Widely celebrated as the “First Family of Gospel Music” in Richmond, Virginia, The Legendary Ingramettes have been blowing the roof off performance stages for nearly six decades. For this performance, they will reunite with their friend Sherman Holmes, the surviving member of soul/blues legends the Holmes Brothers. It simply wouldn’t be the Virginia Folklife Stage without the Ingramettes closing it out. Come join them and Sherman and uplift your soul!
The Legendary Ingramettes
Gospel
Richmond, Virginia
Photo: Pat Jarrett
The Ingramettes were formed by Evangelist “Mama” Maggie Ingram (born July 4, 1930) on Mulholland’s Plantation in Coffee County, Georgia, where she worked the cotton and tobacco fields with her parents. Maggie began playing the piano and singing at an early age and developed a great love for the church and gospel music. In 1961, Maggie moved herself and her five children to Richmond and created Maggie Ingram and the Ingramettes, a family singing group that became one of the most beloved groups in Richmond’s storied gospel tradition.
Maggie passed away in 2015 at the age of 84, but the group has continued to soar. The Legendary Ingramattes are now led by Maggie’s oldest daughter, Almeta Ingram-Miller, a powerful singer in her own right, joined by Maggie’s granddaughter, Cheryl Maroney-Yancey, and daughter-in-law, Carrie Jackson. Backed by their rock-solid house-shaking rhythm section, the Ingramettes continue to bring the electric energy and spirit of a Sunday morning service to the stage, enthralling audiences at such prestigious venues and festivals as the Kennedy Center, National Folk Festival, Floydfest, Strawberry Music Festival, and countless others across the United States. In 2018, the group also completed a triumphant U.S. Department of State-hosted performance tour in Serbia and Bulgaria.
Their CD, Maggie Ingram and the Ingramettes: Live in Richmond, received the Independent Music Awards fan’s choice award for Gospel Album of the Year, and their much-acclaimed new release, Take A Look in the Book, was released in March of 2020.
It simply wouldn’t be the Virginia Folklife Stage without the Ingramettes closing it out. Come join them and uplift your soul.
Sherman Holmes
A little bit of everything
Saluda, Virginia
Photo: Pat Jarrett
The year 2015 marked the end of an amazing journey for the Holmes Brothers, a group with humble beginnings on Virginia’s Middle Peninsula who performed a joyous and moving blend of blues, gospel, soul, rhythm and blues, rock ‘n’ roll, and country for more than 50 years. Sherman and Wendell Holmes were raised by school teacher parents who fostered the boys’ early interest in music by playing recordings of traditional Baptist hymns, anthems, and spirituals, as well as blues music by Jimmy Reed, Junior Parker, and B. B. King. Sherman studied composition and music theory at Virginia State University before heading to New York City, where Wendell joined him.
In 1979, the duo formed the Holmes Brothers band with Sherman on bass, Wendell on guitar, and Popsy Dixon on drums. With their soulful singing, uplifting harmonies, and unsurpassed musicianship, the Holmes Brothers blended Saturday night roadhouse rock with the gospel fervor and harmonies of a Sunday morning church service. During their remarkable career, the band played and recorded with the brightest stars of the blues and rock ‘n’ roll scene including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, and Van Morrison, and in 2014 received the National Heritage Fellowship, the highest honor the United States bestows on traditional artists. Sadly, 2015 saw the passing of both Wendell and Popsy, ending the Holmes Brothers’ remarkable run. Despite these devastating losses, Sherman has remained dedicated to carrying on his musical career, collaborating with a range of blues, bluegrass, and gospel artists, and forming the Sherman Holmes Project.
In 2017, Sherman released The Richmond Sessions, his first solo recording in his more than 50-year career. The album carries on the spirit of the revered Holmes Brothers by reimagining songs and making them their own. In 2019 Sherman joined the Legendary Ingramettes on an enthusiastically received U.S. State Department tour of Serbia and Bulgaria. Sherman will reunite with the Ingramettes with a much-anticipated guest appearance at the 2021 Virginia Folklife Stage.