Biography All Music Guide Wikipedia
All Music Guide:
Born in Newton, WV, Parsons began his gospel career singing with The Calvary Men. In 1975 he joined The Kingsmen as a baritone, but left in 1979 to pursue a solo career and has since recorded 25 Southern-gospel/MOR albums. Parsons won six Singing News Magazine awards, including the prestigious Marvin Norcross Award in 1990. "Sweet Beulah Land" was a #1 song on Southern gospel charts in 1981.
Wikipedia:
Squire Enos Parsons, Jr. (born April 4, 1948), is a Southern Gospel singer and songwriter. He was born in Newton, West Virginia, to Squire and Maysel Parsons, and was introduced to music by his father, who was a choir director and deacon at Newton Baptist Church. Squire's father taught him to sing using shaped notes.
Musical career
In 1970, Parsons earned a Bachelor of Science in music from West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Montgomery, where he was trained on the piano and bassoon. Following graduation, he accepted a teaching position at Hannan High School in Mason county, West Virginia, and served as music directors of various churches.
During this period he wrote "Sweet Beulah Land," his signature song.
He joined the Kingsmen Quartet as a baritone in 1975 and toured with them for four years before embarking on a solo career.
In 1979, Squire Parsons was ordained as a minister at Trinity Baptist Church in Asheveille, North Carolina. He has written more than eight hundred Southern Gospel songs, with nearly five hundred being published and recorded.
Among his most popular compositions are "The Master of the Sea," "Walk On", "He Came to Me," "I Call it Home," "I Sing Because," "I'm Not Giving Up" and "Sweet Beulah Land".
He appeared in the Little Rock Crusade with Billy Graham and performed with the Gaither Homecoming Choir.
He currently performs as the lead singer of The Squire Parsons Trio, and lives in Leicester, North Carolina, with his wife Linda.
His songs have been recorded by Brian Free, Gaither Vocal Band, Gold City, Ivan Parker, Kingdom Heirs, the Blackwood Brothers, The Cathedrals, The Florida Boys, The Greenes, The Hoppers, The Kingsmen, The McKameys, Statesmen, The Sugar Creek Quartet, among others.
Awards
Parsons was nominated for a Dove Award in 1999 for contributing to tribute album to Dottie Rambo.
He has won the Singing News Fan Award for favorite male singer in 1988. He won a Singing News Fan Award for Favorite Songwriter in 1986, 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1995. He won the Singing News Fan Award for Favorite Baritone in 1986 and 1987.
"Sweet Beulah Land" won the Singing News Fan Awards for song of the year in 1981.
He has also been awarded an honorary doctorate from his alma mater. He makes public appearances at churches across the country, both large and small.
