight Records, Greg Bentley, and he’s the reason I’m in this mess,” said Carden.

He met Bentley through a well-known gospel group called the Hoppers. They gave Carden his first real taste of life on the road.

“I started at 19, of course I met Greg through a group called the Hoppers that everybody knows and they allow me to go on the road with him some just to see what it was all about,” he said. “I loved the music and wanted to be a part of it but didn’t really know a lot about it or how. I just sang it in church.”

Carden shared how Claude Hopper, a member of the group, quickly put him to work.

“Of course if you know Claude, Claude will put you to work,” he said. “He put me on the road and we’re unloading equipment, we’re doing all this stuff, and he just called me up one night.”

That call led to more time singing on stage with the Hoppers over the course of a year. Around that time, Greg Bentley joined The Down East Boys.

“A year later, and I had graduated high school, and he called and said, ‘We need a lead singer. I think you can do it,'” Carden recalled. “I didn’t know if I could or not, but I certainly wanted the chance.”

Just a few weeks later, he was on the bus with the group. That moment became the start of something lasting.

“And I’ve been here ever since. So 34 years in May,” he said.

Through hard work and a love for gospel music, Ricky Carden turned a single opportunity into a lifelong commitment. His story is one of faith, music, and perseverance—rooted in a moment that changed everything.

SPECIAL HORIZON & SONLITE RECORDS

Arden, North Carolina (June 7, 2024) — Though the title track from their last EP, “There’s A Song For That,” has been riding high on the Southern Gospel charts for months, Sonlite Records’Down East Boys have been keeping fans well supplied with new material to sample on their own schedules — first with the release of early May’s majestically orchestrated “He Looked Beyond My Fault,” and now with the drop of the title track to a forthcoming full-length album, “Something To Shout About.”

Bold and assertive from its opening flourish of drums, “Something To Shout About” offers a driving, up-tempo beat that suits the joyous spirit of its message of God’s redemption. An ever-changing vocal arrangement in the verses keeps the spotlight moving between each of the quartet’s members, who take turns in offering the affirmations of Kenna Turner West and Jason Cox’s simple yet stirring lyrics:

Have you heard salvation’s story
Written for you and me
Jesus, God’s only son
Died for sin at Calvary
Was laid in a garden tomb but in three days
Death was defeated when He conquered the grave

Before joining together in the ringing chorus:

That’s something to shout about
That’s something, and you can’t help but tell the whole world how
He saved us from sin, washed us clean
Glory, hallelujah, He set us free
That’s something to shout about

“We love this new lyric,” say the Down East Boys. “If the Lord has ever touched your life then you have ‘Something to Shout About.’ This song will challenge you to tell the world what God has done for you!”Listen to “Something To Shout About” on Texas Gospel Canada!

SPECIAL CROSSROADS RECORDS

Arden, North Carolina (May 3, 2024) —  Even as the title track of their last collection, “There’s A Song For That,” rises in the charts, the Down East Boys are keeping fans happy with a new single — this time, a beloved classic from Dottie Rambo, who wrote its simple, yet profound lyric more than 50 years ago.  

Written to the melody of “Londonderry Air,” which also supplied the musical framework for the popular Irish ballad, “Danny Boy,” “He Looked Beyond My Fault” offers, in just eight lines, a profound account of Jesus’ sacrifice and God’s mercy:

Amazing grace shall always be my song of praiseFor it was grace that brought my libertyI’ll never know just why He came to love me soHe looked beyond my faults and saw my needs

I shall forever lift my eyes to CalvaryTo view the cross where Jesus died for meAnd how marvelous the grace that caught my falling soulHe looked beyond my faults and saw my needs

Though the field is crowded, the Down East Boys’ arrangement of this majestic hymn stands out as an original, thanks to a rare — and powerful — bass lead vocal from Alex Utech on the song’s lone verse before the rest of the group joins him in a series of alternating solo and fully harmonized lines and passages. Indeed, it’s unusual and compelling enough a performance that it may take the listener some time to notice the absence of typical Southern Gospel instrumentation — a bold musical move that underlines the majestic orchestral accompaniment, arranged and conducted by producer Jason Webb.

“An emotional lyric penned by one of the greatest lyricists our genre will ever know,” says the group’s usual lead singer, Ricky Carden. “Words that bring a spirit of praise when you realize He looked past all of our faults and saw our need for a Savior.”

Listen to “He Looked Beyond My Fault” on Texas Gospel Canada!