About Lee Ladensack

For almost twenty years I’ve been blessed to lead music worship services at several churches in the beautiful Appalachian mountains of Highlands and Cashiers, North Carolina. It started in the small but historical Summer Chapel on Whiteside Cove in Highlands, NC. with a very popular 11 a.m. seasonal service from Memorial Day to Labor Day and draws local folks and tourists.

After Labor Day I play at The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Cashiers, NC until November. Those are in addition to my year-round Sunday music worship services at the Highlands, NC Methodist Church for their 9:09 bluegrass service, and a few special appearances at The Highlands, NC Presbyterian Church as well as other requested performances where these old gospel songs are requested.

I began my musical journey on trumpet at age 11 but morphed into a singer/songwriter when I was 16 when my dad got me an acoustic guitar and a Roy Clark instructional booklet, complete with colored stickers for the guitar neck. I was raised in the coastal Brunswick, Georgia area so after graduating from Glynn Academy high school I auditioned for and was accepted into the United States Naval Band where I studied numerous instruments and have composed, arranged, performed, and recorded with countless great musicians.

I’ve been lucky to be in many great bands too and recorded with numerous musicians over the years. I’ve done professional studio work as a vocalist, guitarist, bassist, trumpeter, alto saxophonist, pianist, harmonica player, mandolin player, and percussionist. I am currently working on new material for an upcoming original CD project.

I’ve also retired from playing in rock bands and have been playing solo acoustic guitar and singing every Friday and Saturday night from 6-8 p.m. at the Old Edwards Arts Lodge in Highlands, NC since 2016. For nearly 20 years, I’ve been performing in 2 churches every Sunday.

So How did I start these books?

Songbooks seem to mysteriously disappear each Sunday as people want to take a memento home with them from their vacation or perhaps to play them around the house. My songbook was falling apart so I created song sheets for my Ipad which allows me to be a bit more organized and store all the songs we play. I then got the great idea to put 50 of the most requested songs I get asked to play and put them in a book format for people to play at home. They could print them out or read them off of a device.

These are working chord sheets in popular keys along with time signatures, and a basic chord intro for group sing-alongs and so I thought I would offer them online for a small price so more people could enjoy playing these old gospel songs. They became very popular and our churches save money on physical songbook reprints!

So, even if you are not a music worship leader, these are great songs to have in your song portfolio should you be in a situation to play familiar sing-along gospel standards. You can print these out in a book or use them on your phone or iPad, which is what I do now.

Due to copyright reasons, I can’t print the sheet music so you need to know the melody beforehand. However, you can either go to my Youtube channel “How I Play Gospel Songs on Guitar” and see how I play the song then, refer to these sheets. Enjoy!