Victoria Bowlin: Who is New Ground?
Robbie Maxwell: We are a trio based out of Scottsboro, Alabama. Current members are Dale & Robbie Maxwell and David Owens.
VB: How did New Ground get started?
RM: Just a couple of friends that had sang together in other groups and at our church, decided to “get together” to see what it sounded like and if the harmonies would come together – and as they say – the rest is history.
VB: Are you working on anything new right now? What’s coming up?
RM: We are in final mix now on a live project that we did at mine and Dale’s home church – Rainsville Holiness. The name of the project is “The Way It Was”. It will feature songs from our childhood and a lot of old standards. We are looking for a release date of the completed project sometime mid-summer. We also have already started cutting the music on a new project to follow up really soon.
VB: What is one of your favorite songs to sing? What seems to be the crowd favorite?
RM: There are so many “favorites” it’s hard to just pin down one. We love to sing “That Heavenly Home”, “Heal Me”, “Let’s Carry On”, and “The Spelling Song”. But our crowd favorite always seems to be the old standard – “I’ve Never Been This Homesick Before”.
VB: How often do you travel?
RM: We actually travel 50 of 52 weeks a year. This is a full time ministry for us.
VB: What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever experienced while on the road?
RM: We were at a church one day, and I’ll never forget. I was singing a song entitled “He’ll Hold My Hand”, and a lady screamed. Granted, I’m Holiness, so I really didn’t think that much about it. Then, about that time, another lady jumped up, started hitting her, and they actually was fighting while we were singing. We never let up – we just kept singing. The pastor and his wife came over, separated them, and took them outside. Nothing ever changed. We kept on with our program. Seemed the ladies were having some difficulties before the service ever started, then decided to just have them a time during the service.
VB: What are some of your biggest goals you’d like to accomplish?
RM: We will be celebrating 27 years of singing on June 19th. That is something that I would have never dreamed would have happened. We do not see any stopping point at this time – unless Covid continues for quite a while longer. When Dale and I started the group in 1993, we would have never even imagined that in 2020 we would still be singing like we are. David Owens – our lead singer – has been with us for 23 of the 27 years. We just want to continue to keep God first and let Him lead us to where He needs us to go. Every time we sing is an accomplishment that we had prayed for – just to carry His Word in song one more time.
VB: What’s the greatest thing you’ve ever seen God do during one of your concerts?
RM: We have seen the Power of the Lord fall on His children many times – but the greatest is when we have seen people healed!!!! He is still in the healing business, and we are glad to be with those people when He sends His blessing on them.
VB: What is your ultimate purpose as a ministry?
RM: Our ultimate purpose from day one was to take our ministry in song to a lost world – and also, give hope to the fellow Christians that are hurting – continue to give hope in a Risen Savior!!!
VB: How can people keep up with you and see your schedule?
RM: You can visit us on our website at www.newgroundministries.com or Facebook at New Ground. Our email address is robbie@newgroundministries.com, and our phone number is (256) 218-1983.
