R.I.H. Ponzell Torain of the Torain Family Singers

Gospel Music Fever™

By Libra Boyd, Editor in Chief

Ponzell Torain, a longtime member of the Torain Family Singers, passed away December 26, 2024, in Roxboro, NC. He was 68.

Since 1968, the Torain Family has spread the gospel in song in and around northern Piedmont North Carolina and South-Central Virginia. With every song and testimony, their music has carried the weight of tradition while making space for new generations of family.

Ponzell joined his family’s singing group several years after it was formed by his sister Frances and brother Thomas. Surrounded by music, he was inspired to follow in his older brother’s footsteps as a guitarist. Ponzell recounted his aspirations in the 2023 feature-length documentary Gospel In Person, directed by Michael Gentry in partnership with the Person County Arts Council. The film chronicles more than 80 years of Black gospel music history in Person County, located in North Carolina’s Piedmont region near the Virginia border.

Recalling his ingenuity and determination in those early days, Ponzell shared, “My first guitar was a stick with some burned tire strings on it. I burned a tire and put the strings on the stick.” That homemade guitar proved to be just the beginning. Ponzell went on to become a skilled guitarist and expanded his talents to drums, bass guitar, and keyboard, making himself an essential part of the group’s evolving sound.

As the years progressed, the Torain Family continued to evolve while staying true to their churchy gospel beginnings. In 2017, they released “The Train,” a spirited single that paid tribute to Ponzell’s sister Frances, who passed the previous year. In 2022, the group followed up with “Over There.” Both releases honored their roots while showcasing new arrangements.

Though deeply committed to his family’s music ministry, Ponzell’s reach extended beyond singing and playing with the Torain Family. He was also a longtime member of the St. Luke Gospel Singers, a quartet-styled group his brother Thomas co-founded a year prior to helping form the Torain Family as a singing aggregation. After some membership changes, the group renamed itself the New St. Luke Gospel Singers, of which Ponzell remained a part. “I’ve been singing with so many groups—I just about can’t keep up with them, but I know some of them,” he said in the Gospel In Person documentary.

Whether in humble church sanctuaries or on large concert stages, Ponzell’s singing, homespun approach to music, and praise dancing filled every space with joy and conviction. Equally meaningful was his contribution to a family musical legacy that now includes its fourth generation and is still going strong.

A funeral service will take place Sunday, January 5, 2025, at 2 P.M. at Christian Apostolic Holiness Church in Semora, NC.

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