Karen Wheaton

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Karen Harris Wheaton Towe is a Pentecostal minister and gospel singer. Born "Karen Harris", she grew up in a Pentecostal family in Hamilton, Alabama where she was active in church music from an early age. Several of her early gospel albums identify her as either "Karen Harris" or "Karen Harris Wheaton" (from her first marriage).

Wheaton, though involved in ministry in a variety of ways including her youth group, Chosen, is probably most noted outside of the Pentecostal Church for efforts to record and promote a vanishing form of gospel music, namely the Mississippi Delta sound that is fused with blues, Black gospel, and white bluegrass gospel influences. She is also known for including the type of dramatic, gospel songs of the genre made popular by Sandy Rios, Kathy Sullivan, the Rev. Sharon Daughtery, and others prior to the advent of contemporary Christian music in the late 1970s.

Wheaton's album Remembering (1993) is an effort to bring together negelected Pentecostal songs such as I'm Feelin' Mighty Fine with new songs in the same spirit. Her 1998 album, My Alabaster Box also features a number of old standards alongside dramatic new songs such as the title cut. Wheaton has never written music of her own though she often arranges the vocals of her songs and is very involved in the engineering and production of her recordings. Wheaton's voice is a strong, dramatic alto.

Wheaton currently lives in Hamilton, Alabama with her daughters and aside from touring and recording her music, runs The Ramp and its associated youth outreach programs.

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