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The hardworking members of Bob Stone and the Virginia Gospel Singers practice in the basement
Bob Stone and members of the Virginia Gospel Singers (from left) Mac Dempsey, Bob Stone, Jeff Stone, Vic Grice
At age 74, Bob Stone
King George residents Ruby Caldwell (left) and Beulah Morgan celebrate |
In the half-century he's been playing gospel music, Bob Stone has played on shows with the likes of Earl Scruggs and the Carter Family, Bill Monroe and Larry Sparks. He's performed at the Old Dominion Barn Dance on WRVA in Richmond, broadcast nationwide.
He's done television programs in Richmond and Charlottesville, and taken his music as far afield as Kentucky, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
And the 74-year-old musician hasn't stopped picking yet.
His five-man band, Bob Stone and the Virginia Gospel Singers, includes his son Jeff on guitar, Mac Dempsey on banjo, Don Shores on dobro and Vic Grice on upright bass. Bob plays 5-string mandolin. Jeff Stone is the lead singer, with Grice, Shores and Bob pitching in with three-part harmony.
They play at nursing homes, church homecomings, revivals, family reunions and benefit fundraisers all over the area. The group performs at least once almost every weekend in the year, and already has bookings well into next fall, Stone said.
"I reckon we turn down 25 requests a year" because of scheduling conflicts, he said. "I'm thankful God opens doors so we can go these places and sing."
They don't charge a fee, relying instead on voluntary offerings to defray their expenses.
The men gather weekly in Stone's basement to rehearse.
Listening to their voices blend in "Just One Rose Will Do," and watching their fingers flashing on the strings, it's clear that these men know just what they're about.
Shores switches from lead to harmony as Jeff Stone takes up the melody. Bob Stone does a solo on his mandolin, then it's Dempsey's turn on banjo. It slides together seamlessly.
"We have at least a thousand songs in our heads," Shores said.
"We could sing two hours, three hours and not sing the same song," Dempsey said.
Bob Stone started playing the guitar when he was 6 years old.
"I was the youngest of eight," he said. "Everybody else played. This old boy was going to learn, too.
"I've still got that guitar."
Stone had three brothers and four sisters, and they were all musical.
"On Sunday afternoons we'd take our hymnbooks out to the back yard swings and sing everything we knew in the hymnal," Stone said. Both his father and mother played autoharp, and they had the singers to provide four-part harmony.
Stone grew up on Brooke Road in southern Stafford County, next door to his current home. Son Jeff lives in the old home place.
Bob is the only one of his siblings who pursued music, although he didn't do it to make money. He earned his living as a machinist at Dahlgren after a stint in the Air Force.
"I just love music," Stone says. "You go places, get to see people."
In the beginning, he played bluegrass. By the time he was 16 he was playing on country music station WFVA.
Then in 1954, he was in a bad automobile accident. Although he'd learned about God and Jesus growing up in a church-going family, "It was head knowledge, nothing in the heart," Stone said. But after being badly injured in the crash, he wanted more.
Right there in the ambulance, he said, he asked God to save his soul and give him eternal life.
He says God responded, "OK, I've saved your soul, given you eternal life. Now walk worthy of your calling."
It's an injunction he's never forgotten.
"I'd heard enough gospel preached to know what it's all about," Stone said.
The 24-year-old moved from playing secular bluegrass to gospel music, performing at churches and firehalls in the area.
Stone formed the Virginia Gospel Singers in 1984, including son Jeff among the players. Dempsey joined the group in 1990, Grice in 1999, and Shores in 2002.
One requirement for joining the group is being active in a church, Stone said.
"We always pray over everything we do seek the Lord's will" Stone said.
Shores said he likes gospel music better than any other kind. "Even as a child I was drawn to it," he said.
They've seen their music make a difference in people's lives. Stone told the story of a man who started crying while listening to one of their gospel sings. He had a chance to talk to the man after the program.
"He accepted the Lord that night," Stone said. "I thank the Lord for the people we've been able to touch over the years."
To reach LUCIA ANDERSON:
Email: landerson@freelancestar.com
