Originally published in Charleston Magazine, May 2005

Rejoice: Gospel Music in the Lowcountry

Jason A. Zwiker

“Just hymn a little bit, my momma used to say,” Rossilind Lucas Daniels explains. “Singing gospel got her through her day, her week. That’s the very thing that hits home in the soul and makes you forget your troubles. Makes you forget what’s going on in the world around you.” Today, Rossilind is minister of music for New Charity Missionary Baptist Church. Together with her sisters, Mary Greer and Trudie Grant, she has been performing gospel music for nearly 30 years.

While their mother spoke to them of grace and the transformative power of music, their father taught them how to harmonize and minister to others through song. Henry Lucas performed with gospel quartet The Jubilees from the 1960s through the ‘80s, touring the gospel festivals and revivals of the Southeast. It was in those days that Rossilind, Mary, and Trudy became known as the eponymous gospel trio The Lucas Sisters.

The intensity and authenticity of their vocals earned them the respect of the international gospel community. They received a South Carolina Folk Heritage Award for their ongoing contribution to the arts and have performed everywhere from Washington, D.C. to Lugano, Switzerland, for the annual Blues to Bop Festival. Through it all, however, they remain rooted to their childhood church and the gospel choir that gave them their start in music. “When The Lucas Sisters sing,” Rossilind says, “God gets the glory.”

That same small church continues to inspire new talent. Quiana, Charlene, and Vanessa Brokenbrough, known to fellow congregants as “The Little Lucas Sisters” for their emulation of the singers, are currently in the studio recording their debut gospel and R&B album under the name of 3 Dyvne. “I used to sit in church and watch Rossi playing the keyboard, singing, and directing the choir,” says 15-year-old Quiana. “After church, me, Mayany (Charlene), and ‘Nessa would sit on the stairs at home and play like I was Rossi and they were the choir. I would run my fingers across one of the lower steps like it was a piano, and they would be up top, singing whatever we heard in church that day. That’s how we learned to harmonize.” They joined the children’s choir at Charity Baptist, working directly with Minister Daniels and the rest of the gospel ensemble.

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