Here’s how The Solo Committee got started.

In May of 2001 a small group of people began holding Christian Science Sunday services on the south side of St. Louis. It was a precious group of people, and Susan, a Christian Science practitioner, decided to drag out her old guitar and do some church songs. She began setting familiar Bible passages to original music and eventually she attempted setting a Bible story to music. The result was the song “Jairus’ Daughter”. She kept writing, was joined by Carey and Sue Loomis, and over the years they have written hundreds of songs, produced 11 CDs, toured the country, helped raise money for worthy causes, produced sheet music, arranged their songs for use by church soloists and some of their songs have become hymns for congregational use.

That first congregation was deeply touched by those first solos, so in early December of 2002, Susan made a recording of 13 songs to share with family and friends. The response from these gifts was nothing less than astounding. People found comfort and healing in these folk hymns, and soon there were requests for “Sweet Sacred Solos” coming from all over. When Sue and Carey Loomis joined Susan in church, Carey took over the guitar playing, Susan continued to do most of the writing and Sue supported with harmonies and recorder interludes and we became The Solo Committee.

Our second CD “Grateful Hearts Unbounded” included more of these original Bible-based songs, some with more sophisticated arrangements, with a focus on Jesus’ healing work. For Christmas 2003, we produced “Peace Be Still” which included 16 songs by The Solo Committee; some are thoughtful, some are upbeat, but all emphasize God’s loving, healing presence. We had many requests for this collection, so we gave up burning our own CDs, and sent this one out for professional reproduction. We started performing outside our own church and by 2004 we were touring to share our music.

For our CD “I Am Holding You” we put together a group of songs based on biblical passages where God’s voice speaks to us as his beloved children. This has become one of our most popular CDs. We followed that with our 2007 release, “Humility”, named for the title track, which includes some songs where we experimented with other styles and sound, as well as our classic Solo Committee sound.

When we did our first kids’ CD called “3 Steps and a Bounce”, we wanted to tell stories that kids could enjoy, do some teaching of Bible basics like the Ten Commandments and The Beatitudes and talk to kids about how they can pray. Our second kids’ CD, “G is for God” continued this mix of teaching some basics and story telling with songs like Seven Names, singing prayers and the story of Noah. Parents tell us their kids have loved these CDs. We were pretty sure they would – between us we have 6 kids.

We have been blessed to have the active partnership of our own grown children in this music. Sue and Carey’s kids have played bass, percussion, and added harmonies while Susan’s kids lent their artistic talents with watercolors for the cover and photos for liner notes. We cherish the deep friendship out of which this music has grown.

In 2021, Susan wanted to revisit some of her favorite songs that were never recorded. So we came up with a list, got some studio time, and created a bonus collection of songs we call “Lead Me to the Rock”. We love these classics from our St Louis days and we think that you will, too.

All of our music has one and only one purpose and that’s to heal and comfort. We hope that as you listen you feel wrapped up in the music as though it were a blanket of Love or a hug from God. It’s our great joy to share it with you.

Susan Snipes, Sue Loomis & Carey Loomis
The Solo Committee