Fred Hammond

Having performed since the middle of the 1980s, Fred Hammond stands among the foremost praise-and-worship figures in modern gospel. A native of Detroit, he started vocal work inside his church choir once he turned twelve, then supplied bass lines and vocals for the Winans throughout the early eighties before moving to Commissioned toward the close of that decade, where his skills at arranging, production, and songwriting stood out alongside his powerful voice.

Parallel solo activity got underway in 1991. An enduring tie to the Verity imprint allowed him to bring an in-concert atmosphere even into studio sessions, and numerous releases issued either under his own name or as group efforts with Radical for Christ collected Dove and Stellar awards. While at Verity, Billboard’s gospel chart reached the top with Pages of Life: Chapters I & II (1998), Free to Worship (2006), God, Love & Romance (2012), and several other titles.

After Verity was absorbed by RCA Inspiration, Hammond continued there and kept succeeding with the United Tenors project (2013) and I Will Trust (2014). That album hit number one on the Top Gospel albums chart the week it appeared. He next delivered the live set Worship Journal in 2016, his first concert recording in seventeen years. In 2018 he returned with Uncle Fred: Texture of a Man [Collectors Edition] on Face to Face.

Equally active as a collaborator and producer, he has partnered with a range of gospel artists from different eras, among them the Williams Brothers, Yolanda Adams, and Israel & New Breed.