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The state of North Carolina has always boasted some of the greatest talents in Southern Gospel Music. Such groups as the Kingsmen, Inspirations, Hoppers, Greenes, Dixie Melody Boys, Down East Boys, Rejoice, Jody Brown Indian Family and many others call North Carolina home. One group that is beginning to make their mark on the industry is a mixed trio from Asheville , North Carolina called Promise. Consisting of Jeanie Cameron, Larry Madden and Jean Sexton, they come from similar backgrounds growing up listening to Southern Gospel Music and singing in church and family groups. Jeanie has a rich history coming from a musical family and singing with various groups such as Big Mo & Chosen, Lesters and Mike Speck Trio before embarking on her own solo ministry. Because of health related issues, she had to stop singing for a while; which is where Larry comes in. Larry was the Minister of Music for Trinity Baptist Church in Asheville , North Carolina where Jeanie attended. Eventually, he and Jeanie started singing together in various ensembles at church. When the group started singing more seriously in 1999, a young lady named Renee Hill sang the alto part. When her and her husband answered the call to the mission field, the need arose to find someone to sing in her place; enter Jean Sexton. Jean moved to Asheville from West Virginia where she began singing as a child with her parents. She was attending Trinity Baptist when Jeanie and Larry needed someone, and Jean gladly took her place in the group. Drawing from diverse musical tastes that include the Cathedrals, Hinsons, Lanny Wolfe, Weatherfords, Andrae Crouch, Stamps and Imperials, their diversity shines through loud and clear on their newest recording, “Wonders Never Cease.”

Promise celebrates their diversity. When describing their sound, Larry chose the word eclectic, as he excitedly claims, “I love the word eclectic. We don't like to be bored. When you listen to your own stuff and get bored, that's telling you something.” This newest recording has been a 2-year work in progress for the group as Jeanie recalls, “It seemed like every bit of 2 years. Being we are not on a label, we can take our time in working our arrangements and doing what we want to do without the added stress of a timetable and all.” Larry continues by saying, “Shortly after “Mercy Moved In” was released in 2002, we started collecting songs for this newest recording. We have a genius behind the control board with Eddie Howard. He is the most incredible producer I've ever met…he hears things that most people would never even think of. We can't see ourselves ever recording without Eddie. We spent a lot of time with him on vocals because we do our own background vocals and sometimes we'd spend a whole day on just one song. On this new recording, we all battled our own insecurities and really stretched ourselves with doing so many different things. It was such a grueling process and we knew what we were after with each song, but getting there was such a journey and it was all worth it.”

Speaking of stretching, everyone in the group agrees that this recording really stretched them to new limits. Jeanie shares, “We wanted to stretch ourselves vocally a little bit, but we didn't set out to do it in such a big way as we did. This recording just kind of took on a life of it's own and just evolved that way. Some people who have heard this new recording said that between “Mercy Moved In” and “Wonder's Never Cease”, we sound like two totally different groups. For instance, the song “I Never Needed Him More” is something you might not normally hear me do, and we did that for everybody. Jean hates doing solos on fast songs, so we made her do “God's Been Good” and we made her do “Seek and Save”, which had a bit of blues flavor to it.” And what about Larry you may ask? Jeanie laughingly says, “We stretched Larry a whole lot and he came back a black man!”

Speaking of Larry, he bravely tackled two Andrae Crouch songs on this new recording. Those songs, “Nobody Else Like You” and “If I Was a Tree” , really showcase the group in a new light as they venture into black gospel. Convincing Jeanie to do the songs wasn't the hard part, it was convincing Jean, who has since confessed to actually liking them. Larry says, “It wasn't so hard to convince Jeanie because she loves Andrae Crouch and she's the one who introduced me to his music. But it was hard to convince Jean because she is as traditional in her Southern Gospel as they come.” Those two songs have become two of the more popular songs on the group's new recording, and quite possibly could become standards in the group's repertoire for years to come.

This new recording has a lot to offer, and each song literally stands on its own. Certain songs mean certain things to the each member of the group, as Larry says, “I love doing “If I Was a Tree”. I also like “God Has Been So Good to Me” because it's fun to sing and it shows my Ray Charles side. But my favorite song is “I Never Needed Him More”. The line in the song that says “When I think that nobody cares…I cross His mind at least a million times each day, and He's always leaning in to hear me when I pray.” That is what it's all about. We all have problems that we face and we go through valleys, but God is always faithful and He does care so much for us.” Jeanie echoes those sentiments by saying, “The message in “I Never Needed Him More” really speaks to all of us. Joyce Martin did the demo and I thought I'd never be able to improve on that, but I loved the message in the song.” As Jeanie talks about some of the other songs on the recording, she says, “I loved “Seek and Save” from the very first time I heard it and Jean did a marvelous job on the song. We tried recording the song “No Wonder I'm So Happy” three different times and never got the connection with the song that I wanted, and this time we finally got it. I loved “Nobody Else Like You” . Andrea Crouch has a way of getting away with stuff musically that many writers can't, and yet he has a way to work in a strong, deep message. That song is a nice little ditty at first, but if you listen to the words, it becomes very real to you in light of your own personal Bible study and having your own intimate relationship with God . “ Beautiful Land ” is a very comforting song that a lot of people, especially the older ones, are taking a liking to. We also did the classic tune, “The Unseen Hand”. This is a song we all love and it really speaks to Jean. We love that song because you can do it choral, Southern Gospel, solo, whatever. It all works with that song.”

The group's first single from the recording is song called, “Brought Nigh By the Blood” which was written by a young writer named Bo Sullivan. Jeanie says, “Brought Nigh” is probably one of the more Southern Gospel sounding songs on the recording. It's a little deep in some areas, but it works for me and I love it and it seems to go over well in our concerts.”

The group spends a lot of time hashing out arrangements so their songs continue to be fresh and exciting. Jeanie says, “At one time, I did all the arrangements, but we've learned with working with Eddie Howard, to let him work on it because if I did all the arrangements, it would all sound a like, and Eddie has a real talent for making things sound different. While we did interject ideas, it's right there in the studio that we basically hashed out our arrangements. Take for instance the song, “I Shall Not Be Moved”. What we ended up doing with the song is nothing like the demo at all. I love that song because I love intricate arrangements. Tim Parton arranged it for us. Eddie did some of the vocal stuff on it, but Tim Parton did most of it. I told Tim I wanted something Manhattan Transfer-ish, Andrew Sister-ish and he did a wonderful job on it and it's funny because he wouldn't let anyone hear the demo of it so they could hear what he heard in the song.”

The group's intense involvement with church work and choir music keeps their sound at a certain level and feel. Jeanie relates, “We're not one style, because we use everything we have. We don't sing songs just for the heck of it. The style we do has evolved because of our loves for different kinds of music. As Larry said we are eclectic, but that is because of the need for us to be able to do different things for the different places we go to sing. We are called upon to do Praise and Worship, Southern Gospel, Black Gospel, Inspirational, Progressive, you name it we've probably done it. We can do a 4-day conference and not repeat a song and do all kinds of styles from singing with a choir to Praise and Worship, congregationals to knock down, drag out Southern Gospel and it all fits. Not trying to sound cliché-ish, but we are revivalists. We've had so much training to setting the table for our pastor to come preach, that we don't care how we get to God musically, we just want to bring people to the feet of Jesus. I want us to have a deeper ministry and be able to minister to people in different ways and get them where they live. We want to equip the church through our choir clinics where we promote faithfulness, a close spiritual walk with the Lord and we work with Music Ministers and instill into them that they are lead worshippers, not worship leaders. It's more than just singing to us…I've sung all my life, and yes it's fun and we love doing it, but we want deeper things in our music.”

The group has a lot of things in the works for the next year or so. They are hard at work on a new Christmas CD that should be out in September or October of this year. Also, the group is ecstatic about is the probability of doing a live Praise & Worship recording. Nothing is in stone just yet, but they hope to do that within the next year or so. As mentioned, Promise is also is heavily involved with working with choirs and feel they have found their niche with their “Fire in the Choir” clinics that they offer to churches. You can find out a lot more about those clinics and their music by checking out their website at www.promiseministries.com .

Very few groups showcase the enormous diversity that this trio demonstrates. Covering everything from high-church music, to Black Gospel, to Inspirational and Progressive to the more traditional Southern Gospel sounds, this group does it all and they do it extremely well and with the utmost class. It's amazing to me how three voices can accomplish so much ground musically. Their music is truly a celebration of sorts…a celebration of God's mercy and grace, a celebration of joy and triumph and the miracle of salvation, but it's also a celebration of musical styles and variances which all combine to make it a true celebration of diversity of uttermost proportions.

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