Family gospel group to take stage at Opry
Overflow crowds can view TVs outside show
Thursday, March 10, 2005
By Richard Boyd
St. Tammany bureau
For Fred Clark and his singing relatives, it is only a short
hop from the Lonesome Pine community outside Covington to
the Abita Springs Town Hall, but when they take the stage
Saturday to help launch a new season of the Abita Springs
Opry, the Rose Hill Gospel Singers will be bringing along
56 years of family harmony.
The popular gospel group made its debut on
the Abita Springs stage in 1992 as part of the Piney Woods
Opry. Their tight harmony and rousing renditions of classic
and self-penned gospel numbers had a packed and cheering crowd
on its feet.
Since then, the group has performed regularly
in St. Tammany Parish.
The Abita Springs Opry will kick off its
three-show spring season at 5:45 p.m. Saturday, opening the
doors 15 minutes earlier than in the past. Bryan Gowland,
one of the producers and longtime show master of ceremonies,
said the doors open earlier to allow sound technicians extra
time to fine-tune the sound system.
General admission at the door is $7 for adults,
$5 for seniors older than 65, and free for children younger
than 12. Advance tickets, which admit purchasers to a section
of reserved seating, can be purchased for $10 at the Town
Hall on Level Street.
For overflow crowds, which are expected,
seating is provided outside Town Hall with viewing on televisions.
Gowland said the Rose Hill Gospel Singers
are returning by popular demand. More than 55 years ago, the
late Henry Clark founded the Rose Hill Missionary Baptist
Church on Arthur Road off Louisiana 36 east of Covington.
He also founded the gospel group bearing his name, now led
by Fred Clark, one of his relatives.
Also returning by popular demand are the
Red Stick Ramblers, a much-acclaimed south Louisiana band
blending Cajun, swing, Caribbean melodies, hot jazz and gypsy
jazz and a hint of zydeco for a roots musical gumbo that has
garnered the group acclaim in Louisiana and throughout the
country.
The Ramblers are led by fiddler Joel Savoy,
24, son of Cajun musician and accordion maker Marc Savoy and
his wife, singer and musician Ann Savoy.
Also performing during the two-hour show
will be classical folk group Jamie DiLeberto, folk singer
Jude LeBlanc and friends and opening and closing the show
as always will be the Abita Strings Bluegrass Band, the house
band for all Opry shows, led by Joe Manuel.
The April 16 show will feature The Balsawood
Flyers, Irish singer Beth Patterson, Joey and Keith singing
original songs about Abita Springs, and Wilson Savoy and the
White Mule Cajun Band. The May 21 show will feature the Oliviers
with Monica Olivier, Harold Cavallero and Friends, Big Daddy-O
and Doug Anderson and Patchwork.
. . . . . . .
Richard Boyd can be reached at rboyd@timespicayune.com
or (985) 898-4816.
