Draggin' Main Music Festival: Aundrea Dawson: Faith, family and music

Aundrea Dawson has many loves.

Faith. Family. Music. Basketball.

Faith is likely first and foremost, the fountain from which the other three spring. Basketball was a passion in the 1990s — especially near decade’s end when she helped Clovis High’s girls basketball team win a state championship — and in the early 2000s when she was playing the sport for Liberty University.

These days it’s mostly about faith, family and music. And Dawson combines all three with her Gospel act, which will open for Christian singer/songwriter Josh Wilson at the Draggin’ Main Music Festival. They perform Wednesday on Faith and Family Night at Marshall Auditorium.

Dawson couldn’t be more thrilled. “Oh, I think it is an awesome opportunity,” she said. “He (Wilson) is an amazing artist, and to be able to be on the same platform and same stage of someone of his caliber, it is an honor.”

Dawson, in fact, calls the pivotal moment of her career “when I was asked to open up for Josh Wilson.”

Dawson, it seems, was a natural fit for Gospel music. She grew up with a father, Jimmy Dawson, who served as music minister for First Church of God in Christ and even recorded an album with his siblings and nephew under the name “The Spiritual Israelites.” Dawson’s mother, LuCinda, sang in the choir.

Dawson, herself now a music minister for Pureheart Words Center, cites her uncle, Bishop W.C. Green and his wife, choir president Ange Green, both deceased, as big influences. Also, her now-deceased cousins Johnathan Dawson and David Dawson, who recorded spiritual music.

As for more famous influences, Dawson lists the Clark sisters and Jonathan McReynolds. “His lyrics are very profound, very truthful,” Dawson said.

And, she couldn’t leave out Faith Evans. “Pretty much where I kind of found my voice was from Faith Evans,” Dawson said. “She was one of my favorite artists.”

It was during Dawson’s teen years that she started getting into singing. “I was, I would say, about 15,” she recalled. “I wasn’t really serious about it. I wanted to do it, but at the time I didn’t think I could make it a career. But it was something I wanted to do.”

She was partly inspired to write by her older brother Harlequin. “He makes tracks, he makes music,” Dawson said, “and I started writing to the music he made.”

It wasn’t long before Dawson thought she might be onto something with her music.

“When I let other people hear it,” she said. “When my other siblings heard it and other family members heard it. And I liked it as well, and I’m very critical. A lot of people liked it.”

Dawson, who works at New Mexico Work Force as a career coach, says she’s just recently started to push music and recording beyond the hobby level. “It’s only in the beginning stages,” she said. “I only have a single out and I’m still working on more music. ... The more people hear, the more they want to hear.”

Wednesday’s performance, not surprisingly, will be a family affair. She’ll have her brother Harlequin on keyboard, another brother Oralandus Dawson, on guitar. And there will be some cousins singing backup and playing instruments.

Overall, whether a hobby or a part-time profession or a burgeoning career, it’s a passion that suits Dawson.

“There was something in me, I had a love for God and wanted to explore that love for God,” she said. “And once I did explore that love for God, I got serious about it. That’s why I’m passionate about it, reaching people in the world, reaching people who are lost and want to know more about Christ.”