Bill Gaither (gospel singer)

Bill Gaither ( born March 28, 1936 in Alexandria, Indiana) is an American singer of Christian pop music, known in the U.S. Southern Gospel. He developed formats of concerts, music recordings, videos, DVDs, TV shows and cruises with numerous other artists under the name Gaither Homecoming.

Life

Bill Gaither was born in 1936 in Alexandria, Indiana, about 35 miles northeast of Indianapolis, the son of George and Lela Gaither. After graduating from Anderson College in 1959, he worked as an English teacher. In 1962, he married Gloria Sickal. After trying for several years, her music career and her full-time job to live as a teacher at the same time, he gave up his job as a teacher in 1967 and devoted himself full time from then on his music career. The song " He Touched Me" ( German: " He found me " ), which he had received in 1964, was his breakthrough as a musician. First, he wrote with his wife songs about topics that they were moving in their spiritual lives. Many of the songs that have arisen since then, have been added to the repertoire of Christian communities around the world. Elvis Presley also interpreted their songs. Bill Gaither sang from 1956 part time with his brother Danny and his younger sister Mary Ann as Bill Gaither Trio. Later he founded a male quartet called " Gaither Vocal Band " and organized concerts and video recordings. He also founded a publishing company, recording studios and a pension and health insurance for musicians.

Gaither Homecoming (English for homecoming or meeting ) is the name that will be used for a series of videos. The music recordings and concerts are usually presented by Gaither. There are more than 80 DVDs of music records and annual concert tours, which reached 2004, for example more than half a million followers. The first Gaither Homecoming video was made in 1991 and was largely improvised. The Gaither Vocal Band had an audio recording day in a studio in Nashville, Tennessee. For the cover photo of the music recording with some older songs and also for the video clip as advertising on television some older artists in the Southern Gospel scene were invited. After the recordings, the musicians exchanged stories and sang together. Without their knowing it, these stories and songs were recorded. Bill Gaither dropped some copies of the recording for the participants and make friends. Without his knowledge, the video was broadcast by a television station Christian and was immediately very popular. The recording was so popular that Gaither was planning a series of meetings of musicians on videos. Now he has been invited across the country for larger gatherings of up to 200 gospel musicians on the podium. These concerts were recorded and are now sold worldwide.

The format for almost all the DVDs in the series are very similar. A studio or concert hall is home to a group of many singers. The front rows featuring artists with an "old" career in Southern Gospel. They are supplemented by younger artists. The DVDs will be interspersed with comments from the artist, who remember her career. Also humor and wit are part of the series. In later DVDs commemorates artists who were in earlier shots here and died. Most DVDs also have accompanying CDs that can be purchased in a series or separately. Nearly all DVDs you can watch with English subtitles. This is a great help as the sung text is not always easy to understand and from the contributions and is spoken to in "Southern Slang ".

Since 1996, the concert series will take place not only in the big arenas in the United States but also in Australia, South Africa and Europe (eg the Basel, Rotterdam, London, Dublin, Berlin) with a format that is quite similar to that of the ordinary series. The concert dates usually take place in two different cities on Friday and Saturday. The video series has also appeared in a series of television programs about half an hour " repackaged ". They can be seen on religious- oriented television channels such as TBN. In Germany and Switzerland they are broadcast on TV Bible.

The Gaither Homecoming organization offers twice a year on a cruise. The participants of the cruise experience, the musicians up close and have the opportunity several times to concerts by some musicians or musicians together on the day. A cruise usually results in September to Alaska and the other in February in the Caribbean. In 2009, it was recorded for the first time a "Homecoming Cruise ." The Alaska Cruise Homecoming has been available since January 2011.