Jeff, Sheri Easter to play at Mercy & Grace
On Jeff Easter’s list of things to be thankful for, there’s a spot permanently reserved for gospel songwriter Albert Edward Brumley and the city of Springdale.
The Oklahoma native, who died in 1977, is famous for writing “I’ll Fly Away” and hundreds of other songs, but he also founded the Sundown to Sunup Gospel Sing, which used to draw thousands of Southern gospel fans to the city’s rodeo arena.
Easter met his wife, the former Sheri Williamson, at the event in 1984. The granddaughter of Roy “Pop” Lewis, she was traveling and performing with the group that bears his name.
“She was there with her family and I was a bass guitar player with the Singing Americans. We saw each other and just said, ‘Wow.’ I thought the Lewis Family had a movie star traveling with them, she was so pretty.”
Sunday, Jeff and Sheri Easter will be back in Springdale to perform at Mercy & Grace Cathedral. They’ll appear, along with Southern gospel singer-songwriter Gerald Crabb as well as the Bilderbacks.
The event will feature Christmas tunes as well as traditional Southern gospel.
The Easters, who celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary this year, have recorded more than 30 albums and are two-time Grammy nominees.
The Springdale church’s sanctuary, which seats about 500 people, is comfortable and cli
mate-controlled, adjectives that never applied to the rodeo arena.
“[There was] a lot of dust if it was hot and dry, but if it was raining, it was a mud hole,” Easter said.
Despite the conditions, artists were eager to perform there.
“That was one of the big concerts of the year for everybody,” he said.
The list of past performers include the Crabb Family, the Oakridge Boys and Bill Gaither, the singer-songwriter and promoter extraordinaire.
Gaither invited Jeff and Sheri Easter to participate in his best-selling Homecoming series of concerts, CDs and DVDs. In the process, he introduced the couple to an audience in the millions.
“We did the first video with them 29 years ago, and then we started touring with them right after that,” Easter said. “It was amazing, you know? Publicity you can never buy. Gaither’s been very good to us.”
Euel Bilderback, pastor of Mercy & Grace Cathedral, said he’s excited to have Jeff and Sheri Easter at his church again.
“They’re the kind of music that we love to play with and sing with, brother,” he said. “They were here last year and people just fell in love with them.”
Bilderback, a longtime member of The Bilderbacks, has fond feelings not only for the Easters, but also for Brumley’s gospel sing, which moved from Northwest Arkansas to Missouri in 2006.
After winning the event’s talent competition in 1997, the Bilderbacks received a Nashville recording contract and the opportunity to reach a nationwide audience.
Euel Bilderback and the rest of his group traveled fulltime for awhile, but returned to Springdale as his father, Calvin Bilderback, was battling prostate cancer.
He now pastors the church that his father originally founded.
Ticket sales for Sunday night’s concert have been brisk, he said.
“I’m getting close to plumb full,” he said. But he anticipated there would be room for stragglers.
“If they wait until the last day, we’ll have some at the door,” he said.
If you go: At 5 p.m. Sunday, Jeff and Sheri Easter, the Bilderbacks and Gerald Crabb will appear at Mercy & Grace Cathedral, 5185 Apple Road, Springdale. Tickets are $15 each.