“Buffalo gets a bad rap for the weather, but honestly, I love the snow,” New York native Charity Gayle confesses as she settles into a straight back chair. Our knees are nearly touching as we take our seats in the tiny vocal booth situated in a corner of the control room of a small studio hidden on a side street in Nashville’s Melrose neighborhood. Gayle is about to record exclusive video footage for Air1 in the intimate studio space next door, where her band is already soundchecking.
Huddled in the soundproof booth, we can’t hear even the slightest drumbeat. “I grew up 15 minutes from Niagara Falls, so I’m practically Canadian,” she adds, straightening her long crimson skirt and crossing her legs. “I love the people in Houston, but it is hot.”
Gayle and her husband, Ryan Kennedy — a singer, songwriter and worship leader in his own right — moved to his home state of Texas right after they were married. Over the past six years, the GMA New Artist of the Year nominee has learned to tolerate the suffocating heat, but in the moment, she takes me back to winters in New York.
“I fell in love with the Lord and His presence at a very young age. I started singing in church when I was three, and when I was 14, I fell in love with songwriting. I also started leading for our student ministries at 14. I painfully learned how to play the keyboard in youth services,” Gayle remembers with a grimace. “I think my church definitely had a lot of grace for me as a growing worship leader.”
Both her father and grandfather were pastors. She was the niece of a missionary. Her mom directed the church choir, and her grandmother played the organ. Music and ministry were woven into her DNA.
“There are lots of Italian aunties in my church who I love and miss,” Gayle reflects, sipping a mug of steaming hot water and honey. “It was just such a sweet family environment, and that really molded who I am today. And then, Thursday night choir practices shaped who I am as a musician. I love Gospel music, and I love choir music; and I think that had an impact on the way I write and the style of music I naturally gravitate toward.”
Even though her formative years were steeped in church and choral music, Gayle never saw it as a career path. After college, she began teaching high school English, content to use her musical gifts to lead worship at her dad’s church on the weekends.
Following a season of hard endings that included the conclusion of her teaching contract and the demise of some close friendships, Gayle packed up her belongings and left her beloved Buffalo for Nashville. It was there that she really began to hone her songwriting chops thanks to the community she discovered via People & Songs, a collective of like-minded independent artists founded by “Revelation Song” writer Jennie Lee Riddle. It was also through People & Songs that Gayle met her now husband.
As newlyweds, the couple lived in an 800-square-foot apartment in Houston. Gayle was sweeping the floor of their tiny kitchen — a worship playlist on in the background — when she heard Here Be Lions and Darlene Zschech sing “I Speak Jesus” for the first time. The powerful ballad stopped her in her tracks. “The spirit of God just filled our kitchen,” she recalls.
At the time, she was working on her album, “Endless Praise,” and remembers telling her husband, “This is the foundation for the record. It is the exact message the world needs to hear right now.”
Gayle initially dropped her stunning rendering of “I Speak Jesus” as a single before eventually releasing a highly regarded live version of it with Steven Musso for 2021’s “Endless Praise.”
Seemingly over night, churches around the world were singing “I Speak Jesus.” Though many incorrectly assume Gayle wrote it, she was simply the voice fortunate enough to steward the timely anthem around the globe. “Every line of that song has a face or a situation attached to it. This is a song for everybody to sing,” Gayle says. “And the response to it… Even yesterday, someone told me, ‘I sing this over my daughter every single night before I lay her down to bed.’ Or we’ve heard people say during the pandemic, they turned it up in their cars because they couldn’t go into the hospitals at the time, but they were singing it in parking lots over their friends in the hospital."
“When I hear stories like that, I’m like, ‘Lord, it doesn’t matter who wrote this song.’ I’m thankful it was written, but it doesn’t matter that my name’s not on it,” she continues. “What matters is the message behind it and how powerfully the Lord is using it.”
As Gayle’s version of “I Speak Jesus” made its way to new ears, it peaked the interest of listeners, who were suddenly curious about the unassuming redheaded worship leader, whose colorful bohemian style has become something of a unique trademark. Today, Gayle’s look is casual. A simple striped shirt and denim jacket accompany her free-flowing skirt. Her makeup is minimal, and her beautiful auburn hair is loose around her shoulders instead of tied in her signature braid.
She yawns, confessing she hardly slept last night; up instead, with her newborn — her second child in 15 months. Both are boys. Both are natural redheads.
Gayle gushes over being a new mom to her adorable sons before detailing the frightening birth experience of her oldest, Remi. Complications led to a premature delivery, after which Remi spent 21 days in the NICU. A C-section was required, which rendered Gayle unable to sing for the next six months.
Six months nearly to the day, postpartum, she recorded her third album, “Rejoice.” Captured at The Mulehouse — a church-turned-event-space in Columbia, Tenn. — “Rejoice” proved a relevant followup to “Endless Praise,” namely because the songs were written while navigating challenging circumstances, including their baby’s early arrival and a cancer scare for Gayle. It seemed God gave her just enough breath and energy for the recording since, two weeks later, she found out she was pregnant with her second son, Ryder.
“As we were writing the songs for the record, we realized the Bible had the answers to the issues we were facing,” Gayle shares. One of those songs was penultimate offering “Report of the Lord,” a Scripturally based phrase Ryan regularly repeated to Gayle in the midst of a season of uncertainty surrounding the singer’s health.
“Every time we walked into the hospital for another test, Ryan would take me by the hand, look me in the eyes and say, ‘Char, we’re going to believe the report of the Lord,’” Gayle recalls. “So, after we found out I was completely healed of cancer, we sat down at a writer’s retreat and wrote what we thought people needed to sing. We do believe the report of the Lord because the report of the Lord says even though you’re facing what might look big, we have a God who’s bigger and who can hold us and walk us through that valley.”
It’s a thread that runs throughout “Rejoice,” a 14-track set about praising God and embracing His deep-seated joy, especially in the midst of trial. “Song after song reminds me our strength comes from God no matter what I’m facing,” Gayle says. “That’s really where the crux of the whole album came from.”
In turn, Gayle hopes “Rejoice” holds divine significance for others, who might be walking a challenging road. “Instead of looking at it as, how successful can it be in a finite way, I think a healthier question to ask is: How successful can it be in a spiritual way?” Gayle offers when reflecting on crafting the successor to her “I Speak Jesus” era. “I’m more focused on what this record is doing to help somebody hear the Gospel for the first time, what it’s doing to heal a relationship or a marriage that needs healing or how it’s blessing people. And I think, moving forward, the focus should always be, not is this going to level up, but is it going to heal somebody or bless somebody? Is it going to glorify the Lord? It’s all about perspective.”
Perhaps it’s this refreshing point of view that has swiftly made Gayle a fan favorite. She’s humble, relatable and approachable. She’s the antithesis of a star or a diva; and fans will have the opportunity to witness the rising worship leader’s down-to-earth persona on Gayle’s “Rejoice Tour,” with dates stretching across 2025. These intimate evenings will feature standouts from “Rejoice,” including “You Keep Your Promises” and “I Believe,” alongside staples from “Endless Praise,” like “Thank You Jesus For the Blood” and, of course, “I Speak Jesus,” among others.
“We love to hear the Church singing these songs,” Gayle asserts. “When we go out and do these nights of worship for the ‘Rejoice Tour,’ it’s new songs, but they all have meaning to me personally. So I know I can use that as a foundation to, hopefully, bless somebody else.”
No matter where the “Rejoice Tour” takes the mother of two this year, the foundation of music, faith and community forged in her native Buffalo is never far from her thoughts. Her family’s legacy is ingrained in her bones — an inheritance of tradition that’s even found its way onto the Christmas record she’s crafting, despite the rising Texas temps. Fans can anticipate that future release; and, in the meantime, Gayle will continue relishing the snow that blankets some of her fondest memories…if only in her dreams.
