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By THERESA REYNOLDS
Rappahannock NiwiCoatiibatinf Writer
When she was six, Ethel CaffieAustin sang her first solo in her West Virginia church. Since then, she’s never stopped singing, growing up to become a well-known and respected singer and teacher of gospel music, touring all over the South.
She will appear here on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 18 and 19, for the Rappahannock Association for the Arts and the Community. She’ll visit the county for two days, directing a gospel workshop Friday night at Promise Land Baptist Church and a rehearsal Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. At 8 that night she will lead a chorus of Rappahannock voices in a gospel concert.
Who will be in that chorus? Rappahannock housewives, professionals, businessmen — some with previous gospel experience and some with none. That’s the purpose of “Gospel for Everyone” - to take untrained voices and transform them into a gospel choir.
This she does by the force of her personality and the scope of her enormous talent.
According to Paul Reisler, Rappahannock resident and Trapezoid founder, “Ethel Caffie-Austin moves people with the tremendous power of her music and her faith. Her music doesn’t preach — it transforms with the sheer force of her artistry and her integrity. She has devoted her life to gospel music so that the rest of us can hear the voice which passes through her and know for those precious moments just how beautifol it is. I’ve seen her change a group of white folks who couldn't clap in time into an outrageous gospel choir in just a few hours. She makes us remember that somewhere deep down we all know how to sing. Ethel guides us down the pathways of memory to where we discover the indescribable joy of giving ourselves to the music.”
Like Mr. Reisler, Ethel CaffieAustin believes that there’re a lot of closet gospel singers out there -
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