Hair emergencies happen but for Tuscaloosa-residents and pageant-winners Leila Tarleton Holley and Shannon Camper Gryska, it was only the beginning of a harmonious bond.
“Leila and I met at Miss Alabama in 2000 and didn’t really know each other before that summer,” Gryska recalled. Holley was Miss University of Alabama (UA) 2000 and Gryska was Miss Cullman Area 2000. Both were UA students.
“I was getting ready for evening gown competition and was having some trouble putting my hair up and what to my surprise but Leila walks by fresh off of the stage in her pink bubblegum ball gown from her talent competition and saves the day. I have often referred to her as my ‘Hairy Godmother,’” Gryska said.
And while that day they became instant friends, Holley, 27, and Gryska, 28, never would have guessed that just a few years later, they would eventually come together to form the Christian duo, Eden’s Rain.
The two were asked to perform together at the 2003 Miss UA pageant, so they delivered an a capella version of “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.”
“We had a lot of fun singing together for a few events by our choice after that, and then we started feeling led to pursue a joint ministry,” Holley said. “After much prayer and discussion with our families, we followed God’s call.”
Eden’s Rain worked with Dove Award winners — songwriter Matt Huesmann and producer Phil Johnson — to release their first self-titled album in November 2007. The women, now UA graduates and members of Calvary Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, in Tuscaloosa Baptist Association, said faith is what encourages them to continue.
Bryan Skinner, minister of music at Calvary Baptist, said despite his mere three months at the church he has already been able to see firsthand their “soulful” and “energetic” characteristics.
“The thing that means so much to me is countenance and expression and they live out their songs by the way they express themselves through their music,” he said, noting the “true joy” that is evident through their “unique blend.”
Both Holley and Gryska sing in Calvary’s adult choir and praise team as well as lead special music on Sunday mornings. The two are planning to release their second album — a hymns album — in the fall of 2009.
For information, visit www.edensrain.com.
(Brittany N. Howerton contributed)
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