Exploring American Folk Music

by Kip Lornell

  Rainbow record label from the mid-1920s. Courtesy of Kip Lornell.

  Vaughan Publishers of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, and Stamps-Baxter of Jacksonville, Texas, emerged at the forefront of these new houses. Beginning with the founding of the James D. Vaughan Publishing Company in 1902, a small number of publishing businesses promoted gospel songbooks out of which people sang and which were also used for normal singing schools. They printed many of the early gospel songs that are today considered classics within the genre and that many people mistakenly believe come from aural tradition. Songs that have passed into oral tradition, such as “The Sweetest Gift a Mother’s Smile” and “I’ll Fly Away” are actually composed pieces that first appeared in Vaughan or Stamps-Baxter songbooks early in the twentieth century.

  By the early 1900s these publishers began sponsoring their own small groups, usually quartets, to sing out of and promote their songbooks. They were actually placed on a salary, which the publishers could afford because their books were selling so well. Vaughan, for instance, sold in excess of 100,000 songbooks in 1915, a fact that could be attributed in part to touring quartets that had gone on the road about five years previously. Stamps-Baxter soon followed this lead and both companies maintained quartets for several decades. These groups kept up a regular routine of performing and by the middle 1920s had added radio appearances and record dates to their schedule.

  The history of publishing southern gospel music, as it later became known, is encapsulated in the life of Luther Presley, who spent nearly five decades writing sacred songs and working for the Stamps-Baxter Music and Printing Company. Presley, born in 1887, began writing hymns and teaching at singing schools in his middle teens. Near the beginning of the Depression, in February of 1930, the Stamps-Baxter Music and Printing Company (founded in 1926) hired Presley, and he worked for them for almost fifty years. He composed scores of songs, many with themes of eternal life in heaven, that were published in Stamps-Baxter books such as Thankful Hearts or Heavenly Highway. The success of the Stamps-Baxter organization was sealed in 1927 with the astonishing success of “Give the World a Smile,” which was first recorded by the Stamps Quartet in the fall of 1927 for RCA Victor Records and then reprinted numerous times in Stamps-Baxter songbooks. “Give the World a Smile” is the best known song from this era and is still associated with the Stamps Quartet. During the height of gospel songbook publishing—roughly 1925 through 1950—the Stamps-Baxter organization maintained two auxiliary offices in Pangburn, Arkansas, and Chattanooga, Tennessee.

  Folk hymns and gospel music were also favored by evangelists because they had become so well known. Homer Rodeheaver and Billy Sunday were two of the most influential early-twentieth-century evangelists who wanted to reach the common folk through this type of music. Rodeheaver worked throughout the United States from his midwestern base. He even began a publishing company in 1910 and a record company (Rainbow) in the early 1920s. Once more, songs such as “The Old Rugged Cross” and “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” that we assume are “folk” really began as composed turn-of-the century hymns.

  Charles H. Gabriel’s “Brighten the Corner Where You Are” is typical of these songs. Its ab (verse/chorus) with its “Brighten the corner where you are; Some one far from harbor may guide across the bar; Brighten the corner where you are” refrain helped to strengthen its popularity. The song is usually performed in duple meter (4/4) with an easy-to-recall nearly stepwise melody. Its rhythm is predominated by quarter notes, though the occasional dotted half note or eighth note can be found.

  The performance of early-twentieth-century white religious folk music lacks the emotional intensity of the pre–Civil War revivals. Except in Pentecostal churches, such emotionalism was discouraged and the music emphasized nicely blended voices and well-controlled performances. These trends have a parallel in the Tin Pan Alley school of popular songwriting that flourished in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Both segments produced sentimental songs that were widely disseminated by way of commercial publications and that eventually passed into tradition. They are most evident on the commercial phonograph records by some of the family groups of the 1920s and 1930s.

  Sacred singing, in fact, is often the province of family ensembles. This holds true for Ernest V. Stoneman’s religious recordings, the first of which came almost exactly two years after his 1924 debut. He, several friends, and neighbors journeyed to New York City for a three-day Victor session, where the Dixie Mountaineers joined voices to produce “The Resurrection,” “Sinless Summer,” and “The Great Reaping Day,” among others. The strongest religious sides were three songs first published in the late nineteenth century: “Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb,” “I am Sweeping Through the Gates,” and “Going Down the Valley.” The latter was composed by Jessie Brown and J. H. Fillmore about 1890. Stoneman’s version utilizes a less complex melody and more simple harmony, though its words are very close to printed texts:

  We are going down the valley one by one.

  With our faces toward the setting of the sun.

  Down the valley where the mournful cypress grows.

  Where the stream of death in silence onward flows.

  Chorus:

  We are going down the valley, going down the valley.

  Going toward the setting of the sun.

  We are going down the valley, going down the valley,

  Going down the valley one by one.

  We are going down the valley one by one.

  When the labors of the weary day are done.

  One by one, the cares of earth forever past,

  We shall stand upon the river bank at last.

  Chorus

  We are going down the valley one by one.

  Human comrade you or I will there have none,

  But a tender hand will guide us lest we fall.

  Christ is going down the valley with us all.

  Chorus

  These songs featured a parlor-hall style instrumentation underpinned by Irma Frost’s organ, Stoneman’s rhythm guitar, and the modest ornamentation of fiddlers Kahle Brewer or Uncle Eck Dunford.

  An example such as this is considered folk, or at least folk based, because of a process it goes through from the composer’s pen to its performance by Stoneman and his group. First, the origins of the song may be obscured to the singers by time: an old song they heard sung in their church for many years. Second, their rendition makes no conscious attempt to replicate the original published version. Stoneman’s version eliminates the accidentals and most chromatic notes and considerably simplifies the rather elaborate melodies. Third, this rendition adapts the piece to folk performance practices found among Carroll County, Virginia, singers by assigning the lead male and female voices in octaves. Finally, the singers use a somewhat nasal tone that would have been shunned by contemporary popular singers and abhorred by classically trained vocalists.

  The Revival, an early-twentieth-century songbook. Courtesy of Charles K. Wolfe.

  Other early country music recording artists also mixed a similar sacred and secular repertoire. The Monroe Brothers’ (Bill and Charlie) first recording session for Bluebird in 1936 featured a number of late-nineteenth-century hymns including “What Would You Give in Exchange?” and “God Holds the Future in His Hands.” The Blue Sky Boys and other brother groups also often utilized similar sacred numbers on their radio shows and records. Many of these mainly southern groups grew up in homes where Sunday church attendance was mandatory, which greatly affected their musical interests. Some northern duos, such as Gardner and McFarland, mined similar territory during the late 1920s and into the 1930s. When bluegrass emerged in the middle 1940s, many of these groups also included religious numbers. Some even worked up four-part harmony gospel songs that they performed as part of their live performances.

  SANCTIFIED STYLES

  The Pentecostal movement is the largest religious movement to originate in the United States. The movement began in Topeka, Kansas, in 1901
within a small Bible study group organized by Charles Fox Parham, a former Methodist preacher. In the early twenty-first century, Pentecostal churches claim over 200 million members worldwide, making them the largest Protestant religion. The sensational growth of Pentecostal (also known as Holiness or Sanctified) sects suggests that this is an important movement worthy of attention to uncover its musical and cultural impact.

  Although it began in the United States, the Pentecostal movement looked toward England for its roots in the charismatic and “perfectionistics” movements. During the middle nineteenth century, an orientation toward holiness or spiritual power developed in the Methodist church. The National Holiness Camp Meeting Association, for example, drew tens of thousands of people over a week-long event in Vineland, New Jersey, in 1867. By the turn of the century the scene for the widespread interest in Pentecostalism was set.

  Glossolalia, speaking in tongues, immediately became one of the first issues that set the budding Pentecostal movement apart from other recently established Methodist/Holiness sects. Parham quickly stated that speaking in tongues provided evidence that Pentecostals were baptized in the Holy Spirit. He further suggested that this means of communication would facilitate evangelization through the world. Along with glossolalia, the early Pentecostal Christians believed that they were anointed by the Holy Spirit, they could communicate directly with God, and improvisation—such as shouting and dancing—within the service glorified the Spirit within them.

  Some of these aspects of Pentecostalism came to the fore in 1906 during the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles, which was led by the black American preacher William Joseph Seymour. This revival is particularly noteworthy because it focused nationwide attention on this movement and its interracial constituency. The fact that blacks and whites worshiped together and their leader was African American was remarkable enough, but the Azusa Street Apostolic Faith Mission continued for nearly three years, seven days a week. Between the summers of 1906 and 1909 tens of thousands of converts received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, spoke in tongues, and danced through the power of the Spirit. This remarkable period not only focused attention on Pentecostalism, but it also helped to disseminate these beliefs throughout the United Sates.

  By the teens churches like the Pentecostal Free-Will Baptist Church, the Fire Baptized Holiness Church, the Church of God, and the Pentecostal Holiness Church proliferated. Slowly, perhaps inevitably, the churches began to become racially separated—a trend that has become even more strident today. In the early twenty-first century, the Assemblies of God is the largest predominately white Pentecostal church, while the Church of God in Christ holds the same position in the African American community.

  The music and performance practices of white Pentecostal musicians is far removed from the Catholic and the more conventional Methodist churches. Bearing the marks of its early interaction with black religious practices, early Pentecostal music was very expressive and had strong folk roots. There were no recordings of Pentecostal musicians until the late 1920s when groups such as McVay & Johnson and Ernest Phipps’s Holiness Singers recorded. These recordings demonstrate that (in the South at least) Pentecostal music was closely tied with old-time (string band) tradition. Their music was performed to the accompaniment of banjos and guitars, their voices were pitched high, and their tone was nasal. The ensemble singing heard on the Phipps recordings were not only highly spirited but also featured loose unison singing. In other words, their music shared traits with and was meant to appeal to people who already listened to country artists such as Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers, Jimmie Rodgers, and the Carter Family.

  Pentecostalism (and its music) is meant to appeal to everyday folks. The repertoire of many early Pentecostal musicians reflect their evangelical spirit; songs such as “Clouds of Glory,” “We Shall All Be United,” “If the Light Has Gone Out in Your Soul,” and “I Know That Jesus Has Set Me Free” underscore this impulse. Although the music of contemporary Pentecostal musicians has changed to reflect more recent trends, this impulse and spirit remains undiminished.

  SOUTHERN GOSPEL BOOGIE

  The rise to prominence of gospel performances on the radio and records as well as in live performances helped to change the face of white religious folk music. Here we shift from music that can be considered largely folk to music that is popular but clearly folk based. The tradition of singing out of shape note books declined gradually and the communal spirit of the old-fashioned camp meetings and friendly singing conventions was being lost. Fewer touring singers were directly linked to and supported by publishers because the groups could support themselves. White religious music, specifically the new gospel music that emerged during the 1930s, was quickly becoming a full-time professional business that could sustain a community of singers, songwriters, promoters, publishers, and broadcasters.

  The commercialization of southern gospel music had its parallel in the black musical community. And it’s significant to note that, especially from the middle 1930s through the present, gospel music has remained stolidly and unabashedly segregated. While other forms of American vernacular, most notably jazz and soul, enjoy multiracial and crossover audiences, gospel music is performed and consumed in terms of black or white.

  For example, the Grammy Awards distinguish between “soul gospel” (African American) and “southern gospel” (Anglo-American) in distinctly racial terms not found elsewhere in their categories. This distinction is mirrored in the real world in almost every way. Gospel concerts are promoted to either a white or a black audience and sound recordings are marketed the same way. There are numerous magazines devoted to southern gospel, such as Singing News, Country Gospel News, and Gospel Voice Magazine, while a relatively smaller number focuses on its black counterpart. The only magazine that tried to bridge the racial gap, Rejoice!, was published by the Center for Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi and ceased operations in 1994, following six years of uneven sales. Even Web sites devoted to gospel music are neatly divided along racial lines.

  Nonetheless, segregation did not stop the crossover of stylistic elements as well as songs that were performed by both black and white groups. Gospel quartets of both races were at the forefront of the commercialization of gospel music. In the southern gospel tradition, some of these pioneering quartets enjoyed the support of songbook publishers. By the late 1930s several Stamps-Baxter–associated quartets were holding regular all-night sings over Dallas radio station KRLD and were popular enough to hold a successful all-night sing that all but filled the Cotton Bowl stadium in Dallas. But changes were coming, which became clear in 1941 when one of Vaughan’s most popular groups (led by Claude Sharpe) resigned in order to join the Grand Ole Opry as the Old Hickory Singers.

  Following World War II, the popularity of white gospel quartets rose to even greater heights. Grand Ole Opry star Wally Fowler left his band to concentrate on his gospel quartet career. By 1948 he was a full-time quartet singer and a busy promoter who occasionally set up as many as five programs on a single night! Every Friday night he staged an all-night sing at the home of the Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. About the same time the Blackwood Brothers quartet used their Shenandoah, Iowa, base to launch a career in gospel music. They started out on their own small record label and with broadcasts over local radio stations. By the early 1950s the Blackwood Brothers realized that the South offered them more professional opportunities, so they moved to Memphis and began recording for the RCA-Victor Company.

  Anglo-American gospel music was moving into the mainstream of American music. This type of gospel music quickly echoed some of the themes exploited in popular songs. “Gospel Boogie,” copywritten in November 1947 and first recorded by the Homeland Harmony Quartet in early 1948, became an instant sensation. It was quickly covered by nearly a dozen black and white artists, some of whom recorded it under the alternate title “A Wonderful Time Up There.” The popularity of “Gospel Boogie” created a controversy within t
he gospel community. Despite the fact that the Chuck Wagon Gang had been around since the middle 1930s and the Johnson Family since the early 1940s, some of the older, more conservative singers felt that the popularity of these groups—along with the Speer Family and the Statesmen Quartet—was built upon an ephemeral foundation. Fowler and his cohorts suggested that nothing but good could result from spreading the message of the gospel to more people. The battle took place on all types of grounds: backstage at programs, in churches, at all-night sings, and in newspaper letters to the editor. Ultimately the argument became moot as the younger gospel singers reached a larger audience and the quartets became stronger.

  An old-fashioned hymn songbook from 1937. Courtesy of Kip Lornell.

  Some of the best and most popular songs performed by these singers were authored by Albert E. Brumley, whose “I’ll Fly Away” has been recorded more than six hundred times. Brumley was born on October 29, 1905, in rural eastern Oklahoma. Attending his first singing school in 1922, he was struck by the power and beauty of what he heard and continued to study at the Hartford Music Company (Arkansas). This small, regional publisher issued one or two songbooks annually, which were based on the seven-shape system. By the late 1920s he began composing songs for Hartford, including “I’ll Fly Away” in 1932.

  Over the next twelve years, Brumley unleashed some of his best compositions upon the gospel world: “Jesus Hold My Hand” (1932), “I’ll Meet You in the Morning” (1936), “Turn Your Radio On” (1938), and “If We Ever Meet Again” (1945). Most of these early compositions were promoted at conventions, over radio broadcasts, and via other live contexts. The first songbook dedicated specifically to his work, Albert E. Brumley’s Book of Radio Favorites (1937), helped to spread his fame. But it was not until he switched to Stamps-Baxter in 1937 that his written songs reached a nationwide audience.