HENDRIX TRIO CELEBRATES 25 YEARS OF MAKING MUSIC TOGETHER
The many extraordinary members of two musically talented families all share the same unique, God-given gift.
What makes these two gospel singing families so rare is that, surprisingly, none of them can read music. They all play and sing by ear.
All of them. From both families. Imagine the odds of them finding each other.
“I can read a little bit, from what I learned in school band. Just the melody line, though. And I can tell about what key it’s written in, but I don’t know a lot of music,” Bobby Hendrix of the Hendrix Trio said. “As far as sitting down and cold-turkey reading music, I can’t do that. I play by ear mostly.”
“It’s memorization,” Bobby’s wife, Rhonda, said. “Anybody can join our choir if they want to sing and learn parts. We read no music, but we teach them the harmony.”
And harmonizing is their specialty. Rhonda sings alto, Bobby sings tenor and their daughter, Ranessa, rounds out the threesome by singing soprano in the Hendrix Trio.
Years ago, the Jenkins and Hendrix families were blended by marriage and today they can all claim many years of singing praises to thousands of fellow worshippers.
Rhonda sang for years with her two sisters, Angie and Nella Jenkins, and were known in the gospel music industry as the Jenkins Sisters. They sing with recorded tracts for the musical portion of their shows. The two sisters are still singing today, with their newest member, Brent Gregg.
Bobby’s parents, David and Kathy Hendrix, created the family band known as the Gospel Chimes. They had a complete band that traveled with them to their concerts, which included Bobby on the piano.
The Jenkins Sisters and the Gospel Chimes helped to create the Hendrix Trio.
“We once got invited to Hickory Street Baptist Church to do a song with them on a Christmas cantata. They couldn’t get the harmony right,” Rhonda said. “They were all learning it by notes.”
The trio went to their choir rehearsal and sang the song to help the choir members learn how to harmonize this particular tune.
“Then they wanted us to sing
in the choir as well,” Bobby said.
“We go up there and we can’t read the notes. So we said, ‘You give us the music and let us take it home.’ We learned our parts by memorization by what they were doing while they were actually reading the notes,” Rhonda added.
“We actually learn by ear,” Ranessa said of their remarkable abilities.
The melodious sound that comes from these three clever artists is heavenly. Their individual voices meld perfectly.
Besides singing, Bobby plays the piano for the group—and again, he learned by listening.
“My family, none of them ever read music,” he said. “It was all by ear … I started playing the piano for them at 10 years old. I started singing at 3 years old,” Bobby said.
His father held a special place in Rhonda’s heart.
“I learned so much from his daddy,” Rhonda said. “He was an awesome emcee. He had a very cute sense of humor and he was very talented.
“He knew how to mix songs up so you wouldn’t get bored. We didn’t sing a lot of songs in the same key or the same rhythm. We mixed them up.”
Bobby and Rhonda formed the Hendrix Trio in 1992 with a friend, Mary Pirtle, who completed the trio. They suffered a traumatic time when Mary died in 1993 of cancer.
“She was sick and we didn’t even know it,” Rhonda said. “Bobby’s sister, Renee, filled in with us for a while. We never cancelled a singing.”
The couple first met at Rhonda’s church in Fort Worth. Bobby was going to nursing school and went to Fort Worth to take his exams.
“My mom and dad went with me,” Bobby said. “After I got through taking my state boards, we visited her church that Sunday in July 1987.”
The two kept in touch for a while, then began seriously dating later in 1988 and eventually married in September 1989.
Both of their children, Ranessa, 23, and Ryan, 25, were born at home. Ryan was born on the Arkansas side of Texarkana and Ranessa on the Texas side.
“When we started out, she said she wanted to use a midwife,” Bobby said. “And here I’m an RN working in surgery. I said, ‘Oh no, we’re not doing that.’ Then the more she talked, I realized this was something she really wanted to do.”
“My mother had seven children at home so I thought, ‘Shoot, I can do that too,’” Rhonda said.
After they married, Rhonda continued singing with her sisters for a year and a half. Then, she joined her husband’s family, The Gospel Chimes, after Ryan was born.
It’s no wonder they have become as successful as they are in the gospel music genre.
“In 25 years, we’ve only cancelled three concerts,” Rhonda said. “I don’t have to call and solicit singings. People call us and ask us to sing now because they know what we stand for. They know we actually worship. To us, it’s a wonderful ministry. We sing the type of music that speaks to the heart and soul.”
Besides singing in the trio, the Hendrix family also promote. They established their own company and named it RDH Promotions. RDH are the initials of all of their names—Robert (Bobby), Rhonda, Ryan and Ranessa.
“And all of us have a “D” as our middle name,” Bobby said.
They also formed the 4 States Gospel Music Association for local talent. They promoted gospel music venues locally and regionally. The correct name for the association uses 4 in its name
“It’s always been a passion on mine,” Rhonda said. “We had the association from 2000 to 2010 and helped promote and build local singing careers; bring them in and hold concerts to help get their names known. Because had it not been for promoters doing that for us, nobody would know us.”
The trio very rarely ever misses going to one of their big conventions. One of their favorites is the National Quartet Convention.
“It’s a big, national convention,” Rhonda said. “But it also has trios, and anybody (who’s) in the gospel music field on a professional level. My sisters traveled and sang full time and they always had a booth there. Our kids grew up backstage. It was old hat to them.
“In fact, Ryan was born in August and we went to the Quartet Convention in September. We went every year.”
Bobby said not all the families in the gospel music field take their children to the conventions.
“A lot of people, they start having kids, they say, ‘Oh, we’re staying home,’” Bobby said. “We didn’t. We just took them with us wherever we were going.”
Another favorite convention they like to attend is the Southern Gospel Music Association, which is held in Paris, Texas every year.
Aside from their involvement in gospel music, they also manage to hold down their regular day jobs.
Bobby is a registered nurse at Texarkana Surgery Center.
Rhonda works at the surgery center part time in medical records and is also a licensed travel agent.
Ranessa recently started a new job at the Bi-State Justice Center in the central records division.
Although Rhonda and Bobby have had several singing partners throughout the years, the last 10 have been spent with Ranessa as their third member for the trio.
Their son, Ryan, and his wife, Ashley, have a sweet, bright 2-year-old daughter named Gracelynn who is the family’s latest pride and joy.
Other musicians and singers who have joined the Hendrix Trio throughout their years in the gospel music field are Daniel and Teri Hines. “She was our third part harmony and her husband was our bass player and added vocals,” Rhonda said. “He also had a cousin, Ricky Hines, who joined the band playing the drums and driving our van.”
An interesting story about the Hines’ tenure with the band: Daniel was a minister and received a call one day to attend a 10- day mission trip to Russia. His wife, Teri, didn’t want to sing without him so Bobby’s sister, Renee, who was single at the time, rejoined the group for a couple of weeks to help them out.
Daniel said he had a cousin, Jarvis Watson, who also played bass and thought he would be a good fit for the Hendrix Trio while he was away.
“He’s our new brother-in-law now,” Bobby said.
Kendall and Florina Hudson also joined the trio and stayed with the band for three and a half years. Through their connection with the Hendrix Trio, they brought along Dustin and Wendy May, who had a young son, Bryce.
During this sequence of time with the band, young Bryce, then age 4, along with the Hendrix children Ryan, then 12, and Ranessa, then 10, recorded their own song together. They created their own rendition of ‘The Walmart Song” that is still a big hit today.
“God has used our ministry for healing people and helping them to get themselves back together and through some traumatic times,” Rhonda said.
“And during all this time, God was training Ranessa to be prepared to join the group,” she added.
Since 2007, she has rounded out the trio by singing with her mother and father and traveling across the Northeast Texas area, with occasional trips to south Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
One of their biggest concerts they produce every year is the December Homecoming Concert, modeled after nationally known Bill Gaither’s practice of having several groups of singers on the stage at one time, then choosing one of the tenors, one of the altos, one soprano, and one bass singer to create a spontaneous quartet.
The Hendrix Trio brings in local and regional talent once a year and they practice for six weeks to learn how to harmonize the songs—without notes, by the way—for their big Christmas concert.
These interdenominational concerts have been held at the New Life Tabernacle, Buchanan First Baptist Church, Faith Baptist Church and Beech Street First Baptist Church.
“Basically, it’s whoever wants to open their doors to have us come and do it,” Rhonda said.
The Hendrix family name has spread beyond the fences of Northeast Texas and the Ark La Tex. They have had nationally known singers and bands come through and present their concerts for worshippers in this area.
Dubbed the “First Family of Gospel Music,” the Hopper family came to the Hendrix Trio’s 25th anniversary concert in February. They presented the show at their church, Faith Assembly of God church in Texarkana.
The next big concert is scheduled for the Sunday, July 4. Rhonda said a lot of churches dismiss their Sunday evening services due to the holiday.
Their pastor decided he wants to do something different this year. He enlisted RDH Promotions to put on a concert and they are bringing in one of the biggest family gospel singing groups in the nation—the Mike Bowling Family.
“They are awesome,” Rhonda said. “They write a lot of their own music and they have people who write for them, so it’s original songs. They have three little girls (who) sing like angels.
And if all this isn’t enough, their latest CD titled ‘Seasons’ features songs for the four seasons. Their son, Ryan, recorded with them on this one, although he usually runs the sound for their performances of late.
They also host gospel music cruises called “Heaven on Water.” The next one is scheduled for the fall of 2018. Performers are by invitation only. They have taken five such cruises so far: two to Alaska, two to the Caribbean and one from New York to Canada. They usually book through either Princess or Carnival cruises. More information will be available as the details are finalized for this next trip.
Plans are being finalized for their next CD. It’s one they have been wanting to do for quite some time. It will be a collection of hymns, something they haven’t done before.
“We take requests when we do a concert,” Rhonda said. “And those requests are the very same songs every time. They need to be recorded by us because they want to hear us sing them evidently or they wouldn’t request them. We’ve got a long enough song list to make three CDs.
“We call it ‘Hendrix Trio-izing.’ We take a hymn and do our own arrangement of it.”
Even with the many projects they are juggling at one time, the Hendrix Trio seem to have found their niche, their sweet spot. Their lives appear to be running ever so soundly and their unshakable faith is propelling them through it all with grace, dedication, trust and love.
For booking information or inquiries for copies of their CDs, contact the Hendrix family at www.thehendrixtrio.com or Rhonda Hendrix at rdhendrix@cableone.net.
“God has used our ministry for healing people and helping them to get themselves back together and through some traumatic times.” —Rhonda Hendrix