The Williams Singers

Rev. Charles D. Williams formed the Williams Singers in Indianapolis to give himself and his children an outlet for making music together. At first the ensemble went by the name Christian Cavaliers before adopting the Williams Family Singers; in those early years the group appeared often around the Indianapolis area yet never entered a studio. In 2002 the three Williams brothers—Darnell, Dezmien, and Dezrale—honored their late father by cutting a live album of songs he had composed for them. Performing thereafter as the Williams Singers, the siblings launched their own imprint, Deznell Music Group, and began issuing recordings that blended classic quartet harmonies with bright contemporary gospel and R&B flavors. Their growing profile soon carried them beyond Indiana, where they shared bills with Lee Williams & the Spiritual QCs, the Canton Spirituals, Vickie Winans, and Deitrick Haddon, among others. Four albums appeared between 2004 and 2011, one of them a holiday project. The ambitious 2014 release Destined featured guest contributions from Zacardi Cortez, Lisa Knowles, and Virgil Reliford and yielded the hit single “Been Good.” Early in 2017 the trio returned with the combined audio and video package In Real Time, which reached number 25 on the Top Gospel Albums chart.