The Gaither Family Trio

In the world of gospel music, Bill Gaither is a superstar on several levels; he is a singer, a songwriter, and an entrepreneur. Gaither kicked off his music career in 1953 with his first band, the Pathfinders. They performed at churches, and fairs usually for donations without much success, and this taught Gaither a valuable lesson of just how hard it would be to succeed in the music business. In 1956, he formed the Bill Gaither Trio, consisting of his sister Mary Ann and his brother Danny, Bill was a powerhouse, taking care of lead vocals, guitar, and piano work as the trio performed various traditional gospel songs.

Gaither also penned original gospel compositions for the Trio, which gave the band a different sound over similar groups. In 1962, Bill married Gloria Sickal and together the duo collaborated on new gospel songs, Gloria would work on the lyrics while Bill would compose the music. In 1963, Bill Gaither hit the big time with a gospel song he titled "He Touched Me,” this song was translated into dozens of languages and was performed by individuals such as Kate Smith, Elvis Presley, Jimmy Durante, Ben Speer and the Imperials.

The Gaither Trio would evolve into the Gaither Vocal Band in 1981, and is still successfully touring and thrilling audiences everywhere they perform around the world. The Grammy’s, and Dove Awards, for various segments of the music world including best songwriter, best mixed group of the year, best gospel bluegrass album of the year and an array of others too numerous to mention, have all been awarded to Bill Gaither and the gospel group he originally formed way back in 1956.