By SARAH CAMPBELL
Leader staff writer
Melodious Praise, an Arkan-sas-based ensemble of Christian singers, began with two preachers’ kids singing a duet at a wedding. The group and its main artist, Vickie Woodard of England, will perform this evening and next Saturday at churches in Jacksonville.
Evangelistic Ministries Church, 101 Elm St., will host the group’s “intimate worship concert” at 6:30 p.m. today. The concert is free and open to the public.
Melodious Praise will also be performing at the All About You Big Hat Affair at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 27, at Jacksonville Community Center, 5 Municipal Drive. The event will feature brunch, motivational speakers, a fashion show and more. There is a $10 minimum donation for the event, which will honor Loretha Maxwell, the wife of the pastor at Center Ridge Baptist church.
Melodious Praise’s music is “new traditional” — rooted in traditional gospel with new lyrics and harmonies — and Woodard’s passionate songwriting is the ensemble’s heartbeat.
Woodard and Marquita Dedner established the grassroots group after Woodard’s father commented that the harmony of the two friends was very nice when they sang at a mutual friend’s wedding.
“It (gospel tunes) was a natural thing for us because of her upbringing and my upbringing in the church,” Woodard said. “It’s (being in the group) a condition of the heart and a conviction of the heart.”
She added that friends and friends of those friends came together to sing for Melodious Praise. Dedner left for personal reasons, but Woodard has been gracing the stage for 15 years.
The group has released four CDs with her original songwriting, a skill she’s been honing since she was a shy 13-year-old.
“I’m a songwriter by heart. There’s this calling on my life to do it. It was a way to get the expression in me out,” Woodard explained.
Woodard’s father passed away about a year after Melodious Praise took off. Woodard shared that the commitment the ensemble required weighed heavily on her as she took on the responsibility of helping take care of his affairs.
She said doing the music was therapeutic for the most part but “for a few minutes, it was the job that never ends.”
Woodard keeps Melodious Praise alive because she knows it comforts people and helps them trust in their faith.
“When people tell you how blessed they were by your songs…those stories they share about how the music helped them, it’s the uplift we need to continue (with Melodious Praise),” she said.
Many of her songs are about the questions she had concerning her personal journey with Christ. Her lyrics reflect her personal experiences and biblical research.
“I learned how to believe in myself and in what God gives to me. Just because you’re on the microphone doesn’t make you the star of the show. God is the star,” she said.
Woodard, when she’s not performing or rehearsing, teaches music at Daisy Bates and College Station elementary schools. Melodious Praise released its latest CD, “Bigger,” this week and it’s about how God is bigger, greater and able to do more than we can ask or think.
