Age is just a number to this choir

This group of vocal seniors doesn’t let age stand in their way. In fact, they just completed their eighth CD featuring new music, according to the choir’s founder and director Connie Atkinson. And, their love of music doesn’t stop there.

The group tours the United States and performs about 80 concerts yearly.

	If you go WHAT: Young At Heart Winter Concert with Bar D Wranglers WHEN: 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8 WHERE: Sandia Baptist Church, 9429 Constitution NE HOW MUCH: $15 adults, $6 children ages 6 and younger. Call 858-3009 or email yahconnie@aol.com

The oldest active member is 91 years old and the group still has an inactive charter member who is 101 years old. The group’s age average is 72, Atkinson said.

“It’s been a wonderful 25 years for me,” Atkinson said during a recent phone interview. “I started (Young At Heart Choir) 25 years ago at a local church. We have 19 Bible-believing denominations and 120 members in the choir.”

Young At Heart also finds time to perform on a local television show, “Gospel Time with Young At Heart,” that airs at 6 p.m. Fridays and 5 p.m. Sundays on cable Channel 11-KCHF Son Broadcasting.

According to a station query, the show has about 30,000 viewers, Atkinson said.

One of the choir’s biggest fans, the Bar D Wranglers, will join the Young At Heart Choir for a fundraiser concert on Friday, Feb. 8. Proceeds go toward the choir’s ministry operations and travel costs.

This is the 10th year that the Bar D Wranglers have joined the choir for its fundraiser. Bar D Wranglers also have performed several other shows with choir.

“They bring in their cowboy and western music,” Atkinson said. “They bring in a different venue than we do because we are Southern Gospel.”

Vocalist and guitarist Gary Cook of the Bar D Wranglers said members of the group all sing and most of their songs are based on a four-part harmony similar to that of the Gene Autry band and other pioneers.

“Cowboy music with a lot of comedy,” is how Cook described his group. Young At Heart Choir also adds comedy to its shows and mixes things up with a men’s quartet, a women’s trio referred to as a beauty shop quartet and an ensemble of eight women called the Ageless Angels.

Cook refers to the choir as “family.”

“They are just such nice people,” Cook said of the choir. “We like to be part of their organization.”

Atkinson and Cook became close friends after Atkinson and her late husband took trips to Durango, Colo., for the Bar D Wranglers chuckwagon suppers.

“Bar D opened June, 2, 1969,” Cook said. “We’re starting our 45th season at the Chuckwagon … We perform there every evening in the summer.”

For more information on the Young At Heart Choir, visit www.yahchoir.org or for the Bar D Wranglers, visit www.bardchuckwagon.com.