FARMINGTON – Ron and Debbie Hodge bided their time for years, waiting, praying and waiting some more, until they finally got a break. With money they hadn’t known they had, they purchased the thousands of dollars of equipment needed to start singing professionally.
And now, three years later, the husband-and-wife gospel duo who call themselves New Beginnings not only have gigs on more weekends than not, they’ve released their first CD, “The Answer is Christ,” this month.
Debbie Hodge grew up singing. “I was born into a very musical family,” she said in a recent interview. “My grandfather was Oscar Thompson from Dryden, and we used to go down there every weekend,” she said. Many of her extended family members played instruments. On weekends, the clan would get together and sing country, bluegrass and gospel. For Debbie, who plays “the radio, and that’s it,” singing and making up songs became her expressive outlet of choice.
“My grandfather always knew I had talent,” she said. But she was so shy that she never sang solo until in her 20s.
Her husband also sang as a child, but he said it wasn’t until marrying Debbie and joining a church choir that he really began making music a major focus of his life. In the early 1980s, Ron and Debbie started taking singing lessons and performing in a church in New Vineyard. At the same time, they said they became born-again Christians and started thinking about using their music to minister to their community.
More than 20 years later, in 2003, they bought equipment and began practicing and advertising. The next year, they did seven concerts. In 2005, they did 38. And now, in February 2006, they’ve already booked 30 and just introduced their first CD, put together by Bruce Goulette of Studio G in Turner.
They sing “traditional and Southern gospel,” mostly at churches, and they “travel on the assumption we’re going to get nothing” for the concerts. But they put together their CD using offerings and donations, Ron Hodge said. They’ve had a television performance on a public access station and their music has been played on a few radio stations, Ron added.
“Music is something people just enjoy. It makes them feel good and speaks to their hearts,” Debbie Hodge said. “And it also makes you reflect. We believe with all our heart the Lord has given us the talent and allowed us to do this – to get out there and be a witness for the Lord, presenting the gospel through song.”
For Ron, “It’s a privilege to be able to go and sing, and we’re thankful some people are just taking a chance on us.”
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