By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
Beginning over 36 years ago, Ric Jennings was asked to gather a few fellow singers to perform at a Kentucky Arts Council function at the Carnegie Center in Covington. That was the beginning for the Brotherhood Singers.
Jennings was part of an excellent choir at the Ninth Street Baptist Church whose fame was starting to spread in the church circles in the Northern Kentucky area.
“I reached out to some guys in the area who I knew liked to sing like I do,” he said. “Most of the guys I sing with are flexible with their voices, and when we all got together, it was like divine intervention. Our voices blended so well and we were able to raise our voices in praise to the Lord.”
He said they rarely practice, getting together about once a month to brush up on their sublime harmonies, and compare their performance dates.
“Choirs tend to have sections that match with the range of a person’s voice, so one person might sing tenor, or bass,” Jennings explained. “But the guys in our group are flexible enough that we can switch our voices to fill in a gap, like if one guy has a cold and has to sing lower, we can compensate by singing a higher part. We instinctively know how to adjust our voices to fill in the sound and produce the rich, full harmony that we are known for.”
Greg Page was one of the original members of the Brotherhood Singers, and he remembers the time as very satisfying, and loved blending his voice to uplift his heart and the hearts of those listening.
“I grew up in Covington, and I sang in a choir since I was in about the fourth grade,” Page remembers. “I was in the 9th Street Baptist Choir, and that’s where I met my wife, Charletta. When the small group of Brotherhood singers formed, I was one of the members. I always loved singing. I felt like we were bringing the word of God to people. We had a lot of fun, but we were praising God, and showing people the beauty of singing those praises.”
Page had to quit the group when he shattered a bone in his heel and had to have surgery. Nowadays, his health has deteriorated, and he has trouble getting around, but he always remembers being part of the Brotherhood singers as a highlight in his life.
“It has always been such a pure effort, reaching out to people with the universal language of music,” he said. “I think that is why they are still so popular. Everyone loves the music, and most people love the pure and simple effort of praising the Lord. There is just nothing like the feeling of singing the Gospel and bringing it to people.”
The Brotherhood Singers are so popular that they are consistently in demand. They have traveled to Spain, Portugal, Russia, Italy, Canada, and Switzerland, and have performed at the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center.
But the Brotherhood Singers are not a professional group; they are semi-professional, and most keep their day jobs.
The group performs all over because they love to sing. The elated feeling that they get from creating their unique sound flows out and encompasses those that are listening, and their hearts are opened and fulfilled by that same elated feeling. The members feel that they are using their God-given talents to praise God and spread His word to everyone they can. It is a mission that they love, and the feedback is tremendous.
“Keep in mind that you have to sing it how you feel,” Jennings explained. “When you do that, it connects with the emotional state of the character, of the person who hears it.”
And it does connect.
The group is in demand, and they will be performing in Madison, Indiana, on November 2 and November 10, and at the Metropolitan Club in Covington in November. They have a Facebook page, NKY Brotherhood Singers.
Jennings remembered a time that they were performing in Canada, and they ended up opening for a festival that featured Ray Charles, because a jazz group got held up at the border and couldn’t get to the performance in time. Yhey asked the Brotherhood singers to fill in for them.
It isn’t easy to do what they do.
Anyone who has ever sung in public knows what it is like to search for the right pitch, or the right note, and having some music to accompany them is vital.
The five members of the Brotherhood don’t have music to accompany them — they are the music. The acapella quintet dosen’t have to search for the notes, because they know the notes instinctively. But it doesn’t come easily to most people.
“Singing acapella is like being on a rope without a net,” Jennings quipped.
Listening to the incredible blend of voices in the brotherhood, it is clear that they understand how it works.
Jennings invites everyone to come out and listen to the group sing. They even invite people to sing along, because the music is familiar and joining in is irresistible.
The current members of the group are Eric ‘Ric’ Jennings, Eric Riley, Stace ‘Babydeac’ Darden, Sam ‘Watson’ Norris Jr, Mike Wright, and Lavelle Thompson.
Over the years, the group has added some popular songs to their repertoire of Gospel, patriotic, and Christmas music.
A typical performance, which lasts anywhere from 30 to 75 minutes, begins with five songs that highlight solos by each group member, giving the audience a chance to see their versatility and range. Then they like to move into the audience, encouraging people to sing along, and shaking hands with the people they meet.
After getting everyone moving and singing, the group slows the beat down, singing songs they know will touch the heart and soul. Following that, they bring the tempo up again to bring the smiles, and let the audience leave, singing to themselves and feeling good.
All in all, it is an unforgettable experience, put on by an unforgettable group, a group voted into the Northern Kentucky Music Hall of Fame — and a Northern Kentucky treasure.