Dawkins & Dawkins

Eric and Anson Dawkins were born in Davenport, Iowa. As young children they moved to Tennessee when their father, a Pentecostal minister who started his first church. In the mid-1980s when they were teenagers, the family moved to Ohio, where their musical careers took off.

Raised the sons of an Ohio pastor, Eric and Anson sang in their first group– a trio led by their mother– when they were five and six years old. Early influences included Andrae Crouch, Rance Allen, The Winans and, later, Commissioned. A relationship they developed later with Fred Hammond led to their first recording contract with Benson Records.

Dawkins and Dawkins began calling the music they make “rhythm and praise” in 1995 and the term has caught on with the gospel music industry. “We coined it to categorize what we do,” Anson explained. “Gospel rhythm and blues is an oxymoron. To say that you have good news and then you’re going to sing the blues about it makes no sense. So we wanted to have rhythm and praise. It fits our music and it fits a lot of things that folks like Jimmy (Moss), Kirk (Franklin), Trin-i-tee 5:7 and other groups with a hip hop, R&B, urban flavor are doing.” Main Source: GospelFlava.com

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