DAN WOODING, of ASSIST News Service, catches up with Christian singer Evie…
Christian Music fans in the late 1970s and early 1980s, will always remember the music of Evie, with songs like Mirror, Step into the Sunshine, Four Foot Eleven and, of course, her popular hit, Come On Ring Those Bells.
Now going under her married name of Evelyn Tornquist Karlsson, this pint-size bundle of joy was born on 29th March, 1956, in the United States of Norwegian immigrants and began her singing career as a young teenager while visiting her parents’ homeland.
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Pelle and Evie Karlsson. PICTURE: Courtesy of ASSIST News Service “More than anything else, I want to be remembered as someone who has loved Jesus with all of my heart. That’s really what my life is all about – just doing today what God has called me to do.” |
She released her English language debut album at 16 in 1972, and went on to put out more than 30 albums, including several in various Scandinavian languages.
Evie, who was the Dove Award recipient of female vocalist of the Year for 1977 and 1978, married Swedish pastor and musician Pelle Karlsson in 1979 and in 1981, for a time, partially retired from regularly performing music to pursue other avenues of ministry. But is now singing again at special events.
I caught up with Evie, who was officially inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2005 and who, along with her husband, was one of the inaugural inductees to the Christian Music Hall of Fame, at the recent NRB Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, and asked her how her career began.
“I don’t really see it as a career, but rather a ministry – a calling – that started when I was just a little girl and started singing with my mom,” she said. “At that time, we were living in in New Jersey – my parents had come over from Norway, and it was just that I had a song in my heart and the doors opened. The rest is wonderful to look back on. I’m soon to be 60-years-old and I’ve been singing for Jesus for almost all my life.”
She went onto say: “I am still doing concerts, but not as many as in those early days. I’m now a grandma to three beautiful children and I like to hang out with them as much as I can.”
Asked about what songs people most enjoy, she said: “I would say that many want to hear the old songs like All to Jesus, Mirror or Special Delivery, as well as Pelle’s songs Touch Your People Once Again and Let There Be Fellowship, and, of course, Come On Ring Those Bells, written by Andrew Culverwell from the UK, which is still a big favorite.
“In fact, I sang Come On Ring Those Bells a couple of months ago for a dear friend’s funeral,” Evie continued. “She was a darling lady that loved Jesus and this was the family’s theme song and her husband asked me to sing it at the funeral. Of course I said that I would and told the people there, that he had asked me to sing it.”
Evie said she didn’t realise she was helping to make musical history during the early days of the Jesus People Movement. “(B)ut each day I have to say it was it was just like ‘Strap on the seatbelt, guys’here we go; we’re going all out for Jesus no matter what and let’s see what He does today’. What a privilege to do that and really still today I am doing the same thing in different ways.
“More than anything else, I want to be remembered as someone who has loved Jesus with all of my heart. That’s really what my life is all about — just doing today what God has called me to do.”
Pelle said he first met his wife when she travelled to Scandanavia for the first time. “I was a youth pastor in Stockholm, and also did conferences and meetings,” he said. ‘The Lord made clear that He wanted us to be together and we have enjoyed many years of wonderful fellowship and now we’re here today and we feel it’s just the start. We’re on a great run with the Lord and each other.”
Asked how people could pray for them, Evie said: “Please pray that we would be found faithful to the last breath we have on this side of Heaven. That’s the biggest prayer request I have.”
Pelle added: “I have to echo my wife on that. The foremost thing with our life here on earth is to follow and serve Christ. If we do that, and we are successful in that – I mean, nobody’s perfect – but as the Lord gives grace, then we have succeeded with our lives and that’s our goal.”
