Anthony Burger: 1961-2006

My dad is the world's biggest fan of southern gospel music. As a kid, I went to hundreds of quartet conventions, concerts and hymn-sings with my parents. There was one particular quartet with a pretty big national reputation in the world of gospel music that seemed to perform in the Kentuckiana region a lot, the Kingsmen Quartet. They had a young piano player named Anthony Burger.

Now, a lot of people consider southern gospel to be a musical cousin to country music. In a sense, this is true, but there are several key differences. Among them is the fact that southern gospel is a piano-based music form, rather than guitar-based, so southern gospel music holds some of the best piano players in the world. Anthony won southern gospel's most prestigious fan award for instrumentalist of the year ten years in a row, and would have kept on winning if the organizers didn't declare him ineligible and rename the award the "Anthony Burger Award."

Anthony went on to be a solo pianist, thrilling audiences across the country with virtuoso skills. He played everything from gospel standards to classical pieces with flair and class. Later he became the pianist for the Gaither Vocal Band, and a featured performer of the Gaither Homecoming concerts. This is all the more remarkable when one considers that he suffered massive third degree burns at the age of 18 months. His parents were told that he would never have full use of his hands.
"...gradually, the Lord healed my hands because He had a job for me to do. I thank God every day that the doctors were wrong..." Anthony said.

This past Wednesday, Anthony Burger collapsed onstage while performing a solo number at a Gaither Homecoming show. He was taken backstage but efforts to revive him proved unsuccessful, and he was declared dead at the scene, with the probable cause being a massive heart attack. Anthony Burger was 44. He is survived by a wife, two sons, a daughter, a mother and father, two brothers, many friends,loved ones, and proteges, and countless fans.

Lay down your weary tune, lay down.
Lay down the song you strum
And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings
No voice could hope to hum.
-- Bob Dylan