Fifteen years ago, DuRhonda and Bill Lamb enrolled their 5-year-old daughter, Karis, in violin lessons. It was a decision that began an amazing journey for the Lamb family, members of First Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa.
Younger sisters Kiemel and Kolson also started violin lessons by age 5, and when their brother Caleb came along, “he just thought every family played the violin,” his mother said.
The siblings, now 20, 18, 15 and 13, travel throughout the Southeast playing their four-part violin harmony for audiences in the thousands. They have performed in such diverse settings as the national home-school convention, an Alabama-Auburn men’s basketball game, Gov. Bob Riley’s second inauguration and churches of various size and denomination.
“We’re an ordinary family having an extraordinary time,” Bill Lamb said.
DuRhonda Lamb remembers clearly how it all began. As the children’s musical skills increased and they discovered musical arrangements that fit their needs, the couple realized music could be a family ministry.
“We just wanted the children to use their music to glorify the Lord, so they started out by playing for the sick and dying at nursing homes and in hospital rooms,” DuRhonda Lamb said. “We didn’t realize that God would take that small act of obedience and blossom it into what it is today.”
Even now with so many opportunities to play for large audiences and in prestigious settings, the family still takes time to minister to individuals in crisis. According to DuRhonda Lamb, playing for patients in a hospice facility is probably the most difficult, but most rewarding, thing. “Because we go from room to room, we’re facing death in each room. We’re looking death right in the face.”
But the blessing for the entire family is knowing it’s brought beauty and joy to families facing traumatic illness or the death of a loved one.
The family’s motto, “May Christ be heard in our music and seen in our lives,” is reinforced by daily devotional times and reading the Bible together each morning.
When all the children were being home-schooled, that routine was easier, but now that Karis and Kiemel are students at the University of Alabama, it has become more difficult to blend schedules to allow for family Bible study. “Now some of our best times for Bible reading are in the car,” DuRhonda Lamb said with a laugh.
‘Warmth, heart and dedication’
As the family performs in churches, it has three clearly stated goals:
4to encourage other families to find a place of service,
4to demonstrate that God’s Word should be a priority is each individual’s life and
4to introduce Jesus Christ to those who don’t know Him as Savior.
Although neither Bill nor DuRhonda Lamb has a strong musical background, both came to see that as an advantage for giving God the glory for what He has done with their children’s musical abilities. Recently a professional musician remarked to DuRhonda Lamb, “We play for money; your family plays to touch lives.”
Touching lives is exactly what the family hopes to do with the release of its third CD, “Psalterium,” which includes everything from “Orange Blossom Special” to “His Eye is on the Sparrow.”
The Nashville String Machine provided backup for the CD, and the title song, “Psalterium” (Latin for “stringed instrument”), was specially written and arranged for the young musicians by award-winning composer and producer David Clydesdale.
“When the Scriptures exhort us to ‘play skillfully’ unto the Lord, here is a family that knows what that means,” said Clydesdale, who has arranged music for such notables as Sandi Patty and Steve Green. “[The Lambs] combine extreme skill with warmth, heart, dedication and humility.”
A Lamb family concert will serve as a CD release event Nov. 4 at 6 p.m. at First, Tuscaloosa.
For CD information or to schedule The Lamb Family for an event, call DuRhonda Lamb at 205-758-LAMB (5262) or visit www.lambfamilymusic.com.
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