By Caitlin Nearhood, university intern

The recently formed I Can Do All Things quartet features four Bluffton University students sophomore Alex Parker, senior Mychal Cox, and first year students Aaron Johnson and Alex Lugibihl.

Johnson and Lugibihl are music majors, while Parker is majoring in public health and communication and Cox studies criminal justice and coaching.

Together, the group intends to sing southern gospel music locally in religious and non-religious settings. The group even maintains a Facebook page (see the link at the end of the article).

I recently talked with Parker, a co-founder of the group. Here’s how our conversation went:

How did you form this group?
I was having dinner at a professor’s house and he mentioned that he wanted to hear a quartet from the university. I agreed, and brought the idea to Mychal. He did miracle work and so much for the group!

How are the parts divided up?
Well, I’m the bass, while Aaron and Mychal switch between lead and baritone, depending on the song, and Alex is the first tenor.

Why did you guys choose that name?
Mychal and I had a meeting at his house. Mychal wanted to pick something from the Bible, so he chose I Can Do All Things (from Philippians 4:13). The other group members liked it too.

What’s your definition of southern gospel?
It’s like country Christian music. It’s twangy and awesome! It’s kind of old fashioned too. We’re basing it off of the Gaither Vocal Band. They might still be popular today, I don’t know.

What attracts your group to this music?
It’s an easy style of music to get into and it’s what some people like. Our audience will be those from local churches and small local areas. Right now, we’re starting off easy with our music, and we will move on to harder stuff later on. 

Do any members write their own music?
I don’t, and Mychal doesn’t. Alex and Aaron might, since they’re music majors. We’re just getting our sheet music from online.

Do you have any instrumentalists in the group?
No, it’s just the four of us.

What other styles of music do you listen to/want to do?
Our original plan was to do barber shop music, and then it evolved into southern gospel. Aaron suggested that we do Billy Joel music and that’s different from the other styles for sure. We’ll probably mix it up some.

Is there any religious significance for this group, or do you just like the music?
It’s more like both. We’re all in for the music, and we all have our beliefs. I know that Aaron is a Mennonite, and the rest of us vary in denomination. We all have this love for God and like singing music about Him.

Are you going to perform on campus at some point?
We would like to perform on campus at some point, but there would be more paperwork. We want to control where we go. So far, we have a church in Bellefontaine that wants us to perform at their church, but we don’t know when that performance will be yet.

Will you have uniforms?
We’ve actually talked about uniforms. We want to look professional, but still have fun. We all thought it would be hilarious if we wore t-shirt tuxes! We really don’t have an official wardrobe, though.

Will you be recruiting soon, since you have a senior in the group?
Not really. We don’t have to have current students. Mychal wants to continue performing with us after he graduates. That’s one reason why we didn’t want to associate with the university and only be a university group. Our members can be from outside of Bluffton.

When does the group practice?
We usually meet for about an hour or more. I think our practice tomorrow (Friday) will be about an hour.

Are you performing anywhere soon?
We don’t have any upcoming performances. We’ve only met once so far this semester.

Do you have a goal of when you want your first performance to be?
We want our first performance to be before the end of the semester. We hope to have one soon.

Click here for the group's facebook page

Click here for Gaither Vocal Band live performance