Dale Muterspaugh, an original member of The Announcers Gospel Music Group that was formed in Sept. of 1970, has announced two upcoming events at the Lone Star Christian Advent Church on Nicelytown Road.
“The Celebration Choir 2022 Spring Jubilee” will take place on Palm Sunday, April 10, at 6:00 p.m. Only Muterspaugh and Alan Craft, two vocalists with The Announcers, will be members of The Celebration Choir.
“The Announcers’ Easter Eve Gospel Concert will be held on Sat., April 16 at the Lone Star AC Church Family Life Center on Nicelytown Road at 7:00 p.m.
Both programs are free of charge and open to the public to attend.
Muterspaugh said, “We’d love to have people come to join us in these celebrations.”
“The Celebration Choir” will feature 50 voices comprised of singers from many area churches joining together to praise God through song and to provide a faith-based musical event that all can enjoy.
The annual event brings community members together to worship through music and song.
The 50-member choir will include familiar hymns, choruses, and Easter favorites, and the event will feature soloists and musical specials.
Admission to the event is free of charge, and any love offerings that are received will benefit the Eastern Alleghany Ministerial Association, Emergency Fund.
Having been founded as a multi-choir group a decade ago on Memorial Day weekend as a patriotic cantata named “Celebrate America,” nearly 400 people gathered at the Lone Star Family Life Center.
Each of the following years, the choir has sponsored a spring and fall jubilee program for the public.
For more than five years, the Railroad Heritage Center in Clifton Forge via its Stars and Stripes Committee for the Independence Day celebration has invited the choir to perform the same patriotic program, and the choir will perform again on July 3, having accepted the committee’s invitation.
Ever since The Announcers began singing in 1970, the message has remained the same, praise be to God. The message has been delivered for 52 years via the all-male southern gospel group that has released 28 gospel recordings (eight-tracks, cassette tapes and CDs).
The group has traveled widely over the years, performing concerts throughout Va. and in other states: W.Va., Md., N.C., S.C., Tenn., Ga., and Ohio.
Having had several different buses over the years that carried the band’s sound system and musical instruments, the group has transitioned to singing via soundtracks as the source for its musical background. Now the group travels to its performances in individual vehicles.
The $3,500 received from the sale of the last bus that the group owned provided enough funds to record “The Announcers 50 Years,” at Flat Five Press and Recordings in Salem.
The CD includes the following songs: “In the Garden,” “Walkin’ and Talkin’ with My Lord,” “Suppertime,” “In God We Trust,” “Part the Waters, Lord/I Need Thee Every Hour,” “Come Sunday Morning,” “Heaven Just Got Sweeter for You,” “The People That God Gives You,” “All My Hope” and “I Believe.”
The five vocalists who have been with The Announcers for the past 25 years recorded the CD. They are Dale Muterspaugh and his son Ryan Muterspaugh plus Craft, Larry McCallister and William Nicely.
Dale said that The Announcers have only missed singing at two Fall Foliage Festivals in Clifton Forge, and he estimates that $50,000 to $75,000 has been raised over the years for the Shriners’ Children Hospital via their benefit concerts during the more than 40 Fall Foliage Festivals during which the group performed free of charge.
The reason for the two years the group did not perform had to do with conflicting vacation schedules one year that prevented the group from being able to perform, and the other reason was that the entertainment committee for the festival opted to have a country music act perform one year.
The Announcers Gospel Music Group began traveling in an old school bus that was modified by Dale’s father, the late Boyd Muterspaugh, and McCallister, both being handy with tools.
The seats were removed, and the bus was modified to include two bunk beds and storage space for equipment and musical instruments.
By the mid-1980s the group upgraded by getting an International bus that enabled the group to travel farther distances to perform. Some of the places they traveled to perform were Charleston and Beckley in W.Va. and numerous towns and cities in N.C.
The Announcers Gospel Music Group has never charged for a performance, and the group has held many benefits for many groups, contributing an estimated $100,000 plus over the past half-century to worthwhile causes.
Each member of the group was born and raised in the Alleghany Highlands where they have made their homes, and the aim of the group is to share the good news of God’s love for all via their performances.