AMY TURNER
Makayla Hyssong may not have known what to expect when the Hyssongs walked into the studio and she stepped up to the microphone. She just wanted to sing “Shout to the Lord” the way she’d always heard it in her head.
“Her emotional rendition of this anthem brought tears to everyone in the studio while recording,” says her father, Richard Hyssong, still sounding a little amazed by it. It’s the kind of moment that doesn’t come around often, even for a family that has spent nearly three decades making music together.
The Maine based Southern Gospel trio is barely getting comfortable with their new label home, Horizon Records, where lead single “Good News Savior” is just now finding its way to radio. But The Hyssongs have never been a group content to sit still, and their new “Worship Medley” arrives close behind their last release, “It’s Not Over Yet,” a song that turned Makayla’s own health struggles into a testimony about faith and healing. This time, rather than singing about her, the family is singing alongside her, and it marks the first time Makayla has been featured on a Hyssong recording.
Working again with producer Jeff Collins, the family threads together three worship standards into one continuous, sweeping performance. It opens with the propulsive energy of “You Are Good,” settles into the emotional core of Makayla’s “Shout to the Lord,” and closes with “Awesome God,” a version built around a string arrangement that swells into a full orchestral finale.
For Richard Hyssong, the medley isn’t just a showcase for his daughter’s voice, it’s meant as something closer to an offering. “With all of the noise and issues in this world,” he says, “these songs will help us reflect on almighty God and bring us to the point of worship.”
That instinct, to cut through the noise with something plainspoken and sincere, has defined The Hyssongs since they started singing together as a family 29 years ago. Their sound draws on classical training as much as gospel tradition, and it shows in the tight harmonies and unusual chord voicings that set them apart from other trios on the circuit. Add in a horn section featuring trumpet and trombone, plus the easy humour that runs through their live shows, and you get a group whose ministry feels less like a performance and more like an invitation.
The accolades have piled up accordingly. The group took home the Singing News Fan Award for Favorite New Trio in 2014 at the National Quartet Convention in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and they’ve landed among the Top Ten Trios of the Year every year since. Their chart run has been just as consistent, with songs like “There Is A God,” “Choose Life,” “Run The Race,” “I Tell Them Jesus” and “Let the Hallelujahs Ring” all reaching number one on the Singing News Radio Charts. AbsolutelyGospel.com tapped them as an artist to watch back in 2015, and their album Faith & Family was named a Top 10 record of the year by Singing News Fans in 2017.
None of that history explains what happened when Makayla stepped up to sing, though. Some things you can build over 29 years of family harmony. Others just arrive, fully formed, in a single take.
