Notes
INTRODUCING Bryant Suggs Bryant was born to Fred Suggs and Hattie Barrow-Suggs, sharecropper's in Greene County, North Carolina. At eight years old, Bryant's dream of being a Gospel singer, playing instruments, songwriting and arranging, would touch the heart of God even as he picked tobacco, cotton and corn on the farm where he was born and raised. Even while priming tobacco, milking cows, and plowing the fields with mules, Bryant's penchant for performing Gospel music was growing. The Suggs family (eight brothers and two sisters) attended Maury Freewill Baptist Church in Maury, NC where Bryant, and four brothers, Fred, Jr., William, Clayton and ES now Edgar formed a group aptly titled The Suggs Brothers. They performed at local churches and community fairs opening for major acts like Little Richard, Johnny Taylor and the Soul Stirrers. "My father was my first musical mentor," says Bryant. My father would borrow one for six months at a time. That's how he taught all of us to play." "When I was around nine, someone gave us an old beat up guitar, so we had one in the house all the time. By then, I was totally hooked on Gospel music and determined to become a musician." At 21, Bryant enlisted in the US Air Force, and served for more than 20 years. He served in Vietnam, achieved the rank of Master Sergeant and also performed in over 20 bands playing in nearly every country and all but Iowa and Hawaii in the United States. He toured with the Air Force's "Tops in Blue" entertainers showcase as bandleader, lead singer and lead guitarist. Bryant is multi-talented, playing the harmonica, violin, coronet, trumpet, piano, bass guitar and drums. His self-produced, first solo project, We Win, may well be the vehicle that takes him to the next level of his Gospel singing career with it's jazz-stylized updated gospel remake of I.O.U (LeeGreenwood), the jazzy, soulfully inspirational original The Mountain Top, and the enchanting To China With Love. A broad range of gospel lovers will certainly enjoy Bryant's CD, "We Win".
