MADISON, ALA. — Two gospel singing teams, the Hardeman Boys and Cornerstone Quartet, crossed paths at a youth rally in Bremen, Ga., in 1989.
Greater than three many years later, they shared a stage once more on the Madison Academy fitness center.
This time they carried out — to a extra gray-haired viewers — a medley of crossover nation, oldies and a cappella gospel music to boost cash for Undertaking Rescue, an habit restoration ministry in Priceville, Ala., related to Church buildings of Christ.
Cornerstone Quartet and the Hardeman Boys carry out a medley of gospel, nation and oldies music to boost cash for Undertaking Rescue.
Each teams fashioned within the Eighties at universities related to Church buildings of Christ — Freed-Hardeman College and Faulkner College, respectively — as touring gospel quartets to advertise their colleges.
Each went off on their very own, below new names, with some success earlier than life led them in numerous instructions.
Associated: Dolly Parton’s longtime husband, who had ties to Church buildings of Christ, dies at 82
Each mentioned farewell to a member who handed away a lot too quickly.
Now, the Hardeman Boys and Cornerstone Quartet each have reunited with the assistance of second-generation members.
School beginnings
An unlikely group of Freed-Hardeman Bible majors opened for Grammy Award-winning nation music stars — the Judds and Ronnie Milsap — in 1984.
The quartet and their band have been referred to as Henderson Station, however they obtained their begin two years earlier because the Hardeman Boys — a reputation they’ve since reclaimed.
The 4 singers — Kyle Wadley, Kevin Owen, Todd Tunnell and Steve Hammond — had come collectively as FHU’s first gospel quartet. The a cappella group often sang in chapel and helped recruit new college students to the Henderson, Tenn., college.
After a few yr, the singers went out on their very own, becoming a member of with members of the FHU pop group Phoenix so as to add crossover nation music to their repertoire and turn out to be Henderson Station.
However households, careers and strikes throughout the nation led Henderson Station to take an indefinite hiatus.
About 300 miles southeast of Henderson, in Montgomery, Ala., one other gospel quartet fashioned at Faulkner College.
Greg Terry, Sam Wright, Daryl Shackleford and James Faulkner — a cousin of the college’s namesake, James H. Faulkner — have been the founding members of the Cornerstone Quartet in 1986.
From prime, Daryl Shackleford, Greg Terry, Matt Presley and James Faulkner have been long-term members of the Cornerstone Quartet.
As Faulkner recollects, a distinguished touring preacher in Church buildings of Christ helped decide the identify. The group members have been discussing Faulkner’s highschool singing group in Little Rock, Ark., named Cornerstone, with Wendell Winkler and Faulkner President Billy Hilyer.
“I like that identify,” Winkler mentioned — and that was that.
Two years later, Matt Presley joined the group — the second alternative for Wright — and caught with them. After some members graduated, the 4 started singing below the identify Basis and added a fifth singer, Bo Andrews.
They sang sparingly and produced three albums over the subsequent twenty years, together with a twentieth anniversary album, “Born Once more,” below the Cornerstone identify.
Getting the bands again collectively
Years later, each teams suffered loss. For Cornerstone, lead singer Greg Terry died in 2009 at 41.
For the Hardeman Boys, Steve Hammond handed away in 2017 at 57.
There appeared little probability for both group to carry out once more.
From left, Cornerstone’s Daryl Shackleford, James Faulkner, Dean Shackleford and Matt Presley sing gospel music.
That modified in 2022.
Maywood Christian Camp in Hamilton, Ala., invited Cornerstone to carry out there. The three remaining members sang with Brandon Presnell, a later member of Faulkner’s Cornerstone group.
Cornerstone started performing different occasions, too, together with Faulkner’s homecoming, and introduced on Shackleford’s 27-year-old son, Dean, as a everlasting fourth member.
“It was arduous as a result of we have been so accustomed to singing with Greg, and he (was) simply a kind of bigger-than-life personalities.”
“It was arduous as a result of we have been so accustomed to singing with Greg, and he (was) simply a kind of bigger-than-life personalities,” mentioned Presley, 54, an auctioneer and member of the Creekwood Church of Christ in Cellular, Ala.
However the group has appreciated Dean — who grew up listening to them carry out, usually at Indian Creek Youth Camp in Oakman, Ala. — getting into these large footwear.
“It was a fairly particular second for us,” mentioned Dean, a venture supervisor and graduate of the College of Alabama. “That first time, I noticed Dad get emotional, and that’s arduous to do.”
Dean worships with the Quintown Church of Christ in Alabama alongside his 57-year-old dad, Daryl, now a therapeutic massage therapist. In the meantime, Faulkner, 57, is a manufacturing facility employee and member of the Southwest Church of Christ in Jonesboro, Ark.
Freed-Hardeman, likewise, invited the Hardeman Boys to carry out at its 2022 homecoming.
“It’s type of attention-grabbing how God introduced us all again collectively,” famous Owen, now 62 and the preacher for the School Hills Church of Christ in Lebanon, Tenn.
From left, the Hardeman Boys’ Landon Wadley, Todd Tunnell, Kyle Wadley and Kevin Owen sing a cappella gospel songs.
He had preached in New Mexico beforehand, whereas Tunnell had been a college principal in Texas and Wadley ministered in Alabama.
However “instantly, we’re all again within the space,” Owen mentioned. Tunnell, 61, is now worship minister for the Friendship Church of Christ in Olive Department, Miss. Wadley, 64, is affiliate minister for the Hoover Church of Christ in Alabama.
They requested former Henderson Station member Mark Crawford to assemble a band and Wadley’s 36-year-old son Landon — a Faulkner alumnus — to be their fourth singer.
“It’s not simple to handle grown males,” Crawford mentioned jokingly, “however I used to be glad to do it. These guys are all males of character, and we have a look at this as … nearly a ministry in some methods.”
From left, Gary Miller, Josh James and Mark Crawford play with the Hardeman Boys.
Along with managing and taking part in piano for the group, the 62-year-old is a music professor at Tennessee State College and a deacon of the Bellevue Church of Christ in Nashville.
Crawford introduced collectively a gaggle of principally FHU alumni — together with some earlier Henderson Station members — to affix him within the band: Jerry Elder, Joey Boone, Sam McCreevy and Craig Evans on guitar; Josh James and Tommy Holland on bass guitar; Gary Miller and Dale Alden on the drums. Some rotate out and in relying on their schedule.
From left, Jerry Elder and Joey Boone play guitar with the Hardeman Boys.
The band performs when the Hardeman Boys carry out their nation classics, however band members depart the stage for gospel songs.
“Regardless of the place we go and what viewers we carry out for, the blokes at all times do an a cappella gospel part,” Crawford informed The Christian Chronicle.
Spreading nostalgia and Good Information
Since their reunion, Cornerstone has carried out a live performance benefiting the Cellular School Ministry in Alabama. The group is planning a fortieth anniversary live performance and album.
The Hardeman Boys have recorded a brand new album, “Our Story”; featured in two episodes of RFD-TV’s “America’s Gospel Music” program; carried out on the Tammy Wynette Legacy Heart in Tremont, Miss.; and headlined a profit for Nashville’s Interior Metropolis Ministry.
“It’s like we obtained again collectively, and it was simply yesterday — feels nice,” the Hardeman Boys’ Tunnell informed the Chronicle.
For Landon Wadley, a nurse who worships on the Hoover church, “It’s like stepping right into a time capsule just a little bit. As a result of I can see what I’m certain they have been like in school.”
Each the Hardeman Boys and Cornerstone Quartet plan to proceed performing as alternatives come up, carrying on the legacies of the defunct college teams and catching up with outdated mates and followers.
“That’s a part of the enjoyable of doing this once more is reconnecting with folks,” Owen mentioned.
“I consider that singing … makes evil flee. And it’s only a fantastic factor. … God inhabits the praises of his folks.”
Necessary, too, is utilizing their abilities to advertise good causes — like Undertaking Rescue — and unfold the Good Information.
“I consider that singing … makes evil flee,” Cornerstone’s Faulkner mentioned. “And it’s only a fantastic factor. … God inhabits the praises of his folks.”
CALVIN COCKRELL is the media editor for The Christian Chronicle and serves because the younger grownup minister for the North Tuscaloosa Church of Christ in Alabama. Attain him at [email protected].
