The Taylors

Hailing from North Carolina, the Taylors formed a family gospel ensemble made up of two brothers and two sisters who turned the sharing of the Lord's good news into a collective mission. The lineup features tenor Jonathan Taylor, soprano Leslie Taylor Perkins, alto Suzanne Taylor Hise, and bass Christopher Taylor. Their father, a Southern Baptist minister, served twenty-seven years as pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Lillington, North Carolina, while their mother held the post of music minister there; the siblings first mastered vocal harmonies while she accompanied them on piano. After performing regularly in church and at home, the group chose in 2006 to carry their message beyond those settings. The next year they competed at the North Carolina Singing Convention, claiming first-place honors in both the Family Group and Mixed Quartet categories. In 2008 they entered the Talent Showcase held during Louisville, Kentucky's National Quartet Convention and again took the top prize. Their success quickly translated into steady bookings across the Southern gospel circuit, where they sometimes performed as many as two hundred shows annually while recounting their experience of God's salvation. The Taylors issued their debut album, Rivers Crossed, in 2008 and maintained a brisk recording pace with Sing the Story in 2010, It's Christmas in 2011, and Almost Home in 2012. A partnership with the gospel imprint Stowtown Records led to the release of their fifth project, Measure of Grace, in 2014. In 2016 the ensemble declared it would shrink from a quartet to a trio once Leslie Taylor Perkins and her husband, Aaron Perkins, accepted positions as pastors of music and students at a Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, congregation. Days after Leslie's final appearance with the group, the Taylors delivered Hope & Healing in April 2016, their first recording as a trio.