Randy Seedorff: Music with Purpose

Born in a little farm town in northeast Iowa and raised in Kansas City, MO, Randy Seedorff grew up in some fertile ground for country music. The seeds that would later bloom into his current success were planted deep early on. He got his first guitar at age 11 from his mom, who was a country music artist known as “The Prairie Sweetheart.” While she and his uncle, also a musician in a backing band for the top artists of the classic country era, would play together, Randy says, “I would sit on the end of the piano bench and while they practiced I would learn how to play along.”
Randy traces his beginning as a songwriter all the way back to a high school talent show, for which he wrote a song. The experience also connected him with some life-long friends who became collaborators. Adult life saw him getting a “real” job but continuing to play in bands and writing songs.

In 1992 Randy joined the popular Kansas City based bluegrass group Greenside Up as its lead singer and guitarist and performed with them until 1999. During that time he fell victim to an armed robbery. “It really changed my life in a profound way. Faith became a whole lot more important to me than it was before then.” The experience turned his full attention to both his life and music, and he rededicated himself to serving God.

Randy founded the group Soul Purpose in 2010. They released their studio album, Rearview Mirror, produced by Larry Gann of Awe Struck Studios in 2014. Randy released his seven-track EP, Elevate, in 2017. The first two releases from that project reached number one on Christian Radio Charts.

Randy serves as pastor of worship and discipleship at Trinity Church of the Nazarene in Independence, MO. Soul Purpose plays frequently at churches, festivals and other events, with the goal of “bringing the love of God, through the vehicle of music to as many people as possible.”

The power of that vehicle has become more and more evident to Randy over the years. “It’s really nice to get some affirmation about your songwriting. You think ‘Oh well, my songs are just my songs.’ But when people play them on the radio, and they listen to them, and you start getting feedback like ‘Wow, that’s a great song,’ and ‘It really helped me with this thing in my life that I was dealing with’ and then you understand how important music is to people.”

Check out Randy Seedorff’s website here. Listen to the full interview here.

By Dan Walsh