Musical heritage

A different kind of music is wafting out of the Collingwood Presbyterian Church these days.

The Sacred Steel Music & History Museum opened April 27 inside the Old West End church, marking a moment in local music preservation 80 years in the making, and a personal journey several years in the making for Del Ray Grace, who spearheaded the venture with his wife Kelli.

“We have been planning for this about 10 years now,” Del Ray Grace said. “The administrator here at the church was trying to repurpose the place and this is the kind of programming they were looking to offer inside the space they have here.”

“Sacred steel” music refers to the often scattered use of the steel guitar, known for its use in country music and Hawaiian music, in Black churches and the gospel music played in those churches.

Over much of the last decade, Del Ray Grace, a retired former Nabisco worker, has hosted two local TV shows about sacred steel music, has operated a sacred steel “hall of fame” which currently has 96 inductees, and has ran Sacred Steel Records which has issued several recordings in this genre.

“There are so many musical cultures in the African American community that never see the light of day,” he said. “Most traditional Black churches use the Hammond organ or the piano as their main instrument ... but since the late 1930s some churches have been using the Hawaiian steel guitar.”

The founder, 63, said he belonged to churches that had this kind of music while growing up in central Toledo and he soon learned to play the guitar himself, which fired his passion for the genre.

“The music was taught by oral tradition, even to this day there is no sheet music,” he said. “Fathers taught their sons, older musicians taught younger musicians.”

The museum holds more than 10 steel guitars, some of which were hand-built, that were collected from musicians around the country over the years, in addition to several photo displays, and a collection of CDs, DVDs, and records.

Kelli Grace, whose great-uncle Felton Williams was an important steel guitar maker that has a guitar on display at the National Museum of African American History in Washington, said that the final piece to her family’s preservation effort was always to have a museum because of all the items she and her husband have collected over the years.

“Before we had the museum, everything was in our basement, so I am glad to have our basement back,” she said with a laugh.

The space will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at the church, which is located at 2108 Collingwood Blvd. Though the calendar is not fully set, the Graces would like to host performances in the space on the weekends.

“We finally have a space for people to come and learn more about our culture and love what we love,” Kelli Grace said.