New World Records

Home , Brighten the Corner, Brother Joe May, George Coles Stebbins, Marion Williams, Urban Hymns, Willie Mae Ford Smith

New World Records NEW WORLD RECORDS 701 Seventh Avenue, New York, New York 10036; (212) 302-0460; (212) 944-1922 fax email: [email protected] www.newworldrecords.org

Brighten the Corner Where You Are: black and white Urban Hymnody New World NW 224

BLACK URBAN HYMNODY: GOSPEL day to day, despite poverty ("I've been down to my by Anthony Heilbut last dime"), illness ("I've been sick and couldn't get well"), depression ("I've been almost level to the James Baldwin, the best-known literary offspring of ground"), isolation ("friends move out and crowds the black church, detects in the moans and shouts of get thin"), and betrayal ("folks smile in your face and gospel music, a note "tart and ironic, authoritative and cut your throat behind your back"). As a supremely double-edged" (The Fire Next Time). Even more, in emotional music, it allows vocal, physical, and facial singers who exult "I gave up everything to follow contortions ("sometimes we need to get ugly for Him," Baldwin hears a note profoundly "sensual," Him"), but it also requires wit, even comedy, and a assuming as he does that to be sensual is to be imme- musical skill that black audiences reward with the diately present in the world. These are surely the at- most ecstatic responses. tributes of great art, but very seldom of post- Some of the gospel code is incarnated by the per- Renaissance religious music. And though the subject formers themselves. Gospel is virtually the only art matter and performing situation of black gospel are form I know where women are perceived as the religious, its appeal transcends sectarian barriers.At its equals or superiors of men as both performers and best, as in the classic performances included here, innovators. I. F. Stone once observed that America's gospel allows its practitioners the widest range of true hero is the black mother working for other emotional expression. For almost two hundred years women's families while raising her own. Her music is of segregation, the gospel church has been a home- gospel, and many gospel songs celebrate her: "mother" land of the soul, a folk theater, a community center, appears almost as often as "God" or "Jesus." One finds and a house of worship. The gospel sound has a similar divergence between fundamentalist beliefs become the dominant vocal influence on contempo- and worship in both white and black congregations, rary soul music and has helped provide the rhythmic where the most restrictive, unyielding morality is and theatrical impulse of rock. But it is gospel, not as enacted with the most corybantic abandon.The great- protojazz or prerock but as a distinctive sound with a est women gospel singers—Marion Williams, Willie very special story,that this album celebrates. Mae Ford Smith, Dorothy Love Coates—sashay, skip, There is a gospel "code," not quite the same as the sprint, and leap with a robust sensuality that confirms slave practice that could translate "steal away to rather than detracts from their dignity. "I sing with my Jesus" into an escape plot, but a code with equally body, it's the only way I know to do," they say, and specific social meaning. Gospel is "worldly," immedi- compared to their lusty presences, popular entertain- ately present in the world, because there is scarcely ers seem like shadow figures. In recent years, with a worldly emotion or situation it does not consider commercialization, gospel has undergone many or express. Traditionally a testimony in song, gospel changes, but even today its practitioners assume that finds its hymnal antecedent in the lines "through gospel is the most demanding of vocations, calling many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come" upon all their resources, making virtually every note a and its most resonant lyric in "my soul looks back living witness. and wonders how I got over.” * * * In the ghetto world of segregation, unemploy- The term "gospel music" is vague and inadequate. ment, sickness, and broken families, this music of In the nineteenth century "gospel songs" were what religious transcendence has also been the one form white evangelists sang. As recently as the nineteen- that seriously conveyed the bedrock concerns of thirties a popular radio program in rural America was poor people. Gospel music is about making it from called The Gospel Singer and featured maudlin rendi- 1 tions of "beloved hymns." Until the early sixties the converted into the civil-rights anthem. Tindley was the record business referred to black religious music as immediate inspiration for Thomas A. Dorsey, a former "spirituals" as distinguished from the white "sacred"; blues pianist and composer who in the late twenties today the euphemisms are soul" and "country" gospel. In returned to his native church music, incorporating the addition, gospel itself contains at least two distinct rhythmic lilt of jazz and the showmanship of vaudeville styles, "quartet" and "gospel." Yet for at least forty years in tunes that read like Tindley pastiches; Dorsey called "gospel singing" has been the favored term for what these "gospel songs." working-class black congregations sing. Male quartets constitute a special genre, much older Though gospel is a music of professionals, its origins than the gospel style personified by soloists and lie in the traditional sounds of black folk music. In fact, groups, who are usually female and always perform in all the dominant characteristics of the gospel vocal a tradition pioneered by women (as will be evident if style—moaning (the folk word for humming), growl- you compare Brother Joe May with his inspiration, ing, note bending, and melisma—existed over a hun- Willie Mae Ford Smith). As early as 1902 the dred years ago. Among the first songs slaves learned Dinwiddie Colored Quartet was recording "jubilees," were the hymns of an eighteenth-century English poet, virtuoso a-cappella arrangements of spirituals and folk Isaac Watts. Dr.Watts entered the gospel mythology, not tunes. Since the twenties, recordings of male quartets as a contemporary of Alexander Pope's but as a singing jubilees and more recently gospel and soul Methodist slave.The hymns credited to him (some, like (the "doo-wop" groups are the city-smart sons of coun- "Amazing Grace" or "The Day Is Past and Gone," were try quartets) have dominated the "race-records" or not his) became the most popular religious songs; and "soul-music" market. the "Dr. Watts" vocal style, with its emphasis on an Quartets were admired among other reasons because interplay between a lead voice that broadcast the lyric they were male, home boys who had made good or and a respondent (sometimes the same voice, more remained loyal to tradition; they were also the musical often a group or a congregation) that repeated it with extension of the male preacher. Even today many more all sorts of embellishments, dictated by the require- conservative southerners consider religious singing and ments of art and the spirit, became the basis of the preaching a male vocation: like Samuel Johnson, they earnest, eccentric manner of gospel phrasing. find females in the pulpit a travesty. In the mid-thirties Watts hymns similarly affected the great spirituals. the Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet became popular with Both forms contained an almost Jewish sense of suffer- both black and white audiences. As if acknowledging ing and of being in this world, not common in that body that the Golden Gates' musical excellence could not be of white evangelist music that anticipates "mansions matched, later quartets turned from jubilees almost over the hilltop" and "vacations in heaven." The mourn- exclusively to the newer gospel songs of Dorsey and ful hymns and spirituals were supplemented by frenetic his peers, the Memphis composers W. H. Brewster and "shouts"—rhythmic songs that allowed the physical Lucie Campbell. A few, however, retained the virtuosity release of "shouting," the folk word for the holy dance. of earlier groups and a fervor, evident in such quartets The syncopation of these shouts and the melancholy as the Blue Jays and the Kings of Harmony, that was slurs of the Watts hymns provided both the rhythmic even older than jubilees in its allusions to Watts hymns. urgency and the blue tonality of later black music. The Since the mid-fifties, gospel quartets have been accom- blue note, the characteristic black sound of this conti- panied by instruments, at no small cost in vocal beauty nent, may have originated in field hollers rather than and spiritual power. church moans (more likely the origins were simultane- The Church of God in Christ and its many branches, ous), but few field hollerers walk the city streets, while known as "Pentecostal," "Holiness," or "Sanctified," any store-front-church deacon of a Sunday morning can formed in the late nineteenth century as a more com- spellbind one with the slurred fluency of his prayers mitted alternative to the traditional black Baptist and and moans. Methodist worship. In these churches instrumentation After slavery the Fisk Jubilee Singers and similar uni- was allowed, and rhythmic singing and dancing were versity groups made world tours performing spirituals the norm. For eighty years the Church of God in Christ in the manner of European art music. In the folk church- has provided the most progressive musical sounds in es, however, the real sound persisted. As far as contem- the black church, including the experimentation with porary gospel is concerned, the most important influ- jazz and classical music that characterizes recent gospel ences were the compositions of C.A.Tindley, the popu- of the Edwin Hawkins Singers ("Oh, Happy Day") style. larity of male quartets, and the growth of the Sanctified Sanctified gospel can be overly bright and brittle, but its Church.Tindley, a Philadelphia Methodist preacher, was best practitioners are the freest of singers: I know no liv- the first black composer to successfully combine the ing blues singer who ad-libs so adventurously in the folk sentiments and tunes of spirituals with the conven- realm of blue tonality as Marion Williams, and other tionalized lyrics and melodies of white evangelism. His women Sanctified singers are almost as creative. tunes spoke to the poor ("when this world from you In the thirties the Dorsey compositions performed withholds all its silver and its gold"; "we are often desti- crosscountry by him and his disciples Mahalia Jackson, tute of the things that life demands"); fifty years later Roberta Martin, Sallie Martin, and others fired a network one of his compositions, "I'll Overcome Some Day," was of store-front Sanctified churches and a generation of 2 younger singers. By the mid-forties the pioneer gospel McCrary, of the Fairfield Four; the jubilant growls and soloists and gospel quartets (former jubilee groups like falsetto swoops of Little Richard, James Brown, and the the Soul Stirrers and the Dixie Hummingbirds who had Iseley Brothers were first combined by Marion Williams. switched to the newer repertory) had established their Unfortunately none of these gospel names are house- own "gospel highway.” There soon were enough great hold words, and though almost everybody today sings gospel singers to produce a golden age. Eventually the like these men and women few realize that their vocal period 1945-60 in gospel will be appreciated as one of turns and twists are not some generalized stuff, manna the great eras in American music. from the heavens, but the singular accomplishments of This album can only suggest some of the riches of great singers. When R. H. Harris says “I don’t care who that time. The artists here are among the best gospel it is, they all got some of me snuck up in them,” he’s not interpreters, but there were many others. In the fifties bragging. virtually any record produced by Ozzie Cadena of Savoy In recent years some of the greatest gospel singer’s— and Art Rupp of Specialty was a masterpiece; the output Mahalia Jackson, Clara Ward, Rosetta Tharpe, Joe May— of other labels—Gotham, Apollo Peacock, Nashboro have died, and the music has undergone changes that was almost as impressive. Except for Mahalia Jackson, carry it far from Dr. Watts moans and Sanctified testi- white America heard none of the great gospel practition- monies. But enough great singers remain. They, more ers, but others were listening. All the important soul than these recordings, are the best contemporary legacy singers were inspired by artists on this album. R.H. of a musical form with the deepest historical and Harris’ plangent lyricism directly influenced Sam Cooke, human significance. who replaced him as lead singer with the Soul Stirrers and in his later career as pop singer transmitted the ANTHONY HEILBUT is the author of The Gospel Sound: Good News Harris sound to scores of vocal mimics. Aretha and Bad Times. His study of refugee intellectuals will be published by Viking in 1978. He has produced two concerts for the Newport Jazz Franklin’s phrasing and sweet pyrotechnics are inspired Festival and over a dozen albums. by Clara Ward; B. B. King’s nasal intensity echoes Sam

THE RECORDINGS

Side One forties, they were ready to combine spirited dialogue develops between Band 1 his new ideas with their traditional Bradley and the second lead, and God Shall Wipe All Tears Away approach. At that time the group, the last word is cut off with (Antonio Haskell) operating out of Cleveland, was so absolute finality. The Kings of Harmony: Carey Bradley, lead, popular that they could work some Eugene “Pop” Strong, second lead; Marion Though the clouds may hover o’er us, Thompson, tenor; Walter Latimore, baritone; ghetto neighborhoods for months Bill Morgan, bass. Recorded 1946, probably without overstaying their welcome. There’s a bright and golden ray; in New York. Originally issued on Manor The Kings of Harmony have the ’Tis the promise that in heaven 1024-A. most powerful male-vocal-group God shall wipe all tears away. sound I have heard. From the tenor This is the supreme example of When we reach that blessed homeland to the commanding bass, each Where ’tis everlasting day, the appliction of Dr. Watts vocal member contributes a subtle yet technique to a newer gospel com- On that bright eternal morning, compelling vocal coloration. The God shall wipe all tears away. position. The Kings of Harmony singers were exquisitely attuned: were masters of Dr. Watts singing, Bradley says that this arrangement Band 2 and though they recorded only came to him in a dream, and it Canaan Land three 78s their reputation as the required only three rehearsals. The (A. H.Windom) “hardest hitters” on the gospel high- song shares a common image with way remains unchallenged. The The Famous Blue Jay Singers: Charlie Milton’s Lycidas, the vision of God Bridges, lead; Silas Steele, second lead; Jimmy group was formed in the thirties by wiping away His followers’ tears. Veal, tenor; James Hollingsworth, baritone; Sunday-school students of the From Bradley’s first word, the Dave Parnell, bass. Recorded 1947, probably Starlight Baptist Church in in New York. Originally issued on Harlem record sustains a brooding intensi- 1027-B. Bessemer, Alabama (their original ty, supported by Bill Morgan’s omi- name was the B.Y. P. U. Specials, nous bass rumblings, culminating in The Blue Jay Singers were the after the Baptist Young People’s Bradley’s lassolike tossing of the Kings of Harmony's seniors and Union). Their lead singer, Carey work “God.” The chorus allows for neighbors in Alabama. The original Bradley, migrated in the late thirties Dr.Watts melisma, especially on the four members—Steele, Veal, to Chicago, where he became a dis- words “on” and “bright,” when har- Hollingsworth, Parnell—first ciple of the newer gospel writers. monic possibilities seem to succeed recorded in 1932, earning their pio- When he rejoined his group in the themselves by the microsecond. A 3 neer status by including the first Tyler, Texas, recorded for the meshing of the two exemplifies the recording of a Dorsey composition. Library of Congress a group of dual importance of hymns and spiri- In later years they acquired an addi- rugged, syncopated jubilees. That tuals in the gospel tradition. tional lead, Charlie Bridges, a veter- was before R. H. Harris joined them. an of an even older Alabama quar- By the time of this recording the Just like a tree of level, I'll forever stand, tet, the Birmingham Jubilee Singers. group's harmonies were conven- Just like a tree of level, I'll forever stand, The Blue Jays excelled in Dr. Watts tionalized to an inch of doo-wop, Because I'm rooted and living in the rocks of ages, hymns; their rock-solid harmonies but Harris had proved the most I'll forever stand. soared from the basement, unlike influential of gospel quartet leads. those of contemporary falsetto In his style, with its patented You know I heard the voice of my Jesus quartets who chirp from the attic. "delayed-time" phrasing and wispy say, In more ways than one, they sur- falsetto, there is a melancholy lyri- "Come unto me and I'll give you rest. pass their descendants in depth. cism that comprehends country Lay down thy weary, weary one, lie "Canaan Land," based on a fields as well as city street corners. down Scottish folk tune, contains conven- Thy head upon, upon my breast." tional lyrics redeemed by Silas I want Jesus to walk around, Early one morning, I'll forever stand. Steele's energy. Carey Bradley calls Walk around my bedside, Lord. One day, one day, I was walking along; Steele the first of the hard-singing When I'm on my bed dying, I want Jesus to walk around. You know I heard a voice, but I saw no quartet leads. Though a small man, one. Steele could summon up awesome Fisherman Peter was on the sea, The voice I heard sounded so sweet, vocal power. This song begins in On the sea of Galilee. It must have been Jesus, He was talking slow waltz tempo with Bridges He heard a voice say, "Be my disciple, to me. leading in somewhat lugubrious Drop your nets and follow me." style over three-part harmony; in Band 5 the second stanza Steele joins the Mother she said when she was dying, Yield Not to Temptation background; with the shift in tempo "Son, I'm bound to leave you alone, (Horatio Palmer) he assumes the lead, trading off Just let the Holy Spirit guide you, The Roberta Martin Singers: Delores It will lead you safely home." Barrett, lead; Roberta Martin, contralto and hollers with Bridges. Steele's vocal piano; Norsalus McKissick, tenor; Eugene contains some of the earliest Smith and Willie Webb, baritones. Recorded recorded examples of verbal repeti- Band 4 1947 in Chicago. Originally issued on tion ("unworthy, unworthy, unwor- Tree of Level Religious 2001-A. thy, boys, unworthy"), and in his (Traditional) The Fairfield Four: Sam McCrary, tenor; subtle shifts of accent ("over there, The Roberta Martin Singers were Edward Thomas, second tenor; Willie Lewis, the first important gospel group.A over there, over there, way over baritone; Dicky Freeman, bass. Recorded there") one bears the paradigm of 1950 in Nashville. Originally issued on Dot native of Arkansas, Roberta Martin gospel shouting. 1003-A (6506). moved to Chicago in her teens, briefly studied music, and support- I am bound for Canaan land, The Fairfield Four was another ed herself by playing silent-movie To that happy golden strand. quartet formed by members of a accompaniments. She was a pro- There I shall receive a blessing Baptist church, the Fairfield Baptist tégé of Thomas A. Dorsey's and in For the work I've done below. Church of Nashville, where they turn trained some of Chicago's were recorded by the Library of finest gospel singers. It is largely There I'll meet my loved ones gone on, Congress in 1942. Following a due to her that Chicago became And the others gone on before. series of radio broadcasts, the Philadelphia's only rival as a I'll be in that great reunion group achieved great popularity in gospel capital. When we gather around the throne. the late forties. This early recording shows the Though unworthy I may be, "Tree of Level" is a misreading of nascent gospel-group style. "Yield God has prepared a place for me. the song's correct title, "Tree of Not to Temptation" is the hoariest of He is the king of glory, Lebanon." Sam McCrary's bluesy hymns; Delores Barrett's vocal is He's the man of Galilee. tenor introduces the initial chorus. mildly operatic; the vocal back- In the song's two verses, the tempo ground is subdued to the point of Band 3 is slightly retarded, and bass Dicky self-effacement. Yet this is an aston- Walk Around Freeman assumes lead as the group ishingly pure gospel record. Martin's (R. H. Harris) wails out. Gospel audiences love piano lopes along with an artfully The Soul Stirrers, including R. H. Harris: R. H. vocal extremes, and Freeman man- controlled swing. Even at twenty- Harris, lead; S. R. Crain, tenor; Mozelle Franklin, ages to be as expressive as he is vir- one, Delores Barrett (now Campbell) baritone; Reverend Rundless, baritone; J. J. Farley, bass. Recorded 1944 in Chicago. tuosic. The first verse is taken from was a major gospel stylist. Note how Originally issued on Down Beat 102-A. the Dr. Watts hymn "I Heard the she alternates pianissimo grace Voice of Jesus," the second and notes with intimations of vocal In 1936 the Five Soul Stirrers of third from a traditional spiritual.The smears, an immediate clue that she 4 can holler as well as croon. And she used to attend church conven- for over fifty years. She may be the introducing each line she persistent- tions and heard the rousing vocal most influential of female gospel ly interjects "but," a typical expres- and piano style of the blind Arizona soloists. Thomas A. Dorsey believes sive ploy of folk preachers. Her intu- Dranes. Dranes, Tharpe, and other she could have outsung Bessie ition about grammar pays off: when early Sanctified singers exhibit a Smith. Mahalia Jackson, who always she reaches the phrase "though precise, almost mannered diction credited Bessie Smith as her inspira- we're often cast down," the associa- and a relentless syncopation. tion, learned more about phrasing tions are much richer than the origi- Though Tharpe recorded with big and showmanship from Willie Mae nal lyric's spiritual gymnastics. bands, sang in nightclubs, and occa- Ford. Mother Smith, as she is known, sionally performed blues, her remains a singer and evangelist. She Yield not to temptation, all yielding is gospel repertory consisted primari- has survived her best-known pro- sin. ly of Church of God in Christ shout tégés, Mahalia Jackson, Brother Joe Each victory will help you some other songs she learned from her mother, May, and Edna Gallmon Cooke, and to win. Katie Bell Nubin. This recording still sings with the breathy vibrato, Fight manfully onward, dark passions begins with a curious tom-tom startling dynamic shifts, and vocal subdue. Look ever to Jesus, Jesus will carry you effect and a contagious exchange resonance that turned on a genera- through. between Tharpe's Sanctified guitar tion of midwestern singers. Her and Sammy Price's boogie-woogie piano accompanist here is her You just ask Him to help you, comfort, piano. Then, as if to cancel this adopted daughter Bertha. strengthen, and keep you; eclecticism, there is a duet between Jesus is ready, He's willing to aid you, Rosetta, all bouncy showmanly Ever since I found the Christ, Jesus will carry you through. uplift (one can't miss her scatter- There is something in my life shot repetitions of "he locked"), and That makes me feel like flying away to To him that o'ercometh, God will give a her mother, whose laconic, unorna- be at rest. crown. mented style helps keep matters Through faith we shall conquer, though Since my soul is heaven bound, we're often cast down. serious. Each singer ends different- Wolves of hell are all around, He who is our Savior, our strength He'll ly, Nubin with a slurred, matter-of- That makes me feel like flying away to renew. fact "jaw," Tharpe with a stylish be at rest. Just look ever to Jesus, Jesus will carry “jaw-aw-aw”; the generation gap you through. closes in harmony. Mother Nubin Late some night as I recline, died in the late sixties, close to Something steals across my mind Band 6 ninety;Tharpe outlived her by only That makes me feel like flying away to Daniel in the Lion's Den (He a few years. For all Rosetta's worldly be at rest. Locked the Lion's Jaw) ways, she remained a Sanctified In the morning when I rise, (Traditional) daughter. Something moves before my eyes, Rosetta Tharpe, vocal and guitar; Katie Bell Makes me feel like flying away to be at Nubin, vocal; Sammy Price, piano; Billy Taylor, Daniel in the den, in the den, in the Sr., string bass; Herbert Cowans, drums. rest. Recorded July 7,1949, in New York. den, Originally issued on Decca 48116-B Jonah in the belly of the whale. As I travel through the land, (75039). He locked the lion's jaw, he locked the I meet Satan and his band, lion's jaw, That makes me feel like flying away to Gospel lyrics of such extreme He locked the lion's jaw. be at rest. simplicity strike some listeners as simpleminded. Actually, here is a Send down your Son, your Son, your As I go from door to door, suffering Son, Loved ones gone to come no more fine example of the gospel code at And see what the good Lord has done. work. Since slavery, Daniel, the Make me feel like flying away to be at Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego, rest. Hebrew children, and Jonah have Jonah in the belly of the whale. been symbolic figures whose deliv- Then give me wings, Lord, give me erance from impossible situations Band 7 wings, Lord, related specifically to the plight of Give Me Wings Wings of faith to fly away and be at rest black Americans. In a gospel (D. B. Hardy) (I'm feeling lonely); church, where such references are Willie Mae Ford Smith, vocal; Bertha Smith, Give me wings, Lord, give me wings, understood, a mere phrase piano; Gwendolyn Cooper, organ. Recorded Lord, ("through many dangers"; "my soul c. 1950 in St. Louis. Private recording. And I'll fly away somewhere to be at looks back"), a name, or even a hum rest. This is a particularly attractive can concentrate enough meaning lyric, with imagery both Biblical and Band 8 to stir the listener. bluesy. Willie Mae Ford Smith was Rosetta Tharpe was the first suc- They Led My Lord Away born in Mississippi and raised in (Traditional) cessful product of the Church of Memphis and has lived in St. Louis Marion Williams, vocal. Recorded C. 1970-75 God in Christ. As a girl in Arkansas in Philadelphia. Private recording. 5 Marion Williams, a native of Miami, also grew up in the Church of God SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY in Christ but was influenced by Baldwin, James. The Fire Next Time. New quartets like the Kings of Harmony York: Dial, 1963. even before she joined the Clara ____. Go Tell It on the Mountain. New York: Ward Singers, with whom she sang Dial, 1952. for eleven years. Williams is a versa- Goreau, Laurane. Just Mahalia, Baby. Waco, Texas:Word, 1975. tile and imaginative stylist but has Heilbut,Tony. The Gospel Sound: Good News often been recorded in uncongenial and Bad Times. New York: Simon & surroundings, performing unsuitable Schuster, 1971. material. Here, happily, she sings an SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY a-cappella spiritual with a purity and strength of performance and inten- Soloists tion that recall field recordings. Cooke, Edna Gallmon. Evening Sun. Williams can evoke both the Nashboro 7154. Jackson, Mahalia. How I Got Over. Columbia melancholy lyricism of R. H. Harris KC-34073. and the Burning Bush authority of May, Brother Joe. The Brother Joe May Story. Silas Steele. Her wit, evidenced by Nashboro DBL-27116. shifts in phrasing and word content, Ward, Clara. Clara Ward Memorial Album. Savoy MG-14308. is her own. In the second stanza the Williams, Marion. Prayer Changes Things. sheer vocal propulsion of the ad- Atlantic SD-18142. libbed "sure ’nuff" and the hair-raising upward slur on the final "hill" Gospel Groups The Caravans. Mary, Don't You Weep. Gospel obviate instrumentation. In the third MG-3005. stanza the sorrow and intensity of The Best of Dorothy Love Coates and the the final "they pierced my Lord in Original Gospel Harmonettes. Specialty the side" are almost visceral. SPS-2134. The Davis Sisters. Shine on Me. Savoy MG- 14007. Well, they led my Lord away, they led The Roberta Martin Singers. Old Ship of Him away, Zion. Kenwood 507. They led him away; The Ward Singers. Surely God Is Able. Savoy They led my Lord away, He never said a MG-14001. mumblin' word. They led my Lord away, He never said a Quartets The Dixie Hummingbirds. In the Morning. mumblin' word, Peacock PLP-108. Hey, not a word, not a word did He say. The Original Soul Stirrers. Specialty SPS- 2137. Well, they whipped Him up Calvary's The Best of the Pilgrim Travelers. Specialty hill, mmm yes they did, SPS-2121. Sure 'nuff they did; The Best of the Sensational Nightingales. They whipped Him up Calvary's hill, He Peacock PLP-137. never said a mumblin' word. The Swan Silvertones. My Rock. Specialty SPS-2128. They whipped Him up Calvary's hill, He never said a mumblin' word, Not a word, mmm-mmm not a word, no no, did He say.

Well, they pierced Him in the side, yes they did, Oh. they did so; They pierced Him in the side, He never said a mumblin' word. They pierced my Lord in the side, He never said a mumblin' word, Hmmm, not a word, not a word, oh, did He say.

6 White Urban Hymnody nant (V) chords, and the same chord was often by Harry Eskew repeated for an entire measure, thus clothing the melody with unobtrusive harmonies. So close were “Water runs downhill and the highest hills are the musical traits of urban hymnody and popular the great cities. If we can stir them, we shall stir the secular song that on occasion the same piece of whole nation." These words, spoken by Dwight L. music served both traditions. For example, George Moody at the beginning of his career as an evange- Frederick Root's "The Little Octaroon" (1866) list, show the focus on urban America made by the served as the music for the hymn "Ring the Bells of great revivalists from Moody in the eighteen-seven- Heaven" (1866). In contrast to earlier camp-meet- ties to Billy Graham in the latter half of the twenti- ing hymns and hymns of the Sacred Harp tradi- eth century. Efforts to reach the urban masses with tion, both of which freely used major and minor the gospel involved more than preaching; they keys, urban popular hymnody made almost exclu- involved a partnership between preaching the sive use of the bright major keys, probably because gospel and singing the gospel. the minor keys were regarded as too mournful to It was important that both preaching and music effectively communicate the gospel to the masses. be on a plane that would communicate to the ordi- nary urban person rather than primarily to the col- THE SUNDAY SCHOOL lege professor or the trained musician. In music this effort to communicate called for simplicity in Before it was associated with the mass revivalism both hymn texts and tunes.The primary device for of Moody and others beginning in the eighteen- simplifying the texts of urban hymns was repeti- seventies, the primary milieu of urban hymnody tion of key words or phrases, usually involving the was the Sunday-school movement. The origin of use of a chorus after each stanza. The stanza-with- the movement is usually traced to the work of chorus had been a popular hymn form in the rural Robert Raikes, who in 1780 began Sunday classes camp meeting starting about 1800 and found a for children in Gloucester, England. Sunday schools growing acceptance in urban hymnody. were soon established in England and America. In The King James Version of the Bible and popular nineteenth-century America the Sunday school secular songs furnished much of the vocabulary of experienced phenomenal growth. From fewer than urban hymnody. Notice the direct relationship a hundred thousand children in 1824, when the between the imagery in John 8:12, in which Jesus American Sunday School Union was established in says, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth Philadelphia, Sunday-school enrollment increased me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the to over six hundred thousand by 1831, to three and light of life," and the popular hymn written by a quarter million by 1851, and to over six million Eliza E. Hewitt in 1887: by 1875. (The last two figures include Canada.) The most widely used collection of hymns in the There is sunshine in my soul today, Sunday school in its early decades was the English More glorious and bright hymn writer Isaac Watts's Divine and Moral Songs Than glows in any earthly sky, (1720), which contained such stern verses as For Jesus is my light. How glorious is our heav'nly King, Chorus Who reigns above the sky! Oh, there's sunshine, blessed sunshine, How shall a child presume to sing When the peaceful, happy moments roll: His dreadful majesty? When Jesus shows His smiling face, There is sunshine in my soul. and The music of such hymns was of necessity sim- Why should I love my sport so well ple, with catchy, lilting melodies that could be easi- So constant at my play, ly learned by untrained singers. Syncopation and And lose the thoughts of heaven and hell, such contagious rhythms as the dotted-eighth fol- And then forget to pray. lowed by a sixteenth note (both thought inappro- priate in the more formal hymn tradition) were key Such songs were too somber for the American ingredients in urban popular hymnody. The har- Sunday-school movement, which developed its monies of these hymns were largely restricted to own hymn tradition based on a more positive the- the familiar tonic (I), subdominant (IV), and domi- ology, with lighter poetry and lilting music. Lowell 7 Mason's Juvenile Psalmist (1829) was one of the a statement used to advertise their meetings: "Mr. earliest American Sunday-school music books, but Moody will preach the gospel and Mr. Sankey will the leading pioneer in this field was Mason's stu- sing the gospel." dent William B. Bradbury (1816-1868), composer of Sankey and Bliss were two of the earliest evange- the most popular of all Sunday-school hymns, listic singers who contributed to the rise and "Jesus Loves Me" (1862). Bradbury's Sunday-school growth of gospel hymnody, which in style was sim- collections, like others from about 1850, bore ilar to the earlier hymns of the Sunday school.They cheerful titles designed for the delight of Sunday- were followed by McGranahan, Stebbins, and school children and their leaders, such as Golden Daniel B. Towner, all associated with Moody at Chain (1861) and Fresh Laurels (1867).These two some time during his career. Each composed music songbooks reportedly sold two million and over to gospel hymns that remain in the repertory of one million copies respectively, a clear indication evangelistic hymnody. of the widespread popularity of Bradbury's Sunday- The leading poet of gospel hymnody was the school compilations. blind hymn writer Fanny Jane Crosby (1820-1915). Three of the hymns selected to illustrate urban Famous as a secular poet, in the eighteen-sixties hymnody on this record appeared in the era of she turned to hymn writing. She produced some Sunday-school hymnody prior to the mass revival- nine thousand hymn texts, which were set to ism of the eighteen-seventies: "Just as I Am" (to music by such composers as Robert Lowry ("All Bradbury's "Woodworth," 1849), "Nearer, My God, the Way My Saviour Leads Me," 1875), William to Thee" (to Mason's "Bethany," 1856), and "We’re Howard Doane ("I Am Thine, O Lord" and "To God Marching to Zion" (to Robert Lowry's "Marching to Be the Glory," both 1875), George Stebbins ("Jesus Zion," 1867). Is Tenderly Calling," 1883), and Ira Sankey ("O Child of God, Wait Patiently," 1886). Crosby's URBAN REVIVALISM: NINETEENTH CENTURY hymns typically emphasize the joy of her personal relationship to the Savior, drawing on words of The popular urban hymns associated with the emotion found also in the parlor songs of her time, Sunday school soon became strongly identified as in "Blessed Assurance" (1873): with the revival meetings of Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899) and his famous singer-composer Ira D. Perfect submission, perfect delight, Sankey (1840-1908). In this new setting they Visions of rapture now burst on my sight: became known as gospel songs or gospel hymns, Angels descending bring from above so named after Phillip P. Bliss's Gospel Songs Echoes of mercy, whispers of love. (1874) and Bliss and Sankey's Gospel Hymns and Chorus Sacred Songs (1875). This latter collection, the This is my story, this is my song, most popular collection of urban revival hymnody Praising my Savior all the day long; of all time, was published in six volumes: Gospel This is my story, this is my song, Hymns and Sacred Songs (1875) (Bliss and Praising my Savior all the day long. Sankey); Gospel Hymns No. 2 (1876) (Bliss and Sankey); Gospel Hymns No. 3 (1878), No. 4 (1882), Three of the selections on this record were writ- No. 5 (1887), and No. 6 (1891) (all Sankey, James ten during the Moody-Sankey era of the late nine- McGranahan, and George C. Stebbins); and Gospel teenth century: "The Ninety and Nine" (Sankey and Hymns Nos. 1-6 Complete (1894).The British coun- Clephane, 1874), "To God Be the Glory" (Doane terpart of the Gospel Hymns series is Sacred Songs and Crosby, 1875), and "Saved by Grace" (Stebbins and Solos (1903), which sold eighty million copies and Crosby, 1894). within fifty years of publication and is still in print. In 1873 Moody and Sankey went to Britain to URBAN REVIVALISM:TWENTIETH CENTURY hold evangelistic meetings. By the time they returned to America around two years later they Moody's practice of each evangelist having his had become world famous. In their mass meetings own singer continued into the twentieth century. in England and Scotland the gospel hymns were After Moody's death urban revivalism continued to often introduced by Sankey, who sang solos and flourish under such evangelists as Sam P. Jones, B. accompanied himself at the reed organ. The Fay Mills, J.Wilbur Chapman, R.A.Torry, and William important partnership of preaching and singing A. Sunday. The two evangelistic singers who made in their evangelistic work was clearly indicated by the greatest impact on urban revivalism in the early 8 decades of this century were Charles McCallom many gospel hymns of the Sankey era, but the Alexander (1867-1920) and Homer Alvan trend was toward lighter, optimistic, and semisa- Rodeheaver (1880-1955). cred music, as illustrated by the frequently used Alexander was a native of Tennessee. He was song "Brighten the Corner Where You Are" (1913). briefly associated with Moody in 1893 but became Rodeheaver's reply to those who criticised his use famous through his revivals from 1901 on with of such a song was: Torry and later Chapman in America, England, and Australia. In contrast to Sankey, Alexander set a It was never intended for a Sunday morning service, mood of informality in the services. In place of nor for a devotional meeting—its purpose was to accompaniment by a reed organ Alexander pre- bridge the gap between the popular song of the day ferred improvised trills and cadenzas on the piano, and the great hymns and gospel songs, and to give and he led the singing with wide-sweeping men a simple, easy lilting melody which they could learn the first time they heard it, and which they motions of his hands. In Modern Revivalism, could whistle and sing wherever they might be. William G. McLoughlin, Jr., describes Alexander's methods with the crowd during the half-hour In 1910 Rodeheaver began publishing gospel- song service before the sermon as resembling hymn collections, establishing the firm now known "more nearly the techniques of a master of cere- as Word Music, Inc. (formerly the Rodeheaver monies at a Rotary convention than those of a Company), of Winona Lake, Indiana. He recorded choir director or soloist at a religious service." for Decca, Columbia, Edison, and Brunswick and Alexander was not a composer, but he popularized also established his own label, Rainbow Records. and published gospel hymns. His meetings in Although Rodeheaver composed few gospel Australia brought about the popularity of "The hymns, he used the services of several more talent- Glory Song." His copyrighted and published ed gospel hymnists, including Charles H. Gabriel, gospel hymns include "His Eye Is on the Sparrow" who was associated with Rodeheaver's firm from (1905) and "Ivory Palaces" (1915). Although 1912 until his death in 1932. Sankey refused to accept personal income from Beginning in the twenties urban revivalism hymnal sales, Alexander (and Rodeheaver) re- declined until national attention was focused on ceived a considerable income from them. the meetings of Billy Graham starting in 1949. Rodeheaver gained his fame as Billy Sunday's Graham's revivals have by and large used the past music director beginning in 1909.Their campaigns heritage of gospel hymnody and have produced lit- were limited to the United States. Like Alexander, tle new music.They have, however, served to popu- Rodeheaver sought to make the song service infor- larize gospel hymnody, particularly through mal, lighthearted, and enjoyable. The Sunday- records, radio, television, and films. Rodeheaver meetings were held mostly in specially constructed "tabernacles," temporary buildings Harry Eskew, professor of music history and hymnody at New with the ground covered with sawdust (hence the Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, has written extensively on expression "hitting the sawdust trail" for walking American hymnody, including articles on shape-note hymnody and gospel hymnody for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and down the aisles to make public decisions during Musicians. He is editor of The Hymn, the qnarterly of the Hymn these meetings). Rodeheaver continued to use Society of America.

9 THE RECORDINGS

Side Two Then let our songs abound, He is my strength from day to day, Band 1 And ev'ry tear be dry; Without Him I should fall. We're marching thro' Immanuel's When I am sad to Him I go, We're Marching to Zion ground, (twice) No other one can cheer me so; (Robert Lowry and Isaac Watts) To fairer worlds on high. (twice) When I am sad He makes me glad: Congregation of the Ridgecrest (N.C.) (Chorus) He's my Friend! Baptist Conference Center. Recorded 1971 in Ridgecrest, North Carolina. Private recording. Band 2 Jesus is all the world to me, Jesus Is All the World to Me My Friend in trials sore; I go to Him for blessings and This is an example of an older (Will L.Thompson) He gives them o'er and o'er. hymn adapted to the gospel-hymn Congregation of the Ridgecrest (N.C.) He sends the sunshine and the rain, tradition in the latter nineteenth Baptist Conference Center. Recorded 1974 in Ridgecrest, North Carolina. Private He sends the harvest's golden grain. century.These four stanzas are from recording. Sunshine and rain, and golden grain: ten stanzas titled “Heavenly Joy on He's my Friend! Earth” in Hymns and Spiritual “Jesus Is All the World to Me” Songs (London, 1707) by Isaac Watts has the same lilting 6/8 meter as Jesus is all the world to me, And true to Him I'll be: (1674-1748), the father of English “We're Marching to Zion” but is hymnody. In 1867 the Baptist pastor Oh, how could I this Friend deny, ordinarily sung more slowly, Robert Lowry set Watts's hymn to When He's so true to me? Following Him I know I'm right, music and added the refrain, making without the accented marchlike Keeping His cross within my sight; it into a hymn that became widely effect. Although without a chorus, Thompson's hymn begins Following Him by day and night: popular in Sunday-school urban He's my Friend! revivalism.“Marching to Zion” lost its and closes each stanza with the characteristic dignified air as Lowry phrases “Jesus is all the world to Jesus is all the world to me, used a swinging 6/8 meter, march- me” and “He's my friend,” thus I want no better Friend; like rhythms, and echo voices on the providing the repetition essential I trust Him now, I'll trust him when Life's fleeting days shall end. refrain, conjuring the excitement in the gospel-hymn tradition.The and physical sensations of a march Beautiful life with such a Friend! idea of Jesus as friend is found in Beautiful life that has no end! to the new Jerusalem or heaven. many popular gospel hymns, Eternal life, eternal joy: This performance and the next He's my Friend! are from the annual Church Music such as “What a Friend We Have Conference of the Sunday School in Jesus” (1855), “I've Found a Band 3 Board of the Southern Baptist Friend, Oh, Such a Friend” Convention, one of the largest con- (1863), and “There's Not a Friend The Ninety and Nine (Ira D. Sankey and Elizabeth C. Clephane) ferences of its kind. like the Lowly Jesus”(1895). George Beverly Shea, vocal; accompanied by Both words and music of this Ira Sankey's reed organ. Recorded 1955 in Come, ye that love the Lord hymn were written by Will Minneapolis. Private recording. And let your joys be known, Lamartine Thompson (1847- Join in a song with sweet accord, 1909), head of the music-publish- Sankey set this famous hymn to (twice) music spontaneously at the close And thus surround the throne. (twice) ing firm Will L. Thompson and Company at East Liverpool, Ohio, of one of the Moody-Sankey Chorus and Chicago. A composer also of meetings in Edinburgh. After a We're marching to Zion, secular and patriotic songs, sermon on the Good Shepherd Beautiful, beautiful Zion; by Moody and eloquent words We're marching upward to Zion, Thompson was primarily interest- The beautiful city of God. ed in sacred music. He named the from the famed Scottish minister tune “Elizabeth”after his wife. and hymn writer Horatius Bonar, Let those refuse to sing, Thompson's most famous Moody asked Sankey,“Have you a Who never knew our God; hymn,“Softly and Tenderly Jesus solo appropriate for this subject, But children of the heav'nly King, with which to close the service?” (twice) Is Calling,” drew the following May speak their joys abroad. (twice) words of admiration from D. L. Sankey wanted to use a hymn he (Chorus) Moody:“Will, I would rather have had read in a newspaper the day written 'Softly and Tenderly Jesus before, but it had no music. As The hill of Zion yields Sankey related in My Life and A thousand sacred sweets, Is Calling' than anything I have Before we reach the heav'nly fields, been able to do in my whole life.” the Story of the Gospel Hymns: (twice) Or walk the golden streets. (twice) Again the impression came Jesus is all the world to me, strongly upon me that I must (Chorus) My life, my joy, my all; 10 sing the beautiful and appro- “Lord,Thou hast here Thy ninety and (1869), and “Rescue the priate words I had found the nine; Perishing”(1869). Are they not enough for Thee?” day before, and placing the But the Shepherd made answer; “This “To God Be the Glory” became little newspaper slip on the of mine known in England through organ before me, I lifted my Has wandered away from me, Sankey's Sacred Songs and heart in prayer, asking God to And, although the road be rough and Solos but was omitted from its help me to so sing that the steep, American counterpart, Gospel I go to the desert to find my sheep.” people might hear and under- (repeat) Hymns Nos. 1-6 Complete. This stand. Laying my hands upon hymn, practically unknown in the organ I struck the key of But all thro' the mountains, thunder- America, was a favorite in the A flat, and began to sing. riven, 1954 Billy Graham Greater And up from the rocky steep, Note by note the tune was There arose a glad cry to the gate of London Crusade and is sung given, which has not been heaven, here by this Crusade Choir. “To changed from that day to this. “Rejoice! I have found my sheep!” God Be the Glory” was reintro- As the singing ceased a great And the Angels echoed around the duced to America in subsequent sigh seemed to go up from throne, Billy Graham meetings and has “Rejoice! for the Lord brings back His the meeting and I knew that own.” found a place in many recent the song had reached the (repeat) American hymnals. hearts of my Scotch audi- ence. Mr. Moody was greatly Band 4 To God be the glory, great things He To God Be the Glory hath done, moved. Leaving the pulpit, he So loved He the world that he gave us came down to where I was (William Howard Doane and Fanny Jane Crosby) His Son, seated. Leaning over the Billy Graham London Crusade Choir. Who yielded His life an atonement for organ, he looked at the little Recorded 1954 in London. Originally sin, newspaper slip from which issued on RCA LPM- 2088. And opened the life Gate that all may go in. the song had been sung and with tears in his eyes said: Fanny Jane Crosby, the “Queen Chorus “Sankey, where did you get of Gospel Song,” wrote the Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, that hymn? I never heard the words to this hymn in 1875, and Let the earth hear His voice. they were set to music by Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, like of it in my life.” I was also Let the people rejoice. moved to tears.... William Howard Doane (1832- Oh, come to the Father 1915) and first published in the Through Jesus the Son, The words of “The Ninety and Sunday-school collection And give Him the glory, Nine” were written by Elizabeth Brightest and Best (by Lowry Great things He hath done. and Doane, New York, 1875). Cecilia Clephane (1830-1869), Great things He hath taught us, great whose hymn “Beneath the Cross This hymn is unusual for Fanny things He hath done, of Jesus” is found in many cur- Crosby in that it is objective, And great our rejoicing thro' Jesus the rent hymnals. It is quite appro- void of “I,”“me,” and “my” and Son; expressions of sentiment; it is But purer, and higher, and greater will priate in this album that Billy be Graham's “Sankey,” George primarily a joyful hymn of Our wonder, our transport when Jesus Beverly Shea (born 1909), sings praise, focusing on salvation we see. “The Ninety and Nine” accom- through the atonement of Jesus. (Chorus) panied by a reed organ Sankey Doane, the president of a Cin- used in England and Scotland. cinnati firm manufacturing Band 5 This organ is now at the offices woodworking machinery, com- Brighten the Corner Where of the Billy Graham Evangelistic posed more than twenty-two You Are Association in Minneapolis. hundred hymn tunes and com- (Charles H. Gabriel and Ina Duley Ogdon) piled more than forty collec- Homer Rodeheaver, vocal,and brass band. Recorded 1915 in Camden, New Jersey. There were ninety and nine that safely tions. He provided music for Originally issued on Victor 17763. lay some of Fanny Crosby's best- In the shelter of the fold, But one was out on the hills away, known hymns: “I Am Thine, O Nondoctrinal and entertaining, Far off from the gates of gold. Lord” (1875), “Pass Me Not, O “Brighten the Corner Where You Away on the mountains wild and bare, Gentle Savior” (1868), “Jesus, Are” became the equivalent of Away from the tender Shepherd's care. Keep Me Near the Cross” “The Glory Song” during the (repeat) 11 evangelistic meetings of Billy Just above are clouded skies that you with Jesus expressed in the cho- Sunday and Homer Rodeheaver. may help to clear, rus. In contrast to such vigorous Let not narrow self your way debar, The words are by Mrs. Ina Duley Tho' into one heart alone may fall your gospel hymns as “We're Ogdon (1877-1964), an Ohio song of cheer, Marching to Zion” and “Brighten schoolteacher who wrote sever- Brighten the corner where you are. the Corner,” the melody of “In al hundred hymn texts. (Chorus) the Garden” is lyrical and con- Rodeheaver introduced stantly flowing, with the com- Here for all your talent you may surely “Brighten the Corner” at revival find a need, fortable feeling of a waltz. “In meetings in 1912, and it Here reflect the bright, and morning the Garden” and “The Old achieved immediate popularity. star, Rugged Cross” are probably the Gabriel's setting has prominent Even from your humble hand the bread most popular gospel hymns of life may feed, syncopated rhythms and an Brighten the corner where you are. composed in the second decade enjoyable arpeggio (“Shine for (Chorus) of the twentieth century. Jesus where you are”) for the basses on the chorus. Copyright ©1913 by Chas. H. Gabriel Renewed I came to the garden alone 1941 The Rodeheaver Co. Owner. All rights While the dew is still on the roses; Rodeheaver described how this reserved. Used by permission. And the voice I hear, falling on my ear: hymn was used to warm up the The Son of God discloses. audiences in the Sunday taber- Band 6 nacle services: In the Garden Chorus (C.Austin Miles) And He walks with me, and He talks Mrs. William Asher and Homer with me, “Brighten the Corner” was a Rodeheaver, vocals. Recorded 1916 in And He tells me I am His own, general favorite as a congre- Camden, New Jersey. Originally issued And the joy we share as we tarry there, gational song because of the on Victor 18020. None other has ever known. stunts it made possible.When He speaks, and the sound of His voice the tabernacle was filled we In addition to congregational singing and singing by the choir Is so sweet the birds hush their singing, would have one section on And the melody that He gave to me, one side sing the first phrase and soloist, many Billy Sunday Within my heart is ringing. of the chorus, then, jumping meetings featured duets by (Chorus) across the tabernacle, the sec- Rodeheaver and Mrs. William I'd stay in the garden with Him tion on the opposite side sing Asher, a member of the Sunday staff who worked with business- Tho' the night around me be falling, the second phrase, the cho- But He bids me go thro' the voice of rus choir would sing the third women. Rodeheaver wrote, woe. phrase, and then we would “...our voices harmonized in a His voice to me is calling. (Chorus) pick out the ten back rows of way that pleased the people. No the tabernacle, often nearly a musical numbers presented in Copyright ©1912 by Hall-Mack Co. Renewed 1940 the Billy Sunday Campaigns The Rodeheaver Co.All rights reserved. International short city block away, to sing copyright secured. Used by permission. the last “Brighten the Corner.” were more popular or more We used this antiphonal idea appreciated than our duets.” Band 7 effectively with many other Their two most popular duets Nearer, My God, to Thee songs, but none were as uni- were “The Old Rugged Cross” (“Bethany”) versally popular as “Brighten and “In the Garden.”Although C. (Lowell Mason and Sarah Flower Adams) the Corner Where You Are.” Austin Miles (1868-1946) wrote Oscar Seagle and unidentitied quartet, “In the Garden” to express vocals. Recorded 1920. Place of recording unknown. Originally issued on Do not wait until some deed of great- Mary's feelings after encounter- Columbia A-3354. ness you may do, ing the resurrected Christ in the Do not wait to shed your light afar, garden at His tomb, the hymn is To the many duties ever near you now The text of “Nearer, My God, to be true, not frequently associated with Thee” was written in 1840 by Brighten the corner where you are. this Biblical event. “In the Sarah Flower Adams, an English Garden” has a strong romantic Unitarian; it is based on the Chorus appeal in such phrases as “dew story of Jacob's dream at Bethel Brighten the corner where you are! is still on the roses” and “so Brighten the corner where you are! (Genesis 28:10-22). In 1856 Someone far from harbor you may sweet the birds hush their Lowell Mason (1792-1872), the guide across the bar, singing.” Beyond this, however, is most important American hymn- Brighten the corner where you are. the idea of intimate friendship tune composer during his life-

12 time, wrote the tune “Bethany.” Tenderly Calling Today” (1883), evangelist's appeal for decisions, This older hymn was well “Jesus, I Come”(1887), and “Have which would normally be fol- known in urban revivalism, for it Thine Own Way, Lord”(1907). He lowed by an invitation hymn. appeared in Sankey's Gospel also collaborated with Sankey During the hymn those making Hymns Nos. 1-6 Complete and McGranahan on the third, decisions to follow Christ would (1894) and Rodeheaver and fourth, fifth, and sixth books of be asked to come to the front as Gabriel's Songs for Service the Gospel Hymns series.“Saved an indication of their commit- (1915). In both these col- by Grace” was the last widely ment. Probably no hymn has lections, “Nearer, My God, to popular hymn Fanny Crosby been more frequently used for Thee” is found in the back of the wrote. The emphasis on heaven the invitation than “Just as I Am.” book in smaller print in the sec- throughout this hymn occurs It was written in 1834 by tion reserved for familiar hymns. typically in the final stanza of Charlotte Elliott, an Anglican. The hymn has been popularly most of Crosby's familiar hymns. She was an invalid, and in “Just thought to have been sung just Gipsy Smith (Rodney Smith, as I Am” she is reported to have before the sinking of the English 1860-1947) was a native English “deliberately set down for her ship Titanic in 1912, but it has gypsy who worked with General own comfort the formulas of been shown that Mason's tune William Booth of the Salvation her faith.” William B. Bradbury was not used, for it has never Army and later became a famous provided the tune “Woodworth,” become associated with this evangelist. During the first of his which has become generally hymn in England. Oscar Seagle more than thirty visits to associated with “Just as I Am” in (1877-1945) was a well-known America, Smith met Fanny American hymnals. Bradbury New York baritone, singing Crosby and Ira D. Sankey, both of also supplied music for several teacher, and coach. whom greatly encouraged him. other widely popular hymns, Note the rolled chords on the such as “On Christ the Solid Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee! piano by the unidentified Rock I Stand” (1834, tune 1863), E'en tho it be a cross that raiseth me; Still all my song shall be, accompanist and Smith’s “Savior, like a Shepherd Lead Us” Nearer, my God, to Thee! (repeat twice) expressive use of the fermata (1836, tune 1859), and “He on the climactic high note on Leadeth Me! O Blessed Thought” Though like the wanderer, the sun gone the word “saved.” (1862, tune 1864). down, “Just as I Am” has become the Darkness be over me, my rest a stone. Someday the silver cord will break, invitation hymn for the Billy Yet in my dreams I'd be And I no more as now shall sing; Nearer, my God, to Thee! etc. But, O, the joy when I shall wake Graham crusades, so it is par- Within the palace of the King! ticularly appropriate that it is Band 8 performed by one of his cru- Saved by Grace Chorus sade choirs. (George Coles Stebbins and Fanny Jane And I shall see Him face to face, Crosby) And tell the story—Saved by grace; Just as I am, without one plea, Gipsy Smith, vocal. Recorded c. 1909. And I shall see Him face to face But that Thy blood was shed for me, Place of recording unknown. Ori- And tell the story—Saved by grace. And that Thou bidd'st me come to ginally issued on Columbia A-5147. Thee. Someday my earthly house will fall, O Lamb of God, I come! I come! Fanny Crosby wrote this in I cannot tell how soon 'twill be, 1891 an a four-stanza poem But this I know—my All in All Just as I am, and waiting not Has now a place in heaven for me. To rid my soul of one dark blot, without a chorus. She added the (Chorus) chorus in 1894 at the request of To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot. George Coles Stebbins (1846- Band 9 O Lamb of God, I come! I come! 1945), who set the hymn to Just as I Am, Without One music. Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins sang Plea (“Woodworth”) Just as I am, tho' tossed about With many a conflict, many a doubt, it for the first time to a large (William B. Bradbury and Charlotte Elliott) Fightings within and fears without, Billy Graham Australian Crusade Choir. meeting at Newport, Rhode O Lamb of God, I come! I come! Island, at which D. L. Moody Recorded 1959 in Australia. Originally issued on Radiola RLP-1001. preached. Stebbins, who was for Just as I am,Thou wilt receive, twenty-five years associated with Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve, An essential ingredient of Moody and other leading evange- Because Thy promise I believe, urban revivalism from the days O Lamb of God, I come! I come! lists, composed such famous of Moody and Sankey was the gospel-hymn tunes as “Jesus Is 13 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Alexander, Helen C., and Maclean, J. Kennedy. Charles M.Alexander. London: Marshall, 1920. Benson, Louis F. The English Hymn. Richmond,Va.: John Knox, 1962. Reprint of original 1915 edition. Hall, Jacob Henry. Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers. New York:AMS, 1971. Reprint of original 1914 edition. McLoughlin,William G., Jr. Billy Sunday Was His Real Name. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955. ___. Modern Revivalism. New York: Roland, 1959. Reynolds,William J. Companion to Baptist Hymnal. Nashville: Broadman, 1976. Rodeheaver, Homer. Twenty Years with Billy Sunday. Winona Lake, Indiana: Rodeheaver Hall-Mack, 1936. Ruffin, Bernard. Fanny Crosby. Philadelphia: Pilgrim (United Church), 1976. Sankey, Ira D. My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns. New York: Harper, 1906. Stansbury, George William.“The Music of the Billy Graham Crusades 1947-1970:An Analysis and Evaluation.” Unpublished D.M.A. dissertation, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1971. Stebbins, George C. Reminiscences and Gospel Hymn Stories. New York: Doran, 1924. Stevenson, Robert. Patterns of Protestant Church Music. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1953.

SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY The Hymnal. Norman Luboff Choir. Columbia CL-1106. Billy Sunday Campaign Music and The Old Time Religion. 19 selections reissued on cassette tape No.15. Old Time Music, 523 DuBois Ave., Barrington, N.J. 08007. The Old Fashioned Faith. 20 hymns and gospel songs recorded 1905-24, reissued on cassette tape No. 32. Old Time Music (see above). Old Time Gospel Songs. Recordings by Homer Rodeheaver, F. Carlton Booth, and George Beverly Shea from the thirties and forties, reissued on cassette tape No. 49. Old Time Music (see above). Yesterday's Voices.The Actual Voices of Many of the World's Greatest Christian Leaders. Word W3076-LP.

14 Side One — Total time 22:04 1 GOD SHALL WIPE ALL TEARS AWAY (Antonio Haskell) 2:54 The Kings of Harmony: Carey Bradley, lead: Eugene “Pop”Strong, second lead; Marion Thompson, tenor;Walter Latimore, baritone; Bill Morgan, bass.

2 CANAAN LAND (A. H.Windom) 3:17 The Famous Blue Jay Singers: Charlie Bridges, lead; Silas Steele, second lead; Jimmy Veal, tenor; James Hollingsworth, baritone; Dave Parnell, bass.

3 WALK AROUND (R. H. Harris) 2:51 The Soul Stirrers, including R. H. Harris: R. H. Harris, lead; S. R. Crain, tenor; Mozelle Franklin, baritone; Reverend Rundless, baritone; J. J. Farley, bass.

4 TREE OF LEVEL (Traditional) 2:15 The Fairfield Four: Sam McCrary, tenor; Edward Thomas, second tenor;Willie Lewis, baritone; Dicky Freeman, bass.

5 YIELD NOT TO TEMPTATION (Horatio Palmer) 3:00 The Roberta Martin Singers: Delores Barrett, lead; Roberta Martin, contralto and piano; Norsalus McKissick, tenor; Eugene Smith and Willie Webb, baritones.

6 DANIEL IN THE LION'S DEN (HE LOCKED THE LION'S JAW) (Traditional) 2:42 Rosetta Tharpe, vocal and guitar; Katie Bell Nubin, vocal; Sammy Price, piano; Billy Taylor, Sr., string bass; Herbert Cowans, drums.

7 GIVE ME WINGS (D. B. Hardy) 2:36 Willie Mae Ford Smith, vocal; Bertha Smith, piano; Gwendolyn Cooper, organ.

8 THEY LED MY LORD AWAY (Traditional) 2:03 Marion Williams, vocal.

Side Two — Total time 28:04

1 WE'RE MARCHING TO ZION (Robert Lowry and Isaac Watts) 3:19 Congregation of the Ridgecrest (N.C.) Baptist Conference Center.

2 JESUS IS ALL THE WORLD TO ME (Will L.Thompson) 3:10 Congregation of the Ridgecrest (N.C.) Baptist Conference Center.

3 THE NINETY AND NINE (Ira D. Sankey and Elizabeth C. Clephane) 2:47 George Beverly Shea, vocal; accompanied by Ira Sankey's reed organ.

4 TO GOD BE THE GLORY (William Howard Doane and Fanny Jane Crosby) 2:13 Billy Graham London Crusade Choir.

5 BRIGHTEN THE CORNER WHERE YOU ARE (Charles H. Gabriel and Ina Duley Ogdon) 3:04 (publ.The Rodeheaver Co.) Homer Rodeheaver, vocal, and brass band.

6 IN THE GARDEN (C.Austin Miles) 3:16 (publ.The Rodeheaver Co.) Mrs.William Asher and Homer Rodeheaver, vocals.

7 NEARER, MY GOD, TO THEE (“BETHANY”) (Lowell Mason and Sarah Flower Adams) 2:58 Oscar Seagle and unidentified quartet, vocals.

8 SAVED BY GRACE (George Cole Stebbins and Fanny Jane Crosby) 3:42 Gipsy Smith, vocal.

9 JUST AS I AM, WITHOUT ONE PLEA (“WOODWORTH”) (William B. Bradbury and Charlotte Elliott) 3:06 Billy Graham Australian Crusade Choir. 15 Full discographic information and a list of the performers for each selection may be found within the individ- ual discussions of the works in the liner notes.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Our thanks to Mainstream Records, Inc. for “I'm Bound for Canaan Land”; to ABC Records for “Tree of Level”; to MCA Records for “Daniel in the Lion's Den”; to Mrs.Willie Mae Ford Smith for “Give Me Wings”; to Marion Williams for “They Led My Lord Away”; to the Baptist Sunday School Board for “We're Marching to Zion” and “Jesus Is All the World to Me”; to The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for “The Ninety and Nine”; to RCA Records for “To God Be the Glory,”“Brighten the Corner,” and “In the Garden”; to CBS Records for “Nearer, My God; to Thee” and “Saved by Grace”; to Melody Lane for “Just As I Am.”

Our special thanks to the following for their invaluable help and assistance: George M.Wilson of The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association; Sharon Lyon of the Baptist Sunday School Board; Cliff Barrows of Melody Lane; Donald F. Wetzell of Old Time Music and Bruce Howe of Word, Inc.

Program consultants: Anthony Heilbut (Side One) and Harry Eskew (Side Two) Rerecording engineer: Arthur Shifrin Mastering: Lee Hulko, Sterling Sound Cover art: George Bellows.“Billy Sunday.”Lithograph. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution,Washington, D.C. Cover design: Elaine Sherer Cox Library of Congress Card No.78-750899

For additional information and a catalogue, please contact:

New World Records 701 Seventh Avenue, New York, New York 10036 (212) 302-0460 • (212) 944-1922 fax email: [email protected]