Ottawa church hosts Southern gospel singer Chuck Crain for performance

Chuck Crain from Presleys’ Branson and RFD TV is scheduled to perform 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 29, at the First United Methodist Church, 100 W. Jefferson St., Ottawa.

Admission is free. An offering will be taken to support Crain’s music ministry. An elevator is available at the church and it is air conditioned.

Crain joined the Presleys’ Country Jubilee Show in Branson, Missouri in 1998. He sings tenor with the Southern Gospel Quartet and sings backup vocals for some of the other entertainers.

In December of 1997, Crain left his role as a backup singer for Wayne Newton to join Gary and Steve Presley.

Since February 1998, Crain travels and sings, sometimes with his wife Sharon.

The Presleys have been performing on RFD-TV with a half-hour program on Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. since March 2010.

He began singing during his time in the Navy, performing with the Navy’s Blue Jacket Choir in San Diego, California. One Sunday morning, while stationed in Jacksonville, Florida, he saw four gentlemen on TV standing around a piano singing Southern Gospel music — and he was hooked.

After leaving the Navy in 1974, Crain got a full-time day job at Winn Dixie, and traveled on the weekends with a part-time gospel group.

In 1976, he joined his first full time gospel group, the Mid-South Boys Quartet in Sheridan, Arkansas.

In 1979, he joined the Blackwood’s, taking him all around the world, singing to millions of gospel music fans. Performing on television programs such as the 700 Club, PTL and Jimmy Swaggart , just to name a few.

In 1990, the Blackwood’s came to Branson, Missouri where Crain left and formed his own group, The Heartland Quartet. That year they were nominated Horizon Group of the Year.

For more information on Monday’s show, call 815-228-0746 or 815-433-1060.