When he was 13 years old, Williamsburg musician James “Jimmy” Armstead remembers being in the kitchen with a family friend while she was cooking and singing a song about God.
“She was singing and dancing and just throwing flour everywhere in the kitchen, and I thought, ‘I want to share in what was making that happen!’” Armstead says with a laugh.
It took him a few more years after that to find his musical calling – but Armstead, now 64, has been playing with the local group the Sensational Gospel Tones since April 1973.
The Gospel Tones started in Williamsburg in 1962, and though members come and go, they have managed to keep the group playing gigs along the East Coast between New York and South Carolina (and also in the Triangle) for 50 years.
Armstead’s definition of Gospel music is this: “It’s based on the hymns of the church, but it’s told from the standpoint of things in your life. For me, it’s about my walk with Christ. It helps me grow.”
Some songs move him and other members of the group almost to tears, he says, but it is not just the performers who are touched by the music. The group was playing in Newport News a few years ago, “and this old minister – he was in his seventies – he just started jumping up and down with the feeling,” Armstead remembers.
“Some songs touch people,” he says. “They witness and testify. It’s a feeling that really grows in you.”
Armstead plays rhythm guitar for the group, which performs most weekends. He and other members play solo for their home churches, too, and they also visit and perform for other churches.
Some Sundays, Armstead plays at his church – New Zion Baptist Church – then visits another congregation, and then wraps the day up with a Gospel Tones show.
“I don’t think it’s hard work, though,” he says. “I love doing it. All of us love it.”
The Sensational Gospel Tones have two performances coming up this month in the Triangle: 6 p.m. Feb. 16 at the Tidewater Gospel Festival at William and Mary’s Sadler Center, and 3:30 p.m. Feb. 17 at Shiloh Baptist Church in Yorktown.
Visit their website or Facebook page to learn more about the group.
