The Ministry:

Gene Collett was born January 25, 1935, in Roark, Leslie County, Kentucky. He was the youngest of three children by James ‘Farmer’ Collett and Phrona Shepherd Collett.  He attended Red Bird School at Beverly, Kentucky, where his mom was cook and dietician for many years.

The family moved to Laurel County, Kentucky in 1949, but Gene remained at Red Bird for three more years and in 1952 after summers of singing on river boats, honky-tonks and night clubs, Gene gave his heart to the Lord Jesus Christ and went to visit his brother in Hayesville, North Carolina, where he met his wife. But music was his life, except now he only wanted to sing sacred and gospel music. One of his musical heroes was George Beverly Shea.

Gene’s new father-in-law was a Baptist evangelist and had a tent ministry at that time. So he and Gene took a three-pole tent all over that part of the South.  Andy preached and Gene sang. During that period of time, Gene was introduced to Southern gospel (shaped notes) and fell in love with the music.  In the summer of 1980 he was ‘called’ into the preaching ministry and as a result, attended Fruitland Baptist Institute at Hendersonville, North Carolina. Later, he attended New Orleans Theological Seminary and Luther Rice Seminary.

During this time with the inspiration of the Lord, Gene wrote and recorded many songs that have been good to him, including Lord of My Life, Jesus Is Spoken Here, My Old Bible and the best known, The Ballade of Eric Robert Rudolph, which at the suggestion of a pastor friend, followed with a book entitled Eric Rudolph & Me, published by Authorhouse.  Gene has just finished writing a second book, a novel entitled, The Fourth Day.

The Music:

Gene Collett began his recording career in January, 1973, exactly twenty years after his commitment to Jesus Christ. He called his first album, Twentieth Anniversary Album in honor of the occasion.  It is still one of his best selling albums.

He was fascinated with recording and started to learn as much about the music and  publishing industry as he could and still maintain his wife and two sons.  During this period, he recorded and published many records for himself and assisting other individuals as well as gospel groups in their music ministries.

God blessed Gene’s efforts and in 2005, he purchased Clay’s Recording Studio in Franklin, North Carolina, where he had been recording for years and changed the name to Sonrise Production Studios.  At that time, video was becoming the leading product for gospel artists. Gene added a state-of-the-art video studio to the mix in order to better serve his growing business.

Late in 2005, Billy Rainey, a television marketing executive from Greenville South Carolina, suggested that Gene develop a gospel music television program which could showcase the groups and talent which Sonrise was now serving. Gene decided to develop the series and gave it the name Back Porch Gospel. The show has been seen in the last three years in several markets and in 2009 will be moving into the Kentucky television markets.

The Business:

After Gene married in 1953, he realized that he had to make more money than gospel music was paying, so he studied accounting at the Institute of Tax & Accounting, under the direction of Dr. P.W. Christian in Atlanta, Georgia and Western Carolina University at Cullowhee, NC.  This prepared him for a means to support his family and music ministry. He began his public accounting practice in 1956 at Covington, Kentucky, on Madison Avenue.  Within two years he had moved to Franklin, North Carolina, where his practice has been based for fifty years. During this period he has represented thousands of people, solving their tax issues.

After the first airing of Back Porch Gospel, folks began to call Sonrise Productions about various aspects of recording and video work, including funerals, weddings, school functions and many other areas of service. Realizing that duplication would be a problem in that remote area, Gene decided to buy duplicating equipment for both CD’s and DVD’s.  This way, people who use and sell recordings and videos of their work, wouldn’t need to send their master to a distant city to do graphics, inserts and packaging.  It would now by completed on site.  That has grown to be a large part of the Sonrise business.