The Speers, often called “America’s First Family of Gospel Music,” will present a concert at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 15, at Glad Tidings Church, 1033 Broadway, Bangor.

The Speer Family — Brock and Faye Speer, Ben Speer, Jane Greene and Bill Itzel — have celebrated almost 60 years as professional gospel singers.

The group, whose singing encompasses old traditional to middle-of-the-road music, was formed in 1921 by G.T. Speer and his wife, Lena Brock Speer, with Speer’s sister and her husband, Pearl and Logan Claborn. When the Speer children became old enough to sing professionally, they were added to the group.

The family has recorded for Columbia and RCA, and now makes albums for Homeland Records. They have recorded more than 70 albums, and the title song from their current offering, “Saved to the Uttermost,” has climbed into the Top Ten on the national charts.

The Speers travel some 100,000 miles annually in the United States and Canada. They are based in Tennessee.

G.T. Speer was a Georgia farmboy turned music teacher. When he formed the first quartet in 1921, popular singing groups were usually all male. He decided to include women in the group, and to sing only gospel music. Over the years, various family members have performed, including Brock’s children and Ben’s children.

Eight times, the Speers have received the Dove Award for Best Mixed Group of the Year. They also have earned two Dove Awards for Best Album, and four for Best Female Vocalist.

They have received Grammy nominations from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for four albums: “Interceding,” “Cornerstone,” “Between the Cross and Heaven,” and “Something Good Is About to Happen.”

The group has appeared on numerous television programs, including “PTL,” “The 700 Club,” “Gospel Singing Jubilee,” and “Sing Out, America.”

The Speers have sung for small audiences at the White House, for 200,000 young people at the Expo in Dallas, and in school auditoriums and churches across the United States and Canada.

G.T., Lena and Brock Speer all have been inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. The observation of the Speer Family’s 60th anniversary was entered in the Congressional Record. The family continues to follow the philosophy of G.T. Speer: “Always sing what you feel, and feel what you sing.”

All are welcome. A freewill offering will be received. Information on a special reception for the Speers may be obtained by calling the church at 947-0324.