By ANN HINCH
Associate Editor

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Just outside the circle of Indianapolis – the property is visible from the Interstate 465 loop – the Marion County Fairgrounds played host last week to its 81st county fair. And music is as important a part of the yearly event as the midway rides or livestock exhibitions.

Especially to Ron Phillips, fair board president, who explained each board member has a delegated project in addition to planning the overall fair. As a vocalist himself, his is the nightly performances. This year he tried to work different kinds of music into each night of the July 21-30 fair, including rock, jazz, a wind symphony, country, funk – and gospel.

“Gospel is a longstanding tradition at the fair,” Phillips said, and it’s on Tuesday night. “Attendance (to Gospel Night) is still not what we would like, for it to make ‘a joyful noise.’”

A decade or so ago, Gospel Night was doing well. Then, due to circumstances Phillips declined to elaborate, it was nearly put an end. He said the board has been tampering with “layouts and change” during the past few years without success.

So, this year, he asked Delbert Wray to help bring in some more acts to give Gospel Night a better sense of cohesion. While the numbers still aren’t what the board would like, Phillips did say there seems to be a good foundation being built for future fair Gospel Nights.

Wray is music director at Oolitic Baptist Church in southern Indiana, but just as important, a founding member of The Wray Brothers Quartet. They’ve performed at the Marion County Fair for the last few years, and Phillips said he was referred to Wray as someone who might be able to help boost Gospel Night again.

Wray’s group – consisting of vocalists Wray, younger brother Joe Wray, David Hatfield and Steve Paugh and musicians D.J. Hatfield and Randy Beck – was the final act on July 26. In response to Phillips’ call for help, they also invited Indiana groups The Barnett Trio and 3rd Row Boys to perform.
“We had a bigger crowd than we had in the past,” Delbert noted. “We’re on the right track.

In a fair, it’s hard to get people to sit down and watch for two, three hours; there’s so much going on.”

The Wrays aren’t new to performing. In fact, this fall they will celebrate 50 years of actively touring and performing, on and off – mostly on. From 1961-99, Delbert said some form of the group “used to travel 120 to 130 days a year” through a 12-state region, from the Midwest to the East Coast.
“And, we all worked full-time jobs in addition to it,” he added.

At 52 now, Delbert was only three years old when he started singing as part of a family group, with older brother Eddie. Eventually, Joe joined and they performed that way until Delbert went into the Army for three years – still performing but only very occasionally. In 1981 he began singing with another quartet, until he and its pianist left to become a trio with Joe.

Around 1989 or so, they picked up Paugh and Beck; a few years later, the Hatfields. Despite how it may seem, “we never really changed that much,” Delbert claimed.

“We have been so blessed. When we sing … we don’t sound too bad,” he said, explaining the quartet are born-again believers in Jesus Christ who want to spread the message that the only hope of eternal life is through Him.
Rather than traditional gospel and Christian music, however, he said the group likes to perform “good old-fashioned quartet-style songs,” with a healthy dose of comedy thrown in. It’s a formula that has allowed the group to entertain in settings other than just dedicated Christian venues, such as corporate events, fairs, festivals, concerts and the like.

“We’re just delivering a message that God gave us, through song.” Delbert said the group cuts up onstage since they feel there’s already enough “doom and gloom” in the world.

The Wray Brothers Quartet as it exists now re-formed in the mid-2000s and do 10-12 performances a year. Though it’s not their next gig, their next big concert – as Delbert describes it – will be Oct. 29 at the Seasons Lodge in Nashville, Ind.

In addition to just a couple of rehearsals before each performance, “we all sing all the time, but not together,” he pointed out.

The rest of the time, he sells insurance and Joe is the treasurer of Brown County (“I tell people he’s the best politician money can buy,” Delbert quips); David Hatfield is associate pastor at Harmony Baptist Church in Avon and D.J. is a certified sound engineer with his own business, Double D Productions; Paugh is a Washington Township school employee and Beck owns his own lawn care business and drives a school bus.

Despite there being four Wray brothers (as well as a sister), the eldest, Bobby – a preacher – hasn’t been part of the group. “We made a deal with him,” Delbert said, “if he didn’t sing, we wouldn’t preach.”

He reflected the group members missed many family events during the decades they toured, but a tradeoff was making so many listeners smile – and the message itself. “It may be the only time somebody hears about Jesus,” Delbert said.

“Gospel music, in one form or another, has been or should be part of everyone’s life,” Phillips added.

To learn more about The Wray Brothers Quartet or to follow their performance schedule, log on to www.facebook.com/pages/The-Wray-Brothers-Quartet/195020933846285
The Barnett Trio may be found online at http://thebarnetttrio.blogspot.com