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he Fox Family has been singing and playing their music for over 30 years. They have ministered in every state, on stages in every major church denomination as well as fairs, schools, prisons, resorts, auditoriums, and television. The Fox Family has recorded 11 albums, ranging from traditional Southern Gospel, to middle of the road contemporary and country flavors. Their music style is clearly unlike any other currently in the Gospel market place, but if you listen closely, you might be able to pick up early influences like, The Downings, Andrea Crouch, The Goodmans, The Gaithers and The Rambo's, among others.
With Paul and Patti retired from the road, the members of the group now include siblings Debra, John, Jared, Jacob and Joy Fox, who have been nicknamed by their peers, The Fox Five. Each member of the current group lineup plays an instrument and sings. The Fox Five do not use any sound tracks or voice backing tracks (pads as they are called in the industry) of any sort. What you hear from the group is exactly what they are performing live. Debra is on electric bass, John is at the keys, Jared is on drums, Jacob is at percussion, and Joy is on the acoustic guitar. It is a full band built right in to the group. What's a band without singers, just a band, but this band has plenty of those as well. Debra sings soprano, John sings lead, Jared sings baritone, Jacob sings tenor and Joy sings alto.
The Fox Five won't bombard you with all of those parts all of the time, as the group tends to take a less is more approach with their arrangements. Instead of a choral like sound that you sometimes get with a multi-member family group, The Fox Five keep it simple and divvy out songs with three part harmony and backups. You may hear Debra, John and Joy group up for a song, and Jared, John and Jacob on the next. They mix and match well with each other, and each core has a unique sound of their own, which gives The Fox Five a different bag of tricks, so to speak, to pull from.
Their love for God is infectious. Their humility is humbling. Their singing and playing is an experience you will not soon forget.
The Fox Family has gone through a lot of trials over the years. John was born with a hole in his heart about the size of a quarter. He had open heart surgery as a young child, having his eighth birthday in the hospital, 5 days before his surgery. Trisha, though now married and no longer
traveling with the group, developed diabetes at the age of two when a virus attacked her pancreas. She has battled diabetes ever since and has had several close calls with death, one of which put her in a coma for a short time. Patti, the matriarch of the family, has carried the burdens of having to go through these trials with her children as well as having to deal with the pain of loosing children when she miscarried twins early in their ministry. She has also been through The Valley of the Shadow Of Death herself, having two serious battles with cancer in recent years. Doctors gave her no chance of survival with her first battle, considered her a terminal patient, but that was 21 years ago. Her second battle with cancer was more recent. Her previous cancer had not returned, but instead she had two new types of cancer at the same time. God's been good and at her last check up, all was clear! Patti nursed her mother as she lost her battle with cancer and did the same with her father, who recently went through treatments for cancer at age 90. He had stage IV cancer, but God has brought him through. Among many other trials, through it all, God has been merciful to The Fox Family, and you can tell that their desire is to bring glory to Him.
Most of the music that The Fox Five perform is written in house. The writers of the group are Debra, John and Joy. The songs are Biblically rich and personally practicable. The melodies suit each song with a personality of their own. The spirit in which they are arranged and performed deliver them directly to your heart.
In writing this informative piece on the Fox Family, I asked the members of the Fox Five to each give two short sentences which would represent what they have experienced for the past thirty years in music ministry, [traveling hundreds of thousands of miles, living full time on the road in conversion buses for at least two of those three decades] and here is what they had to say:
Had a blast singing and playing - Traveled this beautiful country over and over - I've seen a lot of faces - and I've been a lot of places - Fought a lot of battles - Won some - Lost some - Cried with the broken - Rejoiced with the healed - Grace has brought us safe thus far.
And that pretty much sums it up. If you have the privilege of hosting The Fox Five for a concert or being around them like I have, I would highly recommend it. Their love for God is infectious. Their humility is humbling. Their singing and playing is an experience you will not soon forget. Most importantly, their ministry is a calling, and the proof is in its effectiveness to bring glory to God.