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Living
Grace Bluegrass Gospel
Living Grace Bluegrass Gospel
Blending contemporary and bluegrass music in praise to the Lord.
Visit the 2008 Beast Feast site where Living Grace
was honored to share their music with men from our community
at the 7th
annual Sportsman's Banquet hosted by the men's ministry, 2nd Baptist
Church, Conway, AR.
Living Grace History
Living Grace grew out of a group of friends who shared a love for bluegrass gospel music. Members of
this group first began playing together in 2002 as "Jason Rapert and Friends," and that group recorded a CD together
that was released in 2005. That CD has been very well-received by audiences across the region, and its
release has led to numerous performance opportunities for the group which then decided to take the name "Living Grace".
Living Grace features vocalist and fiddler Jason Rapert, known to
bluegrass fans in the Arkansas area through his occasional performances with the group Hickory Hill Bluegrass Gospel, Clear
Blue, and Shady Grove Bluegrass. He began playing fiddle at the age of ten, learning to play by ear with
the assistance of his grandfather, Conway Jarrett, a fiddler himself. Jason played music with his family
for many years at church and community events, and since 1990, he has performed with a variety of bluegrass bands around Arkansas.
In addition to playing for the Lord, Jason is an evangelist and conducts missionary and humanitarian projects through
Holy Ghost Ministries, www.holyghostministries.org.
Tim
McCool is featured on banjo and vocals in Living Grace. Tim began playing guitar at age six, banjo at age
ten, and bass at age 17. For 28 years, Tim played with the Chisum Family Band, and he has also played with
the gospel group Looking Up and with the Morris Brothers bluegrass band. Tim's wife,
Jetta, is also a member of Living Grace, a vocalist in the band. She too has performed with the Chisum
Family Band as well as other bluegrass groups. Tim and Jetta reside near Hector, Arkansas. 
Ronnie
Taylor began playing guitar at age six. He toured the country with the band Southern Flames in the 1980s,
and more recently he has performed with the Carney Sisters and in his own Ronnie Taylor Band. Ronnie's
wife Sandra is also a member of Living Grace, a vocalist in the band. Ronnie and Sandra live near Russellville,
AR.
Keith Gresham sings and plays bass for Living
Grace. He has been playing music for 30 years, beginning with the guitar and later learning to play upright
bass and banjo. He has been featured on several recordings and has traveled throughout the region playing
bluegrass in the early 1980s.
The most
recent addition to the group is Kathy Standridge also of Russellville, AR. Kathy has been a nice addition
to Living Grace, bringing “family harmony” to their sound – Sandra and Kathy are sisters and have been singing
together for many years.
Living Grace blends the
backgrounds of all the members of the band, steeped in that all engulfing mountain bluegrass gospel sound you hear in
small churches all over the south. Holy Ghost Ministries is proud to sponsor Living Grace as it ministers to others
through bluegrass gospel music.
Bluegrass and Evangelist Jason Rapert
Jason has been playing music for at least 25 years. Rapert grew up in Supply, Ark., in Randolph County,
near the Missouri border and started playing fiddle when he was 10 years old. He learned to play the fiddle by ear from his
late grandfather, Conway Jarrett from Warm Springs, in northeast Arkansas. The first tune he learned to play was an old Bob
Wills tune called "Faded Love."
When he was 12, he got serious about the fiddle, going to bed and waking up with music playing. Along with Grandpa Jarrett,
Rapert's favorite fiddler was Dusty Rhodes. He learned his first three chords on the guitar from his
grandmother, Pearl Jarrett. A great deal of his musical foundation was laid playing church functions and
community functions with his family who were all very musically inclined. Jason has played many, many local
get-togethers with his late Grandpa Jarrett and Uncle John Jarrett of Paragould, Arkansas. In addition
to playing with his family whenever called upon, over the years Jason played fiddle for Amy O – Amy Ogden was a young
country singer at the time from Pocahontas - when he was in high school. Since 1990 he has played with
various bluegrass groups including Borrowed Time Bluegrass out of Greenbrier and Conway, Shady Grove bluegrass out of Pea
Ridge, Arkansas, Whiskers & Lace, Clear Blue which is a group he helped form and his wife Laurie named. Starting
in about 2002 he formed Jason Rapert & Friends which formally became Living Grace in 2005.
Jason has performed in various venues as a guest
or featured artist including the FFA state convention in Hot Springs, the annual Second Baptist Church Beast Feast in Conway,
the Roundup country music show in Brookland, various local Rotary functions in Conway, the National Association of Retired
Federal Employees state convention in Conway, and various churches and bluegrass festivals in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri.
Other musical artists that have influenced his style of music include the works from fiddlers Bobby Hicks and Kenny
Baker, and Bluegrass artists Ricky Skaggs, Ralph Stanley, Bill Monroe, and Rhonda Vincent just to name a few.
Booking Information
To book Living
Grace at your church, bluegrass festival or for a gospel music function, please contact Evangelist Jason Rapert
at 501-472-2794 or jasonrapert@holyghostministries.org.
Living Grace ministers at churhces on a free will offering basis. For bluegrass festivals and non-church
venues within the state of Arkansas, a minimum of $500 is required to cover travel expenses.
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