vanessa.fultz@gaflnews.com
While other young men spend their afternoons playing sports or video games, Jeremiah Ross spends his at his father's church honing his musical talent. Ross practices roughly three hours a day, seven days a week. And his hard work has paid off. At 14, he is recording his first solo album.
Ross was just 7 years old when he began performing musically at church with his family -- his mother, father, three brothers and two sisters.
Ross, a 9th grader at Suwannee High, taught himself to play the drums at age 5. By age 7 he had taught himself to play the piano, and by 12 he had mastered the guitar. The same year he started producing songs for his upcoming album.
"It was just a gift," Ross said, noting he plays all instruments by ear.
Ross' contemporary and traditional Gospel album "Keeping It Real" is expected to be released in September. All songs are original -- written by Ross himself -- except one that was written by his dad, Alfonso. His sister Sheconiah accompanies him on a few songs.
Ross said he doesn't aspire to be a recording artist for fame and fortune's sake. He feels it's a ministry.
"Some people, they walk in before they listen to the music, they might walk in down and when you see them leave, they leave in a whole different way or manner. They leave happier. This music can make you happier and keep you at rest," Ross said.
"I think one of our main objectives is to help encourage young people to see they don't have to be so negative about things in life and if they look forward and work hard they can do anything they want to do," Alfonso Ross said.
Alfonso hopes that his son's music will appeal to his peers.
"I'm hoping that (other youth) will see him being such a young age and say, 'If he can do that, guess what, I can do it too,'" Alfonso said.
Ross' dad inspires many of his lyrics, whether it be from a talk his father gave him and his siblings on the way to school or from one of his father's sermons at Spirit and Truth Ministries in Live Oak.
Ross said his favorite song is "It's Over."
"What inspired it is people always giving other people a hard time," Ross said. "But you don't have to worry about anything else, if you just depend on God everything will be alright. Just focus on God."
AVi Productions, a local production company, is recording a video for one of Ross' songs.
William Johnson, post-production supervisor for AVi, said he was impressed with Ross' talent.
"What caught my attention was that he had already produced a CD by the age of 14 and so many of (the songs) were marketable already," Johnson said. "It's always nice to see good quality talent come out of Suwannee County."
"My ears are real good when it comes to music. He is the cream of the crop," said Alfonso, beaming.
Johnson said the video would be filmed at various locations in Suwannee County.
Ross said he wants to try out for America Idol when he gets old enough. He hopes to sign a recording contract one day.
"I know I can really do something with my talent," Ross said. "I don't think it, I'm very positive about it."
Ross' CD was recorded and mixed at Starlight Sound & Recording in Lake City, with the exception of one song that was recorded locally at K&T; Music with recording engineer Ken Michal. Skylabs in Gainesville is doing the post mastering. Photography and CD design was created by Colonial Photography in Live Oak.
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