A seven-member “quartet,” the Inspirations were led by Martin Cook until his retirement in 2017. Cook was inducted into the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2003, and was awarded the Marvin Norcross Award in 2002—the two highest honors in the Southern gospel industry. Tenor Archie Watkins is the other singer who was one of the original Inspirations. Newer members include Roland Kesterson (lead), Luke Vaught, and Wyatt Austin (bass vocals and bass guitar).

The Inspirations describe themselves as “an enthusiastic, sincere, clean-cut group of fundamental conservative Christian gentlemen with a desire and an objective to witness to a needful and sinful world through the medium of Gospel Music.” They have sold more than one million copies of their sixty albums. Their sound is now known in the world of Christian music as the Smoky Mountain style of Southern gospel quartet singing.

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