Gaither Vocal Band features baritone Todd Suttles from LaFayette. SATURDAY

The Gaither Vocal Band has always had its share of stars, but look for the newest member, virtually unknown in the industry two years ago, to garner the biggest share of applause when the GVB returns to Chattanooga on Saturday, July 16.

Baritone singer Todd Suttles, who joined the group in 2014, grew up on a farm in LaFayette, Ga.

“I still don’t believe it, even today,” Suttles says about singing with the twotime Grammy- winning group headed by gospel music guru Bill Gaither. “It’s still a dream.”

But he assures his local fans: “I’m still the same old Todd that used to run around in the cornfields and go fishing in the backwoods. I’m still representing home.”

Suttles says his LaFayette High School classmates will most likely remember him as a Ramblers wrestler and football player. After graduating in 1988, he went on to Middle Tennessee State University, playing Blue Raiders football as an invited walk- on, according to news accounts.

The Tennessean newspaper reports that Suttles particularly excelled in the weight room and became an assistant strength coach while still working toward his degree in vocal performance. He also became the World National Powerlifting champion in 1991 and 1994, setting world records in bench press (325 pounds) and dead lift (540 pounds) in the 132- pound weight class.

He earned his under- graduate and master’s degrees from MTSU. After five years on the job there, he was hired as Vanderbilt University’s assistant football strength coach and was named head strength coach in 1998.

Even with a career in athletics going strong, Suttles never stopped singing. Once each year, he sang the national anthem during Vanderbilt’s football, basketball and baseball seasons. And he dabbled in background sessions in Nashville, he says.

But his career path seemed entrenched in Vandy athletics. He had been sports fitness director and youth program director in the Vanderbilt Recreation and Wellness Center since 2002. He kept that day job for a year and a half after getting the “you’re hired” call from Gaither, whose Homecoming tours have ranked among the top concerts for tickets sold worldwide in any music genre during the past decade.

Suttles sings baritone for the Gaither Vocal Band, with Gaither on bass vocals, Adam Crabb on tenor and David Phelps and Wes Hampton adding tenor. He follows in the footsteps of GVB baritones Mark Lowry, Russ Taff, Marshall Hall and Gaither, who sang baritone when the group originated in 1981.

The stop at Memorial Auditorium will showcase songs included on the group’s two CDs together, “Sometimes It Takes a Mountain” and “Happy Rhythm.” They’ll be joined by soloists Charlotte Ritchie and Gene McDonald, as well as guitarist and comedian Kevin Williams.

Suttles, one of seven children of Paul and Julia Suttles, credits his Christian upbringing with preparing him for this new role. When the Gaither audition turned to “Love Lifted Me” and “At the Cross,” Suttles was ready.

“I grew up in church,” he says. “I grew up on hymns.”

Still, the blending of the five distinct voices in the Gaither Vocal Band is “totally different than anything I’ve ever done,” he acknowledges. “Singing those parts is really intense.”

He counts the group’s “Why Me Lord,” “Sow Mercy” and “Til the Storm Passes By” as favorites.

Suttles says he feels particularly blessed these days. Two older daughters are grown, and he and wife Michelle, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, have welcomed a third daughter, now 11 months old. And lately he’s been hearing from family and friends in LaFayette who are “buying all the [concert] tickets they can,” he laughs.

“It is special,” he says. “This is a God-given thing.”

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO