But “singing ain’t enough,” she says. “You’ve got to put something else in it.” Around Richmond, Ingram is known as the woman in the red van who delivered free food to the Mosby Court projects. It is thanks to her efforts that there are “Family Day” events in Virginia correctional centers. “They’re my babies,” she says. “I’ve become attached to them because I see that they really need to know God.”
The band’s appearances before thousands at the National Folk Festival in Richmond this past October were revelatory hometown events. Two weeks later, the group played in a Mechanicsville nursing home for 40 residents. “She wanted us to give just as much for them as for the folk festival,” Almeta Miller says. Even though the matriarch does more sitting than standing these days, she still commands attention onstage, with a feisty, funny manner (“Don’t cosign with anyone from your church. Don’t do it!”) that once had promoters begging to market her as a comedienne.
Asked about today’s professional gospel circuit, she responds, “It’s all about money now. “Priorities have changed.” Maggie Ingram has never been tempted to make her songs more commercial, like many contemporary gospel performers. “That’s them, not me,” she says quietly. “Being a Christian woman, I’m not trying to smear my religion around, but that’s what’s in my heart. It’s the soul in me, to carry on with what God gave me.”
-Originally published February 2008
Latest Comments
Maine Performance in 2008
Posted by Sam and Sharon Dunaway January 15, 2012 20:55:48
Maggie Ingram and the Ingramettes
Posted by Brenda Bethel Wimberly August 24, 2011 09:49:02
Trying to be able to communicate with Ms Maggie and Family
Posted by Brenda Bethel wimberly August 24, 2011 09:39:14