Gerald Sweatman

The Singer

Gerald Sweatman has been singing Southern Gospel music in some form or fashion ever since he was a child. The son
of a Baptist minister, Gerald first sang in churches and revivals throughout North Georgia. For the past 37 years Gerald
has been blessed with many achievements in gospel music. However, his greatest blessing came when he was 8 years
old in an old fashion tent revival when he accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. As he would later write, "I went
down a beggar, but I came up a millionaire."

The 1970's

By 1970, Gerald had his first group. The Gerald Sweatman Trio included Gerald, his wife Deborah and sister Gail. This
trio continued to sing together through 1971. Unfortunately, there were no recordings made of this group.
In 1972 Gerald joined his sister Jean, her husband Dave Holbrook and first cousin, Helen Covington forming the Dave
Holbrook Quartet. This group recorded three albums.
The Dave Holbrook Quartet disband around 1976 then reformed again in 1978 with Gerald, his wife Deborah, sister Jean
and brother-in-law Dave Holbrook. They recorded two albums with this line-up. This group continued singing until 1983.

The 1980's

The year 1983 come and so did the birth of Gerald and Deborah's youngest son, Dustin. It was also about this time that
Dave Holbrook was called to pastor a church. Another group from the area also had two preachers for members that
were also called to pastor churches in 1983. This group was called "The Liberty Quartet". Jacky Fortner (tenor), Joey
Pirkle (piano) and Jerry Baker (bass guitar) were left with the name a some PA equipment. They had already recruited a
young lead singer, Ronnie Grizzle and were in need of a baritone. Gerald got the call and the group had their first
practice. Soon they added Darrell Bagwell singing bass and Gerald's oldest son, Tim on drums. Though the group
underwent some personnel changes; Gerald, Jacky, Ronnie, Jerry and Tim formed the core of Liberty for 12 years. This
group would go on to record several songs that would reach the top 40 Singing News Magazine charts. They would be
nominated in the top five, twice for the Horizon Group of the Year Singing New Fan Award and win the Southern Gospel
Music Association Diamond Award for Favorite Newcomer Group. Liberty would appear on just about every major
Southern Gospel Concert stage in the country including the National Quartet Convention, Inspiration Park and the All
Night Sing at Bonifay, Florida.
With Liberty, Gerald would record 12 albums, including three live recordings and share the stage with groups such as the
Cathedral Quartet, the Kingsmen, Gold City, The Inspirations and the Hinsons just to name a few. It was also with Liberty
that Gerald formed a recording relationship with producer Eddie Crook that would on and off for some 20 years.
Gerald would continue singing with Liberty until 1995. It was around this time that Gerald's youngest son, Dustin began
to take an interest in Southern Gospel music. Also about this time, Gerald's oldest son , Tim took interest in the guitar.

The 1990's

Gerald's last performance with Liberty was New year's Eve 1995. Gerald took most of the next year off from performing
and focusing on writing and recording his first ever solo project. Gerald had planned to start singing solo at this point
using recorded tracks to sing with. Gerald was getting ready to do his first solo date using tracks when he came in one
day and Tim, Dustin and their cousin Brad had learn all of the music from his new solo album. Dustin ask, "why can't we
play for you?" Soon Deborah joined in singing and the "Sweatman Family" was born. The Sweatman Family added
longtime family friend Johnny Cochran on drums to round out the band. Dustin eventually took over lead vocals for the
group where he began to hone his skills for bigger things to come. The Sweatman Family traveled from 1995 until 2001,
recorded 3 albums and garnered a top 80 Singing News Chart song with "He Can Do the Impossible" written by Dustin.
Gerald always notes that singing with his entire family on stage together was one of his greatest honors.

The New Millennium and Looking Forward

After the Sweatman Family disband, Gerald again set forth to do solo work. Again, God had other plans. In late 2001Gerald began singing solo and was scheduled to sing for a television program in South Carolina. Also scheduled on the program was another soloist Stanley Pierce who Gerald had met during the Sweatman Family days. They decided to carpool to the date in South Carolina. Dustin had joined them for the trip and the three began to sing songs to pass thetime. All three had agreed that they had stumbled on something good and formed EasternBound shortly after.  EasternBound recorded two albums with Gerald on baritone vocal, Dustin singing lead and Stanley picking up the tenor.  They continued on until 2003 when Dustin got the opportunity to join the Dixie Melody Boys. Upon Dustin's exit, Stanley moved to lead vocal and the tenor spot was filled by Wes Palmer.  EasternBound continued for to travel and sing for another three years performing their last concert together on December 3, 2006.  Today, Gerald is focusing on a solo ministry. He believes that God will bless this journey as he has already blessed him for the past 37 yrs.  Gerald's recitation of "A Talk with the Master" was released nation wide and has received much airplay on radio station around the country and on Sirius/XM satellite radio.