Musical Influences

I had a dream the other night that I became a famous bluegrass singer.  Why?  I have no idea.  I like some bluegrass but it has never been one of my favorite genres.  Bluegrass does remind me of my grandfather and his brothers sitting around at family reunions pickin & singin.

My grandfather was a great musician.  We have a history of great musicians on my mothers fathers side.  Now my Mother, big brother & nephews are carrying on the tradition.  They pick up an instrument, decide to play it and BOOM, they do!  It's a great talents.  The rest of us are singers.

The Next Generation

Our Beautiful Belle-Autumn

The dream from the other night has got me to thinking.  Who were my musical influences?  Who really made an impact on my preferred style?  Of course there are famous Gospel singers who made a big impact on me.  The Rambo's, The Goodman's, Dallas Holm, The Nelon's, Andre Crouch and I loved The Hinson's.  These were groups from when I was a young girl into my early teens.  We would listen to them while cleaned the house on Saturday morning.

The real influences however came from closer to home.  Minister's that came to our church.  The Hilton's, Tim Woodson & Joyce "The Voice" Robinson (The best version of Jesus Loves Me that I have ever heard).  The people closer to home made a bigger impact because it was more intimate and you could experience the anointing that they had (have).  When Theresa would sing Jesus Is Precious, I would cry my eyes out every time.  I remember when Richard Hilton wrote the song, Unity.  I remember him standing in our tiny kitchen, above the church, singing it with my mom and Theresa.  Tim Woodson told me one time that it takes more talent to sing a song totally off key than to sing on key.  He said that most people will sing at least one line or word right without trying.  I think he was right about that.  These people had a personal impact that the others didn't because I knew them.

Ronald Scott dancing at
Kelcie's birthday party

The one person who had the biggest musical impact on me and still does to this day is my Mom.  Lorraine Estep taught me that without the anointing of the LORD you can sing pretty but you have no power.  My mom has one of the most powerful voices out there.  She can sing for hours at full throttle and her voice never tires.  It's amazing!!  I can sing a couple of songs and my voice starts to show signs of strain, NOT MOM.  She just keeps going and going.  She speeds most songs up and she doesn't like down times in songs either.  She knows when a song will work for Christ the King Church and when it is not going to.  She has lead worship at CTK ever since she got saved practically.  She is one of the best worship leaders that I have ever seen.  My dad can say a word in a song that he wants her to sing and she knows what he is talking about.  Her grand kids call her the Human Archives.

Now, I know most people will say that their musical influences were from other genres but I cannot say that .  We were Gospel music and nothing else when we were growing up.  When I became a teenager, other influences entered in.  But my roots are in what I would call Contemporary Southern Gospel.  I have to say that  strong female singers like Dottie Rambo & Vestal Goodman were common in Southern Gospel.

So if you remember "The Estep Girls" coming to your church or singing at conventions, then you will recognize the groups listed above.  I will always love those old songs that we sang in churches around the Northeastern states.

Music is such a big part of my life.  I love to sing and lead others in worship.  It is a huge part of my blessed life.