Band sees change over the years

No crowd is too small for the Love of God Outreach Singers (LOGOS).

Last year, the gospel band was setting up to play at a church near Gladys when the minister came backstage and informed them that only three people had shown up. He told them they didn’t have to perform since it was such a small turnout.

But lead singer Keith Watts and the band wasn’t having it.

“I told him, ‘No, you booked us for a show,’” said Watts, who lives in Forest.

“It’s all about the ministry and saving souls. If you can reach one person who’s lost, then it’s all worth it.”

Watts started playing with his two younger brothers and a cousin in the early 1970s, when they were all in high school and middle school. They called themselves The Watts Brothers.

“We taught ourselves how to play, and we just started playing local churches,” he says.

They renamed the band the Love of God Singers in 1977 and added “outreach” to their name last year.

Since the 1970s, members have come and gone, and the group has disbanded a couple times.

“As the group grew up, their individual lives just took different paths,” says Amherst resident Norvell Anderson, who joined in 1977. “As they matured, they really missed what we were doing.”

Eventually, he says, “we found our way back to each other. This time, we’re here to stay.”

LOGOS usually plays benefits and churches, but they’ve started outgrowing small spaces as their band has grown in numbers. At last count, there were 12 members, who live all over Central Virginia and in Maryland.

“When we set up, it’s big. We take (up) a lot of space,” says Dan Snyder, who joined the group last year. “Anytime we can get in an auditorium, it’s just a natural fit. It makes the music flow better.”

They’ve got two big shows on the horizon: a concert at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Arlington this weekend and one at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C., in March.

“It’s going to be the step that puts us in a completely different (type of) venue,” says Snyder, who lives in Forest.

Watts, Anderson and Snyder do the majority of the writing, and band members play everything from the guitar and keyboards to the saxophone and dobro.

They’ve even gotten a younger generation involved. Anderson’s 15-year-old son, Kirby, plays bass. The band’s drummer, D’Marzio Little, is 18 years old.

“It’s kind of neat because that gives us another perspective,” says Anderson.

The band tries to rehearse once a week, usually on weekends.

“When we get together, it’s a celebration in itself,” Snyder says. “It’s sweet, just absolutely sweet.”

The result, he says, is a show that tends to put audiences through a gamut of emotions.

“There’s times I’ve seen people just up and down, waving their hands … and other times, I’ve seen people sitting there crying,” Snyder says.

“The whole purpose is to give God glory, and these guys do it.”