By MOrgan Mizell

NATCHEZ — Touring with the Alabama Gospel Choir was an uplifting and transforming experience for two local singers.

Tema Larry and Denzanique Credit spent roughly a month touring with the music group during the holidays, performing in several cities in Portugal and Spain.

This was not Larry’s first tour, but it was a memorable one.

“I have been doing this tour, on and off, since 2005,” Larry said. “When I first started the tour it was a gospel group and a concert choir traveling and they ended up switching it all to the choir because that is what the people wanted to hear.”

One of Larry’s former students, Credit said the reaction of the crowd was incredible.

“My favorite part was being able to perform in different environments of people,” Credit said. “Performing on stage was awesomely unexplainable.”

The excitement and professionalism of those performers and the response from the crowd, Credit said,  pushed her to continue striving for a singing career.

Larry said she enjoys the trips with the Alabama Gospel Choir because they do not take the same trip every year.

“Every year, new cities get added to the list and so do new songs,” Larry said. “Last year, we did a 10-city tour and this year we almost doubled it as we toured 19 cities.”

Larry also said many nights, the audiences, who do not speak English, expressed their gratitude for their performances and told them that while they could not understand what they were saying; their performance was so moving they were brought to tears.

“The experience is awesome because you meet and see people from different parts of the world,” Larry said. “When it comes to talking to each other, there is a language barrier, but when it comes to the music it is the universal language.”

Credit said the experience was phenomenal.

“I had a chance to meet and perform with an awesome group of people and we formed an unbreakable bond,” she said.

Both ladies have musical backgrounds. Larry is a music major graduate of Alcorn State University and a former choir teacher for the Natchez-Adams School District. She also serves as the praise and worship leader at her church, Word of Faith AWC, in Natchez.

Credit has a strong family background of musical talents and she has been a student of Larry for years. She attends The Lighthouse of Love and Holiness Church in Natchez.

Larry said she is a performer at heart. Aside from her duties at her church, she is a member of two other singing groups including gospel group, No Greater Love, under the direction of Travanti Hill and R & B group, N-Rhythm, directed by Kejuan Hawkins.