Gospel concert is a family affair

The Fehr family of Milk River, Alberta, will bring the sound of their unique family vocal blend and arms full of stringed instruments to the Flathead Valley for the first time, in a gospel music concert at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 4, at the new Kalispell Christian Church, 1075 Foy's Lake Road.

Admission to the concert, sponsored by the Montana Gospel Music Association, is free. An offering will be received. Heaven's Peek, a local Southern Gospel group, will open the concert.

Karen and Bernie Fehr started singing together when both of them were students at an independent Baptist Bible college in Calgary. They got married, and they've been singing ever since.

Other family members who'll be joining them in Kalispell include three daughters, Anne-Marie, Elizabeth, and Charissa, as well as two sons, Andrew and Timothy, and Andrew's wife, Rebecca. Their instruments include two mandolins, two violins, banjo, guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica.

The Fehrs operate a family farm outside of Milk River, in southern Alberta; they also have a coal mine where they produce organic fertilizer.

"We've always lived a long way from anywhere," said Bernie Fehr, "so we started singing together at home, and when we would be traveling an hour or so to town to shop, or maybe the three-hour trip to visit grandparents."

The Fehrs have sung across Alberta and British Columbia, as well as in Saskatchewan. And while the family frequently sings in Montana, this will be their first visit to the Flathead. Their presentation will feature songs by the entire family, as well as quartets and trios. The family has produced one CD and is at work on another one.

This will be the Montana Gospel Music Association's first concert at Kalispell Christian Church, where the Rev. Duane Hull and his congregation moved into a new sanctuary seating 700 last October.