Gospel Recording Icon Guy Penrod in Local Concert

LOMA LINDA >> Popular gospel recording artist Guy Penrod will be featured in a live concert at Loma Linda University Church on Aug. 20. Online and telephone ticket sales have opened for the appearance as part of the award-winning singer’s national “Pray About Everything” tour, sponsors of the Loma Linda event announced this week. Penrod is known to millions for his Grammy and Dove award-winning recordings and his many televised appearances with the Gaither Homecoming Tour and Gaither Vocal Band. His rare concert appearance in the Inland Empire is co-sponsored by the host church and the nearby Calimesa Seventh-day Adventist Church, in collaboration with the Calimesa Community Concert Series. Tickets for the all-reserved seats can be ordered online from www.iTickets.com or by phone at (800) 965-9324, explains concert series coordinator Dr. Bob Soderblom. Prices range from $10 to $30 depending on location, he says, with prime-seat VIP tickets $50 each. Early ticket buyers have access to preferred seat locations in each price category, Soderblom advises. Popular credit cards are accepted, and concert goers will enjoy free parking in a structure immediately across the street from the church, he says. The church is at 11125 Campus St. in Loma Linda. Tickets are not being sold at the church, however, and none will be available at the doors when they open at 7 p.m. for the 7:30 concert. Visually striking for his flowing white hair, Penrod spent 14 years as lead singer with the Gaither Vocal Group before launching his successful solo ministry in 2010. His 2012 recording, “Hymns,” became that year’s top-selling southern gospel album, and this year’s January release, “Guy Penrod Live,” opened in the number two position on Nielsen’s contemporary Christian music chart. His first solo DVD, “Live Hymns and Worship,” was also released this year and debuted at number one in Billboard’s chart for music videos. He was named “Soloist of the Year” by the National Quartet Convention in 2013. Born into a Baptist pastor’s family in Taylor, Texas, young Guy showed musical promise at an early age. He recorded his first album as a high school student in New Mexico, singing all four parts. After graduation from Liberty University, Penrod pursued his musical career as a studio and back-up singer, working with many notable musicians. During this period he first met Christian recording mogul Bill Gaither, and later accepted his position with the Gaither Vocal Band in 1994. With the Gaither musical groups he toured extensively in the United States and Canada as well as Europe, Australia, and Africa. Today he lives on a farm in Tennessee with his wife Angie, their eight children, and an assortment of real cows and farm animals. The children – seven boys and one girl (the youngest) – are all home-schooled.