The Simmons is a husband and wife duo from Elon, NC. The couple plays covers of southern gospel classics while offering ministry between songs.

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The sounds of a steel guitar will fill the air at Charity Baptist Church in Boonville on May 17 when The Simmons bring southern gospel and ministry to the crowd.

This event is free and open to the public and will begin at 7 p.m.

The Simmons is a husband and wife duo From Elon, N.C. that predominantly performs covers of southern gospel songs.

“It is just my husband, Randy, and I,” said Dee Simmons. “We met each other through music and began playing together even before we married 39 years ago.”

Dee is a standout musician as one of very few females in the country who plays steel guitar.

“I started playing the steel guitar in 1970 and a year and a half later is when I cut my first instrumental album,” said Simmons. “Jack Watkins taught me how to play the steel guitar while he was living in Burlington. He was a Nashville picker who has been George Jones’ lead guitar player and played for Ronnie Milsap.”

Simmons said that she and her husband originally started out in country music in the 1970s but moved to strictly southern gospel in the 1980s.

“I had a group called Promise back in the 1980s and in the 1990s I had a group called Crystal Rivers,” Simmons said. “Crystal Rivers played full time for about three years and we toured all over the country.”

Since 2001 Dee and her husband have been performing together as a duo and travel to churches around North Carolina and outside the state as well.

“When we come in to churches we do a mixture of instrumentals and singing,” Simmons said. “I play steel guitar, dobro, mandolin and lap steel guitar. We mix it up between instrumentals and singing and ministering to the people.”

They found their way to Charity Baptist Church through church member Chris Parker. Simmons said that Parker attended one of their performances at another church and asked them if they would be interested in performing at Charity.

Simmons said that while the event will be free the band will send around a tray for a love offering during the performance to help fund her husband’s trip to Panama with Gideon Ministries.

“Randy is going to be leaving to go to Panama on May 31 and will be there for a week to help hand out 70,000 bibles in Panama City,” Simmons said. “As part of the Gideon Ministry he will have to pay his own way to go so we’ve been taking a love offering from churches that we sing in this year to go towards the cost of that trip.”

Simmons said they will also have some of their past recordings available for sale during the event as well.

“We’re looking forward to making new friends and meeting new people in Yadkin County,” Simmons said. “We would love to see everyone and we hope that county residents will come out to see us perform and hear our ministry. It will be a great night full of steel guitar and southern gospel music.”

Doors for the event open at 6 p.m. and Reverend Eddie Driver welcomes the community to attend the event. A love offering will be accepted.

Reach Lindsay Craven at 679-2341 or at lcraven@civitasmedia.com.