Tim Swinnea of Pine Prairie shares the sweet sounds of Gospel music with residents in nursing homes

A Pine Prairie resident has taken the Gospel music of the old camp meetings and tent revivals and has brought them to the nursing homes in the area.
Since then Tim Swinnea has cut two compact discs that contains some of the classic Gospel hymns. His newest CD is called The Highway to Heaven still goes by the Cross.
“It has 12 of the most requested songs that they ask me to play at the nursing homes,” he said. “It’s mostly the old hymns like ‘The Old Rugged Cross,’ ‘In the Sweet By and By,’ ‘Supper Time,’ ‘The Lighthouse,’ ‘In the Garden,’ ‘Amazing Grace,’ and ‘Family Bible.’”
“I did this just to raise money for my nursing homes like at Christmas time,” Swinnea continued. “Last year I bought 300 boxes of candy, and I filled out 300 Christmas cards. I passed them out to the residents of the nursing homes.”
Each CD costs $12.00 and can be purchased from Swinnea. He said that he also gives CDs away to people who can’t afford them.
Swinnea grew up in Bayou Chicot and started playing piano at a young age. “My grandpa J. C. Swinnea, Jr., had a church in St. Landry,” he said. “I started playing the piano there at Full Gospel Revival Center when I was six-years-old.”
He has taken this love of Gospel music and started playing it at five different nursing homes such as Heritage Manor in Ville Platte, Bayou Vista and Bailey Place in Bunkie, St. Francis in Oberlin, and Prairie Manor in Pine Prairie. “I go every Tuesday and Thursday and do about an hour program just singing and playing Gospel music.”
Swinnea went on to explain what keeps the music so appealing to his listeners. “It’s just old Gospel music,” he said. “To the people in the nursing homes, it brings back memories of the songs that they grew up in church with. I’ve got one woman at Bailey Place in Bunkie who always asks me to play ‘In the Garden’ because they played it at her husband’s funeral.”
“A lot of times I’ll have people ask me to play ‘Amazing Grace’ because they played it at their husband’s funeral,” he continued. “I’ll be playing ‘Amazing Grace,’ and three songs later somebody will come in and ask me to do it again. I just do it for the residents. It’s just a joy.”
For Swinnea sharing this Gospel music is a blessing and a way to give back to the elderly. “People are always telling me what a blessing I am to them,” he said, “but they are a blessing to me.”