Bishop Dready Manning -Country Blues Preacher

You may have been going to church all your life, but chances are you have never attended a church with as much spirit as Bishop Dready Manning's St. Mark Holiness Church outside Roanoke Rapids. Bishop Manning, a traditional guitarist, harmonica player, and gospel singer, has infused his church with music, and the spirited singing, often of tunes written by him, is a joy to behold.


"The Lord gave me this way of playing," he explains in his velvety voice," and He told me to use it in his service. So that's just what I'm doing." But Bishop Manning didn't always use his extraordinary musical talent to serve the Lord. In his early days, he was a blues musician playing in clubs and piccolo joints and selling moonshine and he was "out of hand," according to his wife Marie, who is an integral part of his church.

A big change came when he suffered a mysterious hemorrhage in 1962 and was saved both physically and spiritually when some neighbors came to pray over him. "I had a converted mind right then," he says.

His family is a big part of his musical life - he and Marie and their five children toured for years and produced numerous 45s, albums, tapes and CDs. They still sing together in church every Sunday. His church services are rebroadcast on both radio and cable TV and he has a recording studio as well.

Timothy Duffy sums it up when he says, "Besides his tremendous musicianship of guitar and harmonica, Dready is a powerful singer and songwriter. His recorded work has been given rave reviews throughout the world and earned the state of North Carolina great praise for being a home to such a wonderful musician." Check him out at Bishop Dready Manning