As a child singer growing up in Valdosta, Devin McGlamery followed a simple rule: He accepted any and every opportunity to sing.
Now, the 25-year-old, Grammy-nominated, former Valdostan offers similar advice to young singers he meets.
“On tour, people will bring kids up to me who sing, and ask what can they do to succeed,” McGlamery says in a recent phone interview from his North Carolina home, “and I always say, no matter what, whenever you get an opportunity to sing, you sing. You never know who is going to be in an audience wherever it may be.”
McGlamery has followed that rule of commitment from early childhood to a singing career and success with the gospel group Karen Peck & New River. McGlamery has sung, performed and recorded with Peck and her sister, Susan Peck Johnson, for the past three years.
“Journey of Joy,” the group’s latest album, is nominated for a Grammy in the best Southern, country, or bluegrass gospel album category. Other nominees in this category include Ricky Skaggs, Billy Joe Shaver, and Bill Gaither. On Feb. 10, when the Grammy ceremony is scheduled to air from 8-11:30 p.m. on CBS, McGlamery plans to be in Los Angeles for the awards show.
A Grammy nomination is just part of the dream which McGlamery set for himself when only a young child. Before the age of 10, Devin decided he wanted to be a gospel singer. He sung in local churches, local festivals, and in local concerts. He followed that rule of performing whenever and wherever the opportunity arose. His parents, Don and Sandra McGlamery, who still live in Valdosta, carried Devin to all of the places that wanted him to sing.
Along with his commitment and his parents’ enthusiastic support, Devin also had talent. Many youngsters want to sing. Many parents support their children’s desire to sing. But Devin could sing in a beautiful voice and was a natural on stage. The more he performed, the more he was invited to perform at other events and locations. Keeping to his rule, Devin went.
At 11 years old, Devin was performing at an event outside of Mathis City Auditorium, he says. In the audience was the promoter of a large gospel sing, and Devin was signed onto the sing.
Growing up, he shared the bill with many gospel stars. He traveled and performed and kept to his studies. Near the end of his senior year at Valdosta’s Open Bible Christian School, he learned of an opening with the Dixie Melody Boys, a well-known gospel group. Sandra McGlamery stayed up late preparing Devin’s resume. The next day, Don McGlamery attempted to fax the resume to the gospel group. With the fax not working properly, one of the Dixie Melody Boys answered the phone. Don McGlamery said he had the group’s next singer.
Though Devin had met the Dixie Melody Boys in the past, he says it is tough for a big group to recall everyone they meet on the road. And though the group could have balked at taking the word of a man who says his son is a great singer, the group agreed to meet with Devin. They liked what they heard and signed him on.
He finished his last two weeks of school and, a few days after graduation, the 17-year-old McGlamery had moved to the Dixie Melody Boys’ North Carolina home and was traveling the country performing as a professional gospel singer.
He was with the Dixie Melody Boys for five years, going from a young boy who had neither toured extensively nor lived on his own to a professional performer and an independent man.
Five years ago, he married his wife, Karen Ham McGlamery, a school teacher, and they have a daughter Karlyn, who is nearly 2.
Joining Karen Peck and New River, McGlamery became part of another already established group where he has carved out an identity for himself. Though Peck headlines the group, all three members write songs and have songs that specifically feature their voices and performances. They typically perform Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and are home the remainder of the week. In the summers, with school out, Devin’s wife and daughter can travel with him.
He has recently taken the job of part-time youth director of his church near his home in Kinston, N.C. Next month, with Karen Peck & New River, he travels to Los Angeles for the Grammy Awards.
Though, performing gospel music is something he has always wanted,
“I never dreamed it would happen to this extent to where I would actually make a living at it,” McGlamery says, “but through God all things are possible.”
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