By Marilyn Miller
“I figure I’ll continue to sing until my voice leaves, or the Lord comes back,” said Keith Lee. “I’ve tried to quit, but I believe that’s what the Lord wants me to do.”
It’s a good thing that the Lord has appointed the “not so tall” man with the deep bass voice to sing, because that’s exactly what he loves to do. “I love doing it. And I love being around those people” (promoters, managers, directors, singers, musicians) who work in the gospel-singing industry and make it as popular as it is today.
Keith grew up in Minden, and “in the church,” where he began singing as a child in the Children’s Choirs. He was a longtime member of the Calvary Missionary Baptist Church, then located on the Shreveport Road, but he and his family live on LA Hwy. 371N today, so they attend the Whispering Pines Missionary Baptist Church. Keith’s mom, Nancy Lee, worked for many years at the Baptist Book Store, owned and operated by Calvary.
Keith was singing soprano in the youth choir at Calvary at the age of 14 when he contracted a bad cold. By the time he was well, the virus had damaged his vocal cords, and he was suddenly singing bass!
When he was still 14, and now with a bass voice, the gospel singing group, “The Messengers,” found themselves in need of a bass. Keith fit the bill by singing a lot of songs that he had listened to growing up in a home that loved gospel music and played a lot of LPs, like the “Blackwood Brothers” and “The Statesmen.” His dad loved to sing, and he would listen to Keith and let him know what he thought. “Yeah, I learned the bass parts by listening to quartets on my parents’ records,” said the 1981 graduate of Minden High School.
It was while “The Messengers” were singing in Cotton Valley that “a lady” heard him and told her voice-teacher brother that he should take Keith on as a student. “Of course, everybody hears that…and I’m sure he (Nathan Davidson) had heard it before.” But Davidson went to the next performance, and sure enough, he offered to teach Keith. Of course, he accepted.
Keith sang with “The Messengers” until he was 21 years old. It was then that he hooked up with some very familiar local talent, a gospel group known as “A Better Way.” Members were Mike Spillers, Alan Lee, Bruce Lee, Jack Davis, and Jeff Holley. He was 27 when he left.
Branching out, Keith joined a group from West Monroe called the “Crossroads Quartet.” They later changed their name to “Bayou State Quartet,” and they were inducted into the Louisiana Gospel Music Hall of Fame. It was Keith’s first brush with a Gospel Music Hall of Fame. More to come on that subject…
When the group disbanded, Keith joined another West Monroe group, “Testify.” They were a regional group, singing all up and down Louisiana’s eastern border.
After three years with “Bayou State Quartet,” the Minden bass singer headed for Nashville, where he enrolled in the Stamps Baxter School of Music. “I met a ton of people,” Keith said. But a few months into hob-knobbing and schooling, “I got a call to sing fulltime with “The Plainsmen.” A southern gospel group from Dallas, Texas, “The Plainsmen” performed as Louisiana Governor Jimmie Davis’s backup band from 1961-66 and frequently appeared on Red Foley’s Ozark Jubilee in the late 1950s, as well as on the Louisiana Hayride.
“I sang on the road for a while with the ‘Plainsmen,’ then joined a local group so I could be at home more often.”
Being at home was important to Keith since he had a family by then. He and his wife, Brandy Sanders Lee, have a son, Greg Sanders and daughter-in-law, Tambree; a daughter, Kelsea Lee, 20; and granddaughters, Tinsley and Bristol Sanders.
That “local group” that Keith joined after Nashville was “Chordsmith,” with members Nathan Davidson, Jake Crowley, Todd DeBose and Scotty Blackwell. He was singing with them when a group from Teneha, Texas asked if he would consider joining them. And today, Keith, Chip Roberson, Ron Meadows, and Andrew King form “The Calvary Boys Quartet.” The group has been around for more than 50 years.
“We do around 50 to 75 dates a year,” Keith said. “And I have been with them for a little over two years. That being said, I’ve been singing in quartets for 47 years. I’m almost tired.” He should be, since singing in quartets isn’t his REAL job. He owned Keith Lee Contracting for 35 years. Since then, it’s been mainly oilfield company work. He is currently with Stallion.
Experience is how Keith learned about gospel music. But he admits that he “only does music.” He plays no instruments and doesn’t write songs. But he has amassed experience by performing in 30 states. He even moved to Baltimore, Md. to perform with “Sounds of Inspiration.” That was when he was just 29. He’s come a long way since then.
Will he quit any time soon? Ask his wife, Brandy. “When I start talking about it, she just puts her hands on her hips and gives me that ‘look’ (with her eyebrows up). Like, yeah, that will happen,” he admitted. “I love singing. I love singing harmonies. And I love the looks on peoples’ faces when they figure out that I’m (the shortest one of the group) the one singing bass.”
Some of that work will be rewarded in February when “The Calvary Boys Quartet” will be inducted into the Texas Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Singers like Rudy Gatlin, Linda Davis and others will be there performing, as will “The Calvary Boys Quartet.” Yep, they’ll be working at their own ceremony.
Keith smiles. “After retirement, I want to find a fulltime singing job…” he said.
