Right on Time Marks 15 Years of Music Ministry

November 5, 2018
By: Bill Conger

This year marks the 15th year that the gospel group, Right on Time, founded in DeKalb County, has traveled the highways and byways taking its music ministry to churches.

“We have enjoyed doing this and seeing and worshipping with all our brothers and sisters in Christ and seeing all different forms of worship,” said group leader Sean Driver prior to one of the group’s singings at Salem Baptist Church in Liberty.

The group started in August of 2003 with Sean, his brother Brad Driver, and a reluctant Danny Hale.

“To tell you the truth, I wasn’t interested at the time,” says Hale. “We got together being boys and had a good time. My son was down at Brad’s shop getting a tire fixed. He had a guitar behind his seat, and Brad was learning guitar at the time. He said, ‘Do y’all play guitar? A little bit.’

“I didn’t have anything envisioned when we started,” says Brad Driver. “We started playing around. Somehow we got invited to a revival. He had heard us together or something and told us to come out there and play one night. We did, and from that moment, it took off.”

“It was just a snowball effect,” adds Hale.

At first they didn’t even know what to call the group.

“Somebody said The Hale Drivers,” remembers Sean. “We can’t use that name,” he replied, laughing.
Eventually, they settled on the name, “Right on Time,” the title of a song that the Southern Gospel group, The McKameys, had recorded.

The all-male Southern gospel and bluegrass group has lived up to the name for the most part, but there have been a couple of times when things went awry.

“We did miss one singing one night,” Sean says. “It was raining so bad. We took a wrong turn, and the bad thing about it was we had already been there twice up in East Tennessee. We missed that singing period. When we were on our way to Kentucky one night, we broke down and called the pastor. We were about 30 minutes late on that one.”

The quintet’s bass player Danny Cowan has been with the band fulltime for about four years.

“They tried to get me to play with them a long time ago, and I guess I just wasn’t ready. Then, after I got started, I wished I had started a long time ago. I get a blessing out of every time we go to a singing. I feel like I get fed [spiritually] a lot that I don’t get at my own church.”

Brad’s son, Brady Driver, recently joined the band as vocalist and banjo player.

“That is probably the biggest blessing I’ve had since we’ve been together,” says his dad. “He’s so talented. It has been a long time trying to get him to use his talent. Finally, we got him in, and he’s doing a great job. I’m proud of him.”

“Once you go you feel God, you feel the spirit, you’re hooked,” says Brady. “It is awesome. It’s something you can’t get out of your head. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and we get it all the time.”

Brady’s Uncle Sean and dad Brad have a solid relationship that works well when they travel and sing together.

“It’s just typical brother/brother,” says Brad. “I do what he says,” the younger brother adds, laughing. “What he says, I do, and we get along just fine.”

“We call him Diana Ross, and we’re the Supremes. He’s the biggest part of the group because without him, it’s a bunch of instruments playing. He really takes a hold of the spirit and he does what God tells him to do and uses it.”

“Sean enjoys the spirit of just singing,” Driver tells WJLE. “It’s an honor and privilege just to stand and do what your little job is for God, and of course, He’s done big things for us. It’s important for us to make sure that we understand that calling. With me, I thank the Lord for where he’s placed me at. When I start thinking about that and singing these words that mean so much to our hearts, that puts me in a different place.

“A long time ago, there was a gentleman, before he would ever preach, he would say, ‘Father, take me to a different place now, and that’s the way I look at that when we’re singing. Let the words speak through us.”

Likewise, Danny Hale sees his role as ministering with music, not performing.

“I’m not no kind of performer, none whatsoever,” says Hale, the mandolin player. “It’s just something the Lord put us together and put us to doing, and we all enjoy it.”

“A young man came up to us one night after singing, and he said, ‘Well, I enjoyed that. Y’all are good. I said what you need to know is we ain’t got nothing to do with it. He said, ]I don’t agree with that. You brought instruments, [and] you spent your time.

I said, ‘You know who [former Tennessee Titans quarterback] Steve McNair is? Yes, it’s the best quarterback that’s ever been. I said take away his players off the field. Now what kind of quarterback is he? He said, ‘Well, he can’t play the game by himself.’ I said, ‘Young man, that’s the same way I feel about the Lord.’ He stood there about a minute and he said, ‘I think I understand.’ I said, we’re nothing without Him.

Watching people get saved. That’s why we do it. That’s what it’s called working for the Lord. We don’t do near enough of it. When you see someone get saved and turn their life over to the Lord, it’s all worth it.

“You can be tired and wore out from working all day. We all have jobs, and we drive for a couple of hours to get to a church to have a singing. You get there and you’re not tired anymore. You find out you were there for one person maybe.”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky and draw that one in,” says Brady, the youngest member of the band. “That’s what we’re here for. It’s not for a show. We’re here for that one that we could get close to God. I don’t see myself as a performer. I see myself as something that God uses, like a hand puppet. It’s not me trying to do my own thing. It’s God using me to do His thing.”

Sean Driver says the guys in the band are answering a calling that comes with a sacrifice at times.
“We’re away from our families at times,” says Sean. “That’s the same as a pastor or preacher. Sometimes they’re away from their families with a calling from the almighty God. We understand the ministry comes first and has to come first.”

“It has been one more journey. We have thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Currently, Right on Time is working on its fifth CD. They will be singing for revival at People’s Missionary Baptist Church on Tramel Branch Road in Alexandria, November 15 at 7:00 p.m. To find out more information, go to their Facebook page or the website at www.rightontime.us.

November 5, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

A 61 year old Smithville woman was injured in a one vehicle accident Sunday night on Banks Pisgah Road.

Central dispatch received the call at 9:45 p.m.

Trooper Bobby Johnson of the Tennessee Highway Patrol said Sharon Robinson was driving a 2010 Nissan Quest Minivan and crossed the center line of the road before going off the left side and hitting a fence.

Robinson was transported by DeKalb EMS to Ascension Saint Thomas DeKalb Hospital to be treated for minor injuries.

Trooper Johnson said Robinson claims she fell asleep at the wheel prior to the crash. Charges are pending.

November 5, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

Upper Cumberland Area Agency on Aging and Disability (UCAAAD) is now offering application assistance with “SNAP”, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program for adults 60 and over or individuals with a disability. The USDA created SNAP to provide eligible individuals with monthly benefits to buy food. .

Over $1 million in food stamps are not being utilized in DeKalb County and a total of over $19 million not being used by the 60 and older population in the 14 counties within the Upper Cumberland region, including Cannon, Clay, Cumberland, DeKalb, Fentress, Jackson, Macon, Overton, Pickett, Putnam, Smith, Van Buren, Warren, White counties. If you know someone 60 and over or an individual with a disability, they may qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Applicants 60 and over or an individual with a disability can now call UCAAAD SNAP Coordinator, Nestor Chavez, at 931-476-4119 for free and confidential application assistance.