Alex and Lee Benton don’t have dreams of playing their music on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry.

They are content to play for the glory of God.

The Benton Brothers have a huge fan following in the residents of Troy Health and Rehabilitation Center where they play and sing with Tom and Shirley Harris of Country Road every fourth Tuesday of the month.

“We love playing for the residents because we play music that they remember and like,” Lee said.

For the brothers, playing and singing “just kind of happened.”

“We weren’t really thinking about singing,” Alex said.

“About three years ago, a friend invited us to go with him and his wife to Mr. Rex Locklar’s Bluegrass Festival at Henderson and we met The Rivertown Girls there.”

The brothers attended several of The Rivertown Girls’ performance and they haven’t missed any of Locklar’s bluegrass festivals, neither fall nor spring.

“The people that come to the festivals got to be like family,” Lee said.

“They really encourage young people and they encouraged us.”

Alex started playing music on his granddaddy’s guitar and Lee bought a mandolin.

“Our granddady Benton and Uncle Jonathan helped us get started by showing us some chords,” Lee said.

“We decided that we enjoyed playing so we wanted to take lessons.” The brothers took lessons from Lenny Trawick and Don Brown and practiced together “a lot” at home.

“In the meantime, we found out our Maw Maw, Enid Benton, had cancer,” Alex said.

“We started playing for her and she really enjoyed our muisc. She didn’t feel good a lot of days so we would go play for her at night. She would always smile and say, ‘Boys your music and singing makes me feel better.’”

Music is good for the soul.

The boys’ Maw Maw made them realize that they had a gift that could bring joy and pleasure to a lot of people.

Both brothers have tried their hand at writing songs and they enjoy singing at different churches and other functions.

“We know that God has helped us with our music,” Alex said. “We thank Him for our talent. We like to minister through our music for God.”

The brothers’ hope is that other hearts will be touched through their music.

“We thank our parents, “Michael and Patricia Benton and our grandparents, Leroy and Enid Benton and Charles and Carolyn Turner for their encouragement and support,” the brothers said.

“Our prayer is that God will use us to spread His word.”