By Jantina Baksteen
For this edition of Beyond the Song, I got in contact with Sarah Davison of popular Christian Country and Gospel band, HighRoad. Other members include: Kristen Bearfield, Kinsey Rose, and Lauren Conklin.
Jantina Baksteen: Please introduce yourselves to the readers of SGNScoops.
Sarah Davison: My name is Sarah Davison and I am the leader of the group, High Road. We are based in Nashville and we play mandolin, fiddle, piano and guitar, and write gospel music. We love traveling and just getting to share Jesus with folks all over the world.
JB: When and how did the group HighRoad start?
SD: HighRoad was started several years ago just as a piano/fiddle duo playing hymns and it’s grown today to include four of us! We just really enjoy getting to play music together.
JB: Next to singing, you all play a number of instruments. What instruments do you play?
SD: We all play different instruments and have so much fun. I play the piano and then dabble with other instruments like the dulcimer. Between us all, we have mandolin, fiddle, guitar, viola, and banjo.
JB: Do you all have musical backgrounds?
SD: We all grew up loving music and knew we wanted to pursue it from a young age. I grew up singing and playing old country and gospel and even ragtime with my dad, and my grandma taught me a lot of what I learned on the piano. I also took lessons before studying piano performance as my major at Belmont. Writing songs, singing, and playing has all been a part of our lives as long as we can remember.
JB: Who are your musical influences?
SD: My biggest music influences were the folks I was surrounded by as a youngster. My dad always was playing records in the house from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Patty Loveless, and Ricky Skaggs. My great aunt and grandma would back up the Blackwoods in the 40s-50s when they came to KFNF Radio station in Shenandoah, Iowa to sing. So grandma knew all the old hymns from the radio hymnal.
JB: Do your write all your music yourself?
SD: We write the majority of the songs ourselves, yes. Our latest album has ten songs and we wrote, or co-wrote, six of them. We had to include an old hymn because we just love the old songs a lot too!
JB: You have a recent song out called “Nothing At All.” Please tell us about that.
SD: This song is about how everything in this world is just going to pass away in time, but Jesus is the same every day. You can fill your life with things that don’t matter in the end – and its easy to do! But someday, all we are going to have is Jesus and He is what really matters in every part of our life!
JB: How does this message relate to you personally?
SD: I think sometimes I worry about what the future holds, and especially right now, we don’t know what the next few months is going to look like. When is all the craziness going to be over? I don’t have the answers, but Jesus does, and I know He has us all in the palm of His hand. So as long as we have Jesus we have hope!
JB: You have performed in many different places. Can you share something about that?
SD: We have loved getting to travel and meet people from all over the world. One of my favorite places to go is Norway, and Alaska, we plan on going back to both those places again this year. This will be our seventh year in Alaska, and we go up with the Baptist Mission Association and go play at church plants throughout the state. We have seen some gorgeous scenery up there!
JB: Do you have a personal testimony to share that could be of help to some one reading this?
SD: Right now, what the Lord has been teaching me most recently, is to trust His timing and His perfect plan. I tend to try to figure stuff out immediately and plan, and that’s just not how He works! Trusting God can be really tough sometimes but we have to lean on Him, and rest assured that His plan is good for us all!
JB: What encouraging message would you like to share now the whole world is in time of crisis through the Coronavirus?
SD: I think that right now is a time where God has really called His church to be the hands and feet of Christ. Just a few (months) ago, a tornado tore through my neighborhood in Nashville, and two weeks later all the dates got cancelled for many artists. We just have to remember that as long as we live on earth, its a fallen place and tough times are going to happen, but God is good, literally, all the time. We have been set apart and now is the time for the church to truly become the church without walls and a ceiling. God’s people must reach out and show hurting people the love of God, so we can make a difference in a time when the people around us really need it the most. So go make someone’s day a little brighter. Like the old hymn says, “Brighten the corner where you are!”
We hope you enjoy the song “Nothing at All” by HighRoad:
Thank you Sarah for sharing you ministry with SGNScoops. We pray that HighRoad will continue to be a blessing.
You can find HighRoad on the web by following the links below:
https://www.facebook.com/HIGHROADNASH/
