Karen Peck and New River have been given many accolades for their vocal ability. Awards may come with talent and dedication, but their mission in life is to use their music to please God, by encouraging other Christians and trying to reach the lost.

“Gospel music is my calling,” Karen Peck Gooch told this writer, in an interview with The Christian View. “I feel that God has called me to be a Gospel singer, and this is where He can most effectively use me. What I enjoy most about singing is knowing that, hopefully, through our music, believers will be encouraged and challenged to keep going and not give up, and the lost will be saved."
     Karen began singing at an early age.
     “I remember singing when I was three years old. Mama used to stand me up in a chair when I was little, and I would sing in church."
     In high school, Karen and her sister Susan sang in a trio with fellow student Pam Blackburn, and Becky Shuler Withrow playing piano.

As a college student, Karen became serious about a career in Gospel music. “Every day, when I would go to school, I would listen to the Nelons on cassette,” she said. “I knew all of their songs. I wanted to sing so much, and I prayed that the Lord would open the door.

“I sang for a part-time group, and we opened for the Nelons quite a bit, whenever they would come around our area in Georgia. I remember telling Rex Nelon I would love to sing professionally and asking him what I would need to do. He told me to give him a tape and a resume and a picture of myself and that he would send that to all of the groups I would like to sing with.

“Alphus LeFevre was the one who gave me my first professional job, in 1980. A year later, Rex Nelon hired me. I stayed with them for almost 10 years.

“The Lord really answered my prayers and gave me the desires of my heart, to sing with my favorite group, the Nelons. Now, to have my own group, with my sister, is a tremendous blessing.”

“In addition to singing, Karen also has co-written, with John Rowsey, three songs recorded by New River: "Hey," "Faith," and "When the Stone Rolled Away."

She also speaks at several women’s conferences each year.

The group Karen Peck and New River was formed in 1991. The name was suggested by Danny Crawford, of Liberty, South Carolina, who played piano for Karen. “His wife, Kelli, gave him a sweater for Christmas,” explained Karen. “On the front of the sweater, it said, ‘New River’, and he thought that would be a great name for a group. We thought about it and prayed about it and felt that was the name we needed to go with. We love the fact that the Lord loved to be around water, and, at the time we started the group, in 1991, we were new, so we love that name.”

Karen was saved at the age of eight in Vacation Bible School. She and Susan and their older sister, Sandra, grew up in South Bend Methodist Church in their native Gainesville, Georgia.

Karen has fond memories of her home church.

“I have great memories of when we would have ‘old-time’ singings,” she said. “Every fifth Sunday night, we would have a singing, and we would sing from the old church hymnals.”

Karen said that the Lord has tremendously blessed her life. “I cannot begin to count my blessings,” she said. “I’m so thankful. I want to encourage young people to live their lives for Jesus while they’re young, because, when you’re older, you do reap the benefits of the seeds that you sowed when you were younger.”

Her favorite verses from scripture are Romans 8:38-39. “There is nothing that can separate you from the love of God,” she said.

From scripture, Karen admires Mary, the mother of Jesus. ““She was such a courageous woman," she said. "She pleased God, and she really fulfilled her destiny in life, which was to be the mother of the Son of God.”

Among old hymns, Karen counts among her favorites "Amazing Grace." 
      Of the songs recorded and sung by New River, she noted, “ "Four Days Late" will forever be a favorite song of mine.” "Four Days Late" was Song of the Year in 2001, voted by readers of The Singing News magazine. “Aaron Wilburn and his wife, Roberta, wrote the song,” said Karen. “One night, in Meridian, Mississippi, he mentioned a song he had written a few years earlier, and, when he sang it, I just fell in love with it. When he came off stage, I said, ‘Aaron, you have just sung about me.’ I told him that we would love to record that song, and we recorded it just a few months later.”

Karen named her parents, Sue and the late Robert Ezra Peck, as great Christian role models. Her father’s death, in February, 1993, marked a turning point and a difficult time in her life.

Karen and her husband, Rickey, live in Dahlonega, Georgia with son Matthew and daughter Kari, whose name is spelled with the first two letters of her parents’ names.

 She advises young singers as well as any Christian to “Love the Lord and keep His commandments and do your best to live right. And pray for God’s will in your life, not your will. Pray that God will put you where He wants you to be. If you really try to lead a good life, then the Lord will give you the desires of your heart.”

Karen urges anyone who is unsaved to give their heart and life to the Lord. “The Bible says that the only way we get to heaven is through the blood of Jesus,” she said. “It says to believe on the Lord and you shall be saved. If there is anything I could tell an unbeliever, it would be to please ask the Lord to come into your heart, and know that there is life when this life is over. It is so important to know Jesus, to ask the Lord to come into your life. You don’t have to walk through this life alone. The Lord will be your dearest friend. He will help you through trials in life. As long as we live on this earth, we are going to be faced with problems, but it’s good to know that the Bible says that we don’t have to bear those burdens alone, that the Lord is with us. Don’t go through life not knowing the Lord and never making it to heaven."
        Karen wants to be remembered for her Christian life. “I would like to be remembered as a person who tried to please God,” she said.