BASIC concert Dec. 5 to benefit Ministerial Alliance

The BASIC band performs this past summer. The band will perform Saturday, Dec. 5, in a benefit concert for the Marshall Ministerial Alliance. (Contributed photo) [Click to enlarge]

BASIC, a local praise band comprised of seven vocalists and five instrumentalists from several different churches, will hold their annual Christmas concert at Cumberland at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 5, as a benefit to the Marshall Ministerial Alliance's Benevolent Fund.

BASIC singer and secretary of the Alliance, Randy Shannon, is pastor at Cumberland and says this event will "give us a chance to share some great Christmas music and accept donations for a great cause."

He notes that for the past several years the gospel group Nostalgia has donated their efforts to provide a Christmas concert to raise funds for the Alliance's fund for needy families.

In recent years the event has netted an annual gift of several thousand dollars. This year Nostalgia will not be able to provide their concert until February, Shannon says, so BASIC is hoping to fill some of the void that the absence of their Christmas concert will create. "Our musical styles may be different," he says, "but it's still for the same great cause."

BASIC will do Christmas songs -- some new and some familiar -- as recorded by artists such as Third Day, MercyMe, Casting Crowns and Barlow Girl.

In addition to Shannon, members of BASIC, which originated as the praise band for the First Christian Church several years ago, are Donna Smith, Kay Wise, Julie Hoffelmeyer, Tim Clemens, Lori Layton, Shirley Schultz, Jim Seigfreid, Kevin Dryer, Rick Schulenberg, Terry Townsend and Tara Vogelsmeier.