{"id":181245,"date":"2026-05-01T14:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T14:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/181245\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T14:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T14:18:10","slug":"in-pennsylvania-musicians-with-amish-and-mennonite-backgrounds-find-a-voice-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/181245\/","title":{"rendered":"In Pennsylvania, musicians with Amish and Mennonite backgrounds find a voice"},"content":{"rendered":"

McCOYSVILLE, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Conrad Fisher\u2019s musical journey has taken him from an Amish country upbringing in Pennsylvania to Nashville and back. These days the singer-songwriter has been making videos and recordings of musicians with Amish and Mennonite roots \u2014 building audiences well beyond the conservative religious communities. <\/p>\n

Last weekend Fisher took the stage in a former Presbyterian church that he bought for a song and converted into a performance space and recording studio he calls Ragamuffin Hall, in the rural Pennsylvania community of McCoysville.<\/p>\n

Fisher performed two sold-out concerts with Ben and Rose Stoltzfus, a married couple whose Amish background and church choir harmonies have drawn millions of YouTube clicks. It was a sort of warmup for shows they\u2019re playing together in the coming months at much larger theaters in Pennsylvania and Indiana.<\/p>\n

\u201cRagamuffin Hall,\u201d Fisher said, \u201cis supposed to be a place where those weird things that\u2019ll get you ostracized everywhere else, we\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, no, that\u2019s a gift. And here\u2019s how you use it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Conrad<\/p>\n

Conrad Fisher laughs during an interview with the Associated Press ahead of his performance at Ragamuffin Hall in McCoysville, Pa., Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)<\/p>\n

Conrad Fisher laughs during an interview with the Associated Press ahead of his performance at Ragamuffin Hall in McCoysville, Pa., Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)<\/p>\n

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Fisher\u2019s parents were both raised in Amish families but his father joined a Mennonite congregation as a young adult. Among the Mennonite churches Fisher attended as a boy, musical instruments were rarely used. <\/p>\n

Nonetheless, his father was a fan of Johnny Cash and didn\u2019t look too closely at what was on Fisher\u2019s MP3 player. When Fisher\u2019s brother came home from a camping trip with a mix CD featuring Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers and the Beach Boys, it changed his life. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt blew my mind, right?\u201d Fisher, now 31, recalled. He started learning keyboards and then guitar, bass and drums before adding music production \u2014 \u201cmostly because I was dead set on making a living with music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy buddies would be like, \u2018Hey, I wrote a song for my girlfriend. Can you do a track?\u2019 And I\u2019m like, sure.\u201d <\/p>\n

Recording in a converted church<\/p>\n

He moved to Tennessee as a young adult and for three years immersed himself in the songwriting industry \u2014 the Oak Ridge Boys even recorded one of his tunes. But the road life didn\u2019t suit him \u2014 particularly bar gigs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s drinking and carrying on,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cIt\u2019s just not me. I\u2019m not a prude, but I just don\u2019t enjoy that scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fisher considers his wife and three children his main priority and he remains a faithful Mennonite \u2014 his pastor once asked him why he didn\u2019t just start a cabinetry business and launch a prison ministry. Yet his music production work eventually grew to the point three years ago that he could stop working as a carpenter. <\/p>\n

In 2022, Fisher learned an old brick church several miles from his home was up for sale. After he laid out his vision for making it into a music incubator, they sold it to him below market value.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The former Presbyterian church converted into Ragamuffin Hall is seen in McCoysville, Pa., Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)<\/p>\n

The former Presbyterian church converted into Ragamuffin Hall is seen in McCoysville, Pa., Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)<\/p>\n

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Musicians now regularly find their way to Ragamuffin Hall, mostly to record \u201cclean country music\u201d and rootsy bluegrass with a heavy dose of gospel. The acts he\u2019s recorded include an Amish man who played steel guitar with his son\u2019s band, a musician who drove for hours from Missouri and an Amish band from Ohio. <\/p>\n

Last Saturday, he sprinkled his own songs between tunes made popular by Waylon Jennings, Alison Krauss and Don Williams. After a short set by Fisher\u2019s five-piece band, they stayed on stage to back up Ben and Rose. Fisher used an electric guitar fashioned from a beam recovered during his renovations of a church stairwell.<\/p>\n

The overwhelmingly white matinee crowd consisted mostly of older people and included several of the musicians\u2019 family members. Downstairs, Ragamuffin Hall T-shirts were for sale alongside $3 homemade whoopie pies, a regionally ubiquitous Pennsylvania Dutch dessert.<\/p>\n

A paradigm shift on stage<\/p>\n

The insular culture and unadorned lives of conservative Anabaptist people aren\u2019t often associated with music, but Amish sacred music<\/a> dates back half a millennium. Their 900-page hymnal \u2014 the \u201cAusbund\u201d \u2014 was composed in part by Anabaptist prisoners in 16th century Germany and is still used today.<\/p>\n

Fisher\u2019s Amish roots and ability to speak Pennsylvania Dutch, the Old Order Amish dialect, has helped build rapport with likeminded musicians. <\/p>\n

But Amish church music is almost always group singing only, without instruments or soloists. And the community generally discourages public performances and other \u201cacts of pride.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of great talent in that community that goes undeveloped because,\u201d Fisher said \u2014 using a Pennsylvania German phrase \u2014 \u201cthat\u2019s just, \u2018we don\u2019t do that,\u2019 you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the sort of pushback he received in February after uploading a rollicking, live version of \u201cSwing Low, Sweet Chariot\u201d to YouTube. Fisher felt compelled to respond.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a believer, I\u2019m a man of faith, and I\u2019m not ashamed of that,\u201d he replied in a video message. \u201cBut I do play a lot of different kinds of music, just like, you know, if you\u2019re a shed builder you build sheds for all kinds of people, not just churches and schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elam Stoltzfus, director of the Nicholas Stoltzfus Homestead in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, said it was \u201cone of the shocks of my life\u201d to attend a charity fundraiser last year at a farm where Ben and Rose performed. (Stoltzfus is a common name among the Amish.) There were bright lights, a video screen, barbecued chicken and vendors selling T-shirts, CDs and books. <\/p>\n

\"Rose<\/p>\n

\n Rose Stoltzfus performs at Ragamuffin Hall in McCoysville, Pa., Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)\n <\/p>\n

Rose Stoltzfus performs at Ragamuffin Hall in McCoysville, Pa., Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)<\/p>\n

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\"Conrad<\/p>\n

\n Conrad Fisher, Rose Stoltzfus and Ben Stoltzfus perform at Ragamuffin Hall in McCoysville, Pa., Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)\n <\/p>\n

Conrad Fisher, Rose Stoltzfus and Ben Stoltzfus perform at Ragamuffin Hall in McCoysville, Pa., Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)<\/p>\n

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Stoltzfus, whose family left the Old Order in the mid-1960s when he was 10, said the gathering was packed with Mennonite and Amish people. They weren\u2019t dancing, but they did clap. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was thrilled to see this happen, because I knew this was a paradigm shift,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I was a teenager, it would never have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legions of fans on social media<\/p>\n

Amos Raber, of Goshen, Indiana, also grew up in a \u201chorse and buggy\u201d Amish family and considered himself Amish until he turned 22. Nowadays, he supports his family with concert performances and revenues garnered from what he says are millions of clicks a month on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and Facebook. <\/p>\n

In recent decades, Raber said, he\u2019s seen Amish youth increasingly come together with guitars to sing. But they can still run up against prohibitions on public performances.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost times, if you see someone who\u2019s really Amish doing that kind of thing, they\u2019re probably not going to be Amish long,\u201d Raber said. Since they began recording and performing music, Ben and Rose have left their Amish church and joined a different Christian congregation. They declined comment for this story.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Amish<\/p>\n

Amish youngsters ride in the kid box of a buggy Sunday, March 8, 2026, in Lancaster County, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

Amish youngsters ride in the kid box of a buggy Sunday, March 8, 2026, in Lancaster County, Pa. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

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LeRoy Stoltzfus, a singer-songwriter living near Lancaster, was 13 when his family left the Amish church. He said changes in the Lancaster Amish settlement in recent years have made it easier for people to leave without losing contact with families and friends, a process called \u201cshunning\u201d that has long fascinated outsiders.<\/p>\n

After years of playing guitar as a church worship leader and after spending four years at a Colorado Bible college, he\u2019s now making a living as a musician, stitching together concerts with online ad revenue and recordings for a fan base that includes many Amish and formerly Amish people. <\/p>\n

\u201cEver since I can remember I wanted to be a star,\u201d LeRoy Stoltzfus said. \u201cBut the older I got, I realized it wasn\u2019t about me \u2014 it was about putting out music and helping people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I would have laughed at you\u2019<\/p>\n

Justin Hiltner, a Nashville-based banjo player and songwriter who serves as managing editor of the roots music blog \u201cThe Bluegrass Situation,\u201d said after delving into the music he was impressed with its quality. He said he also got the sense that Ben and Rose and Conrad Fisher and the others are building a musical community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is clearly not just insular music that\u2019s just facing other Amish folks or other Mennonite folks,\u201d Hiltner said. \u201cClearly it\u2019s \u2018broken containment\u2019 here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hiltner called the music — and Fisher\u2019s videos — \u201creally compelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo kind of an outsider, this is the performance of American essentialism, the rural American ideal, right?\u201d said Hiltner. \u201cI did hear a level of talent that\u2019s very clearly pushing and pulling these folks towards bringing their music to a wider audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Religiously conservative musicians can market their recordings through a network of bookstores across the U.S. and Canada. At one of them, Ken\u2019s Educational Joys in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, racks of CDs are sold alongside a floor-to-ceiling selection of Bibles. <\/p>\n

Proprietor Lydell Zimmerman said his biggest music sellers are a cappella recordings, but he\u2019s noticed Ben and Rose have drawn a real following.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think their presence as an Amish couple singing online is what brought people\u2019s attention to them,\u201d Zimmerman said.<\/p>\n

Ben and Rose came to Fisher\u2019s studio when Ben\u2019s brother, a friend of Fisher\u2019s from Lancaster, booked a session there.<\/p>\n

He realized right away Ben and Rose had talent. Tapping into Fisher\u2019s production skills, they\u2019ve amassed more than 30 million views for their videos on YouTube. Eventually he proposed some live shows and the couple agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started recording when I was 14,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cIf you would have told me two years ago that what\u2019s going to put me on the map or boost my business in a big way, it\u2019s going to be an Old Order Amish couple, I would have laughed at you.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP\u2019s collaboration<\/a> with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McCOYSVILLE, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Conrad Fisher\u2019s musical journey has taken him from an Amish country upbringing in Pennsylvania…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[80817,13197,80818,1681,38,22057,10744,80959,837,4665,3745,7316,80958,7865,80961,6894,237,22431,293,40,28,30,29,12441,80962,80960,44,80820,5151,5150],"class_list":["post-181245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-alison-krauss","tag-ap-top-news","tag-don-williams","tag-entertainment","tag-general-news","tag-in-state-wire","tag-indiana","tag-justin-hiltner","tag-lifestyle","tag-mi-state-wire","tag-michigan","tag-missouri","tag-mo-state-wire","tag-music","tag-music-videos","tag-nashville","tag-new-york","tag-oh-state-wire","tag-ohio","tag-pa-state-wire","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-religion","tag-rose-stoltzfus","tag-spotify-technology-sa","tag-u-s-news","tag-waylon-jennings","tag-wi-state-wire","tag-wisconsin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}