September 12, 2025 • 30 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Albert E. Brumley, the son of Oklahoma sharecroppers, wrote “I’ll Fly Away,” the most recorded gospel song in history. Rooted in Southern gospel traditions, its message of faith and freedom has inspired churches, revivals, and concert halls for nearly a century. Brumley’s journey from poverty to the Gospel Music Hall of Fame shows how one man gave voice to the hopes of millions. Today, his granddaughters share the story of the man behind the song.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories. Up next, a
story about a man who had an extraordinary impact on
American music, writing bluegrass and gospel standards such as I'll
Fly Away and turn your radio on. Here's our own
Monty Montgomery with the story.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Albert E. Bromley was born on October twenty ninth, nineteen
oh five. Here's his granddaughters Betsy in Oline to tell
the rest of the story.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Grubha grew up in a little town in Oklahoma. He
was born near Sparrow, Oklahoma, close to Rock Island, Oklahoma.
He grew up really poor. His family were sharecroppers, and
the sharecroppt cotton. If you've ever been picked cotton, if
you've ever done that, it's terrible. It's awful. It hurts.
I mean because I remember doing it as a school
experiment when I was a kids don't know why they
(00:59):
had his do that. You the pricks and from the
thorns or whatever those little sticky things are. But that
was his childhood. But it was musical because his dad
played instruments and taught him how to love music, and
he played the piano. And we really hated picking. Hotton
liked the life which is one of the reasons he
decided to move toward the music and Hartford, Arkansas. I've
(01:25):
heard two different stories. The one that I grew up
hearing was he walked over from Spiro in his home
farm to Hartford with you know, it varies, but around
two dollars and fifty cents or so, not much money
in his pocket at all. Hartford is like actually twenty
eight miles from from Spiro. So the fact that he
walked twenty eight miles to go to school to me
(01:46):
shows some mighty determination, which I think when he knocked
on Ian Bartlett's door and told him he wanted to
learn music is what really sold Im Bartlett on the
fact that this guy had something, which is why Ian
Bartlett allowed him sleep on his couch instead of paid tuition,
so he kind of sponsored him in a way. And
of course the repayment was that he would have to
come work for him after he taught him, you know,
(02:09):
how to write music to pay off the tuition debt.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
But who was em so?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Ian Bartlett was a songwriter. He learned how to write
songs from the Stamspaxtor Company and decided to go out
on his own and he began the Hertford Institute in Hartford, Arkansas,
and EM did a lot of things at that music school.
He was a publisher as well as teaching music.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Music he would teach at temporary singing schools set up
in small communities across the country for the purpose of
educating poor rural Americans on the basics of music, and
tuition was paid for by buying EM's songbooks.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
That's how Grandpa made money. On all everyone that worked
for the Hertford Music Institute, it made money was by
going to sell these songbooks so people would attend school.
And as you got more popular and your songs became
more popular than you was signed a page in those
song books. And as we know, Grandpa was pretty prolific
when he was writing his music. And EM taught him
the basics of how to do it, but the talent,
(03:10):
of course, came from Grandpa. He wrote a lot of
songs in those convention books. He was one of the
I guess I'm going to use the words most famous
contributors to these convention songbooks. I mean, if you want
a list of songs, I mean, there's all flyaway on
Meat in the Morning. If we never meet again, turn
your radio and ring strangers to me? Did I say
Jesus only hand? I can't remember. But Grandpa wrote all
(03:32):
Flyaway over a period of time. It wasn't something he
just sat down and did. And one of the things
that's pretty unique about Grandpa, I'll just throw this in here,
was he wrote the notes of the music along with
the words. Not many people these days, there are so
many co writers. And he wrote them right to left,
right to left exactly, which is totally and it's just
(03:54):
crazy to think about. Yeah, but that's how he saw it,
that's how it worked for him. And he was very
particular about the message and the song, and he wanted
specific words and for off Flyaway. I mean, I don't
know if he knew this or not because we never
discussed it, but it meant a lot to him with
that song, I think, and it took him a while
four years to compose it and get it the words right,
(04:15):
and he would get stuck on one phrase or one
word and if it didn't suit what his vision or
meaning for the song was, because what he wanted to
do is paint a story for people so they could
see it in their mind and connect to it and
feel it and then I guess in some way apply
it to their life to help offer them hope and
maybe purpose uplifts them a little bit in their day
(04:37):
to day lives because you know, people didn't have the
things the luxuries of life. They looked to each other
in community and music as a connection. And so that
was the beginning of off Flyaway in the years he
started that after he was with Ian Bartlett, right other
or twenty way nine. Well, the other thing is Grandpa
always called that a little diddy. He never really it
(05:00):
was never anything spectacular to him. And Grandma is actually
the one who made him send it in because part
of his deal with Iaan Bartlett was that he had
to send a song in a month because he was
had it works for a higher contract, which means part
of his contract was one song per month so he
could be submitted to a songbook. And so he was
looking for a song to submit one month and Grandma
(05:22):
was like, why don't you submit this one? Because he
never really thought he just called it. He've always referred
to it as a little ditty. It was never anything
huge to him, but he still was so particular about Oh,
he's particureed about everything he did, that's true, but he
was very particular about that song. But Grandpa, I do
remember Grandma. They always said Grandma. I don't know if
the word forced us correct, but she sure urged him
(05:43):
to get that song out there for people to hear
because she liked it. And as we know, everybody likes it.
A couple of other people seem to like it. I
think because it's easy and simple and happy, and it
just and it's hopeful and it's easy to remember. You know.
Grandpa always wrote and he would say that if you
(06:03):
can't come out singing the song, then it's not good enough,
because you have to be something that's memorable, something that
people will remember. And another thing Grandpa used to say
was that never you get too far from the people,
and then you'll never be too far from the mainstream
because everything is about people. If it doesn't matter what
you do, whether you write a song, whether you sew close,
(06:24):
it doesn't matter what you do. If people will not
accept it and make that part of their lives, then
it doesn't matter how good it is. So he always
kept that in mind. It's like, will people sing it
doesn't connect to people? Is this going to be something
that they will remember, and I think All Flyway is
a very good example of that. I mean what nineteen
(06:45):
seventy six we got We won an award for All
fly Away being the most recorded song in history, a
gospel song in history at the time, and it was
seven hundred and twenty six times. And that means when
we say recorded, we mean licenses, and that was nineteen
seventy six, So here we want thirty forty five years
later and we're over twelve thousand licenses. And when he
first wrote it, it took a few years for it
to become even popular, and it was even recorded, but
(07:08):
not until the Chuck Wagon Gang recorded their recording, and
it just somehow connected with people. Plus things in the
industry were changing from convention singing and the things he
did to more professional group performances. But they made a
recording of that and it just really took off, and
that's when the awareness of the song went beyond convention
(07:32):
singing and church singing. It was because the Chuck Wagon
Gang is not necessarily only Christian music. They had sing
all kinds of music and they've been around for almost
as long as we have and are in the second
and third generation of their singing, and so there's a
connection there that's lasted as well, and that started the road.
And Grandpa was such a smart man. He recognized the
(07:54):
shift in the industry and began to do more of
the publishing. And that's when he was moving toward his
own publishing company and bought Hartford and did all these
other things, and so off by Away was obviously a
part of that. It's become part of the fabric of
America and the world even I mean, the Smithsonian has
named Grandpa but the greatest American they did use this,
they said the greatest white songwriter before World War Two,
(08:17):
which I don't know why they made extinction, but they did.
And of course all Flyways now in the Library of
Congress as well, along with Rank Strangers. So you know,
I don't know if there's not many songwriters who have
two songs in the Library of Congress.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
And you've been listening to this story of Albert E.
Brumley as told by his granddaughters Elaine and Betsy, and
his ditties indeed are masterpieces and staying close to the
people and making sure that it's a memorable melody. Well,
we learned that about Irving Berlin too. Stay close to
the people, make sure they can humme it and then
sing it after hearing it once. By the way, our
(08:56):
Irving Berlin piece is beautiful, and you can go to
our American stories come and listen to it. In so
many ways, though these men came from different places, one
from New York City, one from Oklahoma and Arkansas, their
stories are the same American story. When we come back,
more of Albert E. Brumley's story, a uniquely American story,
and a great music and art story, and so much
(09:19):
more here on our American story. And we returned to
(10:10):
our American stories and our story on Albert E. Brumley,
the man who wrote many classic American bluegrass and gospel
standards such as I'll Fly Away and turn your Radio On.
When we last left off, Albert had got his start
in music at the Hartford Music Company after walking there
with just two dollars in his pocket, and Albert would
(10:30):
soon form his own company. Here again are his granddaughters,
Elaine and Betsy with his story.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
So Grandpa started what he called Albert ebroman Son's, his
own publishing company in nineteen forty four, and he started
writing for himself and he was also a writing for
Stan Sbaster and for Hertford's all the time. But he
went back and purchased all of Hartfords who could get
all of his songs back, and that ended up with
nineteen forty eight and we got all of that started, yeah,
when we got one hundred percent. Because it was different,
people had owned portions of it, so we bought each
(11:02):
percentage from each person to one hundred percent of Hartford.
And because of his relationships with people, we printed books
for literally everybody. I mean, we printed songbooks for the Opry,
we printed songbooks for Louisiana Hayride, printed songbooks for the
Renfro Valley, Ozark, Jubilee, Bob Wills, the groups, all the groups,
Charlie Humbard, we printed songbooks for everybody. So over these
(11:24):
years that we've had this, we've sold just our own
books that we've made, plus our own books we made
for ourselves and sold which we used to sell in
the National Inquirer. Of all things we did, we sold
millions of them, and we've sold them all over the world.
We've sold over forty million songbooks and we've made over
one hundred million songbooks because Grandpa was genius. The man.
He was smart. So I like to say he invented iTunes.
(11:45):
That's just my own thing. But that's because Grandpa got
He made a contract with all those publishers around and
everybody get a list of all the songs that they owned,
and he would send them to people like the Opry,
the Louisiana Hayride, all those folks. Pick your favorite one
hundred and fifty songs, send me a list. We'll put
him in a songbook. Put your name on it, and
you can sell it. Which is why we sold so
(12:06):
many songs. We made so many songbooks because everybody would
pick different songs that would personalize. They would have their
playlist of songs, we'd make it in a book, and
then they would sell it with their name on the
front on the cover. It was a brilliant shift over
in the industry to be able to do that. Yeah,
And on the more personal side of this that I love.
(12:27):
I love the songs and stuff. But you know, Grandpa
was so artistic in so many ways. He helped create
the illustrations on the covers of the books. So the
evidence of his folksy image the way he was in
real life was presented on the covers of these books
with cabins and pine trees, which I love, and little
church buildings. So he was such a hands on person.
(12:49):
He had from the beginning to end. He had an
idea and in the later days in the sixties and seventies,
Dad and Bill, his older brother Bill, were the only
one really left at the company, and they contributed and
participated in the creation and putting together these books, which
is where we learned how to stable and stitch books,
because we did do that on site for a long
(13:12):
time and I've packed so many books, but you know,
that was just part of the business. That's what we
did in the middle of nowhere. It was enough to
where we even have a post office. There's like ten
people in Palmasuri, which is where ground pond, Grandma's house is,
and across the road is the business he built and
a post office. But there used to be a thriving
community there as well. But the post office still exists
(13:34):
because we shipped from that rural area all over the country.
One of the things that I was always impressed with
was how he lays the books out. He had a
specific way of laying them out with the numbers correlating,
like he loved the number one hundred. He put his
song on there a lot of times because this one
his song book was when you had the Convention style books,
that was his number. That was number number one hundred
(13:54):
of me. Huh. So he kept out connection and put
him in those new books. And I think that kind
of stuff is pretty cool, you know, the way he
continued that tradition really and it meant something to him.
So he named his kids after song people, and he
kept the traditions of what gave him his beginnings and
the music. It meant a lot to him. I think
because of these behaviors, I showed it.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
And over the years, because of his work, Albert developed
long asking friendships with countless well known musicians who would
sometimes come over for dinner at his house in Pouell, Missouri,
where Elene and Betsy would meet them.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
I didn't know this was anything. I didn't know about
fame or celebrity. I didn't know they were famous people
from Nashville. I didn't know anything but what Dad and
Grandpa did and what was normal life, and the fact
that those people came to the house. They were just friends.
We just sat around the table at eight. It was
not I mean, it's all about food. I mean I
(14:52):
have a memory, oh totally about food. But you know,
I have a memory of sitting on Ernest Tub's lap
and he had wearing his cowboy hat and he ate
my green beans because I hate green beans. But I
would get in trouble if I couldn't eat green beans,
but he would he ate my green beans, so I
would get in trouble. I mean, I have that memory.
But to me that was nothing. Was like, oh man,
I got somebody eat my green beans. That's all I
(15:13):
cared about. You know, everybody came to the house. It
never even occurred to me that they were famous, not
even one time. And we can't not talk about the
Hill in Hollow. Yeah, we had what was called the
Hill and Hollow Folk Festival where we had local arts
and crafts and local music and it was focused more
(15:34):
on that the gospel aspect. On Sundays had have gospel
formats and there'd be you know, there'd be a church
service locally. And as time moved on, they decided to
add in bluegrass and bring in some of those people
that were famous that we didn't know we're famous to
sing on Saturday nights. He'd bring in the opry stars
like Ernest Tubb and Girlpa Jones and Minnie Pearl, the
all of everybody came. I mean, if you can't not
(15:56):
name an opry star that wasn't in pell on the
stage and you had dinner with them, because that's just
what you said. You did. You made some homemade ice cream,
had a conversation, picked a little, they went on stage
and then you did it again. You know, you had
you jammed afterward or you ate more whatever. Yeah, because
they would they would just show up. I mean I
remember the busses coming in and everything is down behind
(16:18):
the stage. There's this low wire that goes to the barn.
You have to hold You have to get the pickup
truck and hold up the wire so the buses could go. Wonder.
I love I used to. That was my favorite part,
to see the wire. Who's gonna get stuck on the wire?
But like you know, the Thrasher Brothers got stuck that
one time, Blackwood brothers. As far as the Gospels are concerned,
everybody was there. Everybody came and sang on that stage.
(16:39):
I mean what Marty Stewart was with Lester Flat when
he was like seventeen years old played on that stage. Yeah,
Lester flat Neirl Scrugs and Marty Marty and oh golly, Jude,
I can't even think of them because they're just like there.
But anybody back. George Lindsay came one time. I remember
Gooper showed up. Yeah, that was weird. But also industry
people showed up, so it wasn't just the stars showing.
(17:01):
Everybody would say I'm going to Brumley, whether it be
the singer to the Hill and Hollow, they would always
show up because it was such a good time. And
it was just whether they were from New York or
you know, thirty miles away, it meant something for people
to gather at these events and connect and get away
and relax and enjoy well. And Grandpa was very particular too.
I mean he did not like to leave pale. He
(17:22):
didn't I mean even to get awards and stuff. He'd
be like whatever. But I do remember the story when
he went down to see Governor Jimmy Davis.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
The governor of Louisiana who wrote the song You Are
My Sunshine.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
And they were down there on the Governor's mansion and
he served fried chicken and everybody's all nervous and Grandpa,
Grandpa's his grandpa. He had chicken leg pit, his elbows
up on the up on the table and just start
eating and everybody's like, oh, thank goodness, and then everything
was fine. Then everybody all the nerves were gone. You know.
His grandpa was just Grandpa, always relaxed. He wasn't stressed
(17:54):
about anything. And he didn't want the limelight either. Remember
he was either off behind the stage or sit on
some He liked to sit on stairs. You sit on
the stairs, or squat on sit off to the side
to watch what was going on around. He would talk
to anybody that came up, but he never really went
up on stage very often. Even at whatever event we
were at, he was. He just preferred that relaxed everything
(18:18):
is okay, I'm eating my chicken leg with my elbows
on the tableci very laid back. Yeah, And people loved
that because they didn't have to put on a face.
They could be themselves around him, that whole authentic self thing.
You couldn't help it because that's just that's who he was.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
And you're listening to the granddaughters or Albert E. Bramley
tell his life story, and in a way, the granddaughters
are telling their own because these stories are so intertwined
in this remarkable American story and this remarkable American family.
When we come back more from the granddaughters. And by
the way, if you've got grandkids, empower them to tell
your family's story, empower them early, because my goodness, to
(19:01):
not know your family's story, for better or for worse,
is a crime. When we come back more of this
remarkable American story. Albert E. Brumley's here on our American story,
(19:38):
and we return to our American stories, and the final
segment of our story on American composer Albert E. Brumley
and also American entrepreneur is told by his granddaughters, Betsy
and Elaine. In nineteen seventy, Albert would be inducted into
the Nashville Songwriters Association Hall of Fame, becoming a charter
(19:58):
member of that organization, which, according to the granddaughters, was
something he really enjoyed going to. Let's continue with the story.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Okay, so here's what happened. So he goes and Grandpa
left Powell for like five reasons, and that was one
of them. Grandpa like Elaine was saying, no, limelight, not
his thing. He would sit in the back of the
room and Grandpa hold a cup of coffee in by
the bowl in his palm, and that's how he would drink.
So he would lean up against the back wall, very unassuming.
(20:30):
You don't know who he is. He doesn't make a fuss.
That's just how he spent most of his time. But
this young songwriter had just got some award. I have
no idea what it was. He came up and said, man,
look what I just did. Blah blah blah. He was
so excited about it. He said, dude, what's your name.
He goes, I'm Albert Brumley. He goes, man, have you
read anything I know? He said, I'll fly away, and
the guy goes, oh and just walked off. I mean,
(20:56):
but Grandpa was fine. He just, you know, he just
did his thing, never made a fuss, and he ate
weird stuff. He ate weird stuff and slept weird. And
he was an sanct trick by today's standards. The way
I remember him when I was really small, it was normal.
But now when you talk about it, it's just humorous.
It's funny because he did eat funny things and different
(21:18):
things at what we normally eat, like buttermilk on wheaties
or tomato juice on wheaties. Oh, and the treat that
was in the oh god, yeah, he like to slice
a can of it wasn't called spam then, well it
was a treat, yeah, which is another kind of canned
meat product, and it's a pork product that came in
a tin can that had a key, and he'd leave
(21:40):
it open in the fridge and then goa slice some
off when he wanted it at three o'clock in the morning.
Many times. There are tons of stories. And when I
was little, before a lot of the other kids came along,
I would go down with Grandma Brumley on Friday nights
and Grandpa would be in his room because he had
a room right off the kitchen where he lived on
this couch, and I mean he slept there, he ate there,
(22:03):
he did everything there. But he would come out and
he would stand because we weren't supposed to watch scary shows,
but Grandma would let me watch something called Dimension sixteen,
and that was on the UHF channel, which, by the way,
we had to run a wire from the house up
to the top of the bluff behind the house to
get the signal. And that's another story to watch that.
(22:24):
But he would come out and just stand there. He
would never sit with us. He would just stand there
and watch it a few minutes and he mosey to
the bathroom wherever he was going, and he would come
back through and stand there for a few minutes and
you know, watch with us and go back to his couch.
And that was just my Friday for a very long time.
That's how I spent my fridays, by nights with Grandma
Brumley and the snacks and all the things, and she
(22:46):
makes them and toast for you. Oh and coco. We
did that, yeah, And she let me sip her coffee,
which was also in no doubt, And never did take
up the smoking that Grandpa did, though I never cared
for that. He would smoke a lot, or at least
hold a lot of cigarettes. He would hold them while
he was thinking and they would burn down and the
(23:07):
ash would drop off, and there was a lot of
cigarette burns on the table beside his couch where laidam
And I have myself seeing Grandma go up to him
with an ash tray and tap the cigarette into the
ash tray so it wouldn't drop it all over the
floor or something. And it was kind of something. He
would go, oh yeah, and then just keep on because
his mind was focused on whatever, whatever, And sometimes he
(23:31):
had a lot of thoughts and he would write him
down on ice cream sticks and pieces of paper and
lines for music, music notes and whatever. Telephone building, tell oh,
whatever he can get. And he always wanted a Cadillac.
And when I was little, just just to give you
a picture, because we like to draw the pictures. There's
we live out in the middle of the country with
a two lane road, and just across the street literally
(23:53):
was where they started their business and built the buildings.
I don't know, five hundred feet maybe, but it was
across the two lane highways. So Grandpa got his car
and he would get up in the morning when he
was ready to go to work, and he would jump
in the car and drove it across the street and
park it and walk in the building. And then at
lunch he would jump in the car, drove across back
(24:14):
to the house and go eat and take his nap,
and then he would do the same thing in the afternoon.
And that was his regiment. The walking was not his thing.
He wanted to drive his car back and forth across
the street. As you know, Dad did the same, the same,
same exact thing. Yeah, but that's what you did because
you went to and from work. Yep. It's fun to
think about those days. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Albert E. Brumley would pass away in nineteen seventy seven,
leaving a legacy of over eight hundred songs, all penned
by his hand, but only one of them can claim
the title is the most recorded gospel song in all
of history, that song being I'll Fly Away, and its
legacy isn't lost on the family.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
I used to work for American Airlines because I wanted
to travel, and Dad said he wasn't paying for it.
And I literally heard all fly away all over the
world because Kevin and I heard it and Fiji on
our honeymoon. But I was in Australia on a bus
and nobody has a clue who I am. And I'm
on the way to this this cave thing. It's like
thirty minutes outside town and myself and my friend are
the only Americans on the bus. Everybody else is Australian
(25:25):
and they're singing Walton Matilden were like, that's kind of cool,
blah blah. But the next song they sang was I'll
fly Away Now. They again they had no clue who
I was or I didn't say anything, but it's like,
it's so amazing to me the impact of that song.
It's been recorded in every country, in every language on
the planet. We have a license for it until they keep,
(25:46):
you know, getting new countries, and then we have to
go back. But it changed the name, changed the names,
but that song has has touched millions upon millions of
people because the song is over eighty years old, so
it's been around long enough for generations of people to
connect to it and sing to their grandchildren and their
(26:06):
families at funerals, at gatherings, it sings and whatever. And
Betsy's story in Australia, those things are motivational to keep
it alive because it still does mean something. So whenever
we can get it out there, like it was recently
on a TV show and they sang it and I
still got tears and I still got the chills, and
(26:27):
it's just still relevant. And Grandpa, as Betsy was saying,
knew that was a factor in continuing things when it
means something to the people. One of my favorite things
is when people tell me their I'll Flyaway stories, because
everyone has one. I have literally hugged people in the
grocery door, I've cried with them, I've cried with them
(26:48):
in the hospitals. A lady, a friend of mine used
that as her wedding march, which I thought was really interesting.
Is I've never heard that before, but that song brings
back memories for people of things that they may have
forgotten about, but it like transports them to a place
that that is so special, in such a place in
their heart that that nothing else can get them there.
(27:09):
And the fact that they're willing to tell me that story,
because it really happens to me almost daily that someone
tells me the same. Here, I'm always sharing stories. So
one of the ones that I have is that gentlemen
told us that he was in a car accident and
he was being life flighted out and he was dying.
He and he he felt that he actually died, and
(27:30):
he was singing all fly away to bring himself back
so he would not die. So he's saying that he's
sang himself back to life, is what he was saying.
He said, I just kept singing all fly away, so
I would not die to know that that my name,
that as a person in this world represents something that
(27:51):
that can literally change someone's life in a moment is
so huge. That's an honor to be able to be
connected to something like that. And it's just that people
tell us those stories. I mean, I'm serious. I've cried
with so many strangers. I've had more people telling me
those stories, especially in hospitals. I don't know how I
(28:12):
end up in hospitals, but I tend to while I
get hurt a lot, I do. I get in the
emergency room what. I don't know why, I'm danger prone
or whatever, accident prone, whatever, but people tell me their stories.
And I mean I just cried and cried with people.
They've seen that to their to their loved ones when
they're older loved ones. I mean, we've done that in
the hospice. We've we've brought people into hospice into like
(28:34):
the Chuck Wagon gang because we still they say, and
work with them, brought them to hospice and people and
they sing off flyaway and people have come out of
their rooms and it's like the nurses would like It's
like they haven't walked in a week, but they've come
out of their rooms to sing and participate and be
near that song. It's amazing to me the power of
the melody that Grandpa conjured up out of out of
(28:57):
literally nowhere, out of a cotton field in Oklahoma. You know,
to be able to move someone to where as they
are literally slowly passing away, they have the strength to
get up and they want to be near that song.
That's amazing to me.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
And a great job by Monte Montgomery on the production
of that piece. A special thanks to Betsy and Elaine,
the granddaughters of this great man, Albert E. Brumley, and
a special thanks to Katrina Hine as well. And again
remember he started as the son of sharecroppers in cotton
fields in the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma and walks
his way to a new life and a life of
(29:37):
art and music, and in the end, forty million music
books sold, and the greatest and most recorded gospel song
of all time that as you could hear from the
Granddaughter's touched millions. We love telling these stories because it
connects American history with the American present and everything in between.
A special thanks to any granddaughter, any grandkid who wants
(29:58):
to keep the story of their family alive, the Albert E.
Brumley story. Here on our American Stories.
And we returned to our American stories. Up next, a
story about a man who had an extraordinary impact on
American music, writing bluegrass and gospel standards such as I'll
Fly Away and turn your radio on. Here's our own
Monty Montgomery with the story.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Albert E. Bromley was born on October twenty ninth, nineteen
oh five. Here's his granddaughters Betsy in Oline to tell
the rest of the story.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Grubha grew up in a little town in Oklahoma. He
was born near Sparrow, Oklahoma, close to Rock Island, Oklahoma.
He grew up really poor. His family were sharecroppers, and
the sharecroppt cotton. If you've ever been picked cotton, if
you've ever done that, it's terrible. It's awful. It hurts.
I mean because I remember doing it as a school
experiment when I was a kids don't know why they
(00:59):
had his do that. You the pricks and from the
thorns or whatever those little sticky things are. But that
was his childhood. But it was musical because his dad
played instruments and taught him how to love music, and
he played the piano. And we really hated picking. Hotton
liked the life which is one of the reasons he
decided to move toward the music and Hartford, Arkansas. I've
(01:25):
heard two different stories. The one that I grew up
hearing was he walked over from Spiro in his home
farm to Hartford with you know, it varies, but around
two dollars and fifty cents or so, not much money
in his pocket at all. Hartford is like actually twenty
eight miles from from Spiro. So the fact that he
walked twenty eight miles to go to school to me
(01:46):
shows some mighty determination, which I think when he knocked
on Ian Bartlett's door and told him he wanted to
learn music is what really sold Im Bartlett on the
fact that this guy had something, which is why Ian
Bartlett allowed him sleep on his couch instead of paid tuition,
so he kind of sponsored him in a way. And
of course the repayment was that he would have to
come work for him after he taught him, you know,
(02:09):
how to write music to pay off the tuition debt.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
But who was em so?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Ian Bartlett was a songwriter. He learned how to write
songs from the Stamspaxtor Company and decided to go out
on his own and he began the Hertford Institute in Hartford, Arkansas,
and EM did a lot of things at that music school.
He was a publisher as well as teaching music.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Music he would teach at temporary singing schools set up
in small communities across the country for the purpose of
educating poor rural Americans on the basics of music, and
tuition was paid for by buying EM's songbooks.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
That's how Grandpa made money. On all everyone that worked
for the Hertford Music Institute, it made money was by
going to sell these songbooks so people would attend school.
And as you got more popular and your songs became
more popular than you was signed a page in those
song books. And as we know, Grandpa was pretty prolific
when he was writing his music. And EM taught him
the basics of how to do it, but the talent,
(03:10):
of course, came from Grandpa. He wrote a lot of
songs in those convention books. He was one of the
I guess I'm going to use the words most famous
contributors to these convention songbooks. I mean, if you want
a list of songs, I mean, there's all flyaway on
Meat in the Morning. If we never meet again, turn
your radio and ring strangers to me? Did I say
Jesus only hand? I can't remember. But Grandpa wrote all
(03:32):
Flyaway over a period of time. It wasn't something he
just sat down and did. And one of the things
that's pretty unique about Grandpa, I'll just throw this in here,
was he wrote the notes of the music along with
the words. Not many people these days, there are so
many co writers. And he wrote them right to left,
right to left exactly, which is totally and it's just
(03:54):
crazy to think about. Yeah, but that's how he saw it,
that's how it worked for him. And he was very
particular about the message and the song, and he wanted
specific words and for off Flyaway. I mean, I don't
know if he knew this or not because we never
discussed it, but it meant a lot to him with
that song, I think, and it took him a while
four years to compose it and get it the words right,
(04:15):
and he would get stuck on one phrase or one
word and if it didn't suit what his vision or
meaning for the song was, because what he wanted to
do is paint a story for people so they could
see it in their mind and connect to it and
feel it and then I guess in some way apply
it to their life to help offer them hope and
maybe purpose uplifts them a little bit in their day
(04:37):
to day lives because you know, people didn't have the
things the luxuries of life. They looked to each other
in community and music as a connection. And so that
was the beginning of off Flyaway in the years he
started that after he was with Ian Bartlett, right other
or twenty way nine. Well, the other thing is Grandpa
always called that a little diddy. He never really it
(05:00):
was never anything spectacular to him. And Grandma is actually
the one who made him send it in because part
of his deal with Iaan Bartlett was that he had
to send a song in a month because he was
had it works for a higher contract, which means part
of his contract was one song per month so he
could be submitted to a songbook. And so he was
looking for a song to submit one month and Grandma
(05:22):
was like, why don't you submit this one? Because he
never really thought he just called it. He've always referred
to it as a little ditty. It was never anything
huge to him, but he still was so particular about Oh,
he's particureed about everything he did, that's true, but he
was very particular about that song. But Grandpa, I do
remember Grandma. They always said Grandma. I don't know if
the word forced us correct, but she sure urged him
(05:43):
to get that song out there for people to hear
because she liked it. And as we know, everybody likes it.
A couple of other people seem to like it. I
think because it's easy and simple and happy, and it
just and it's hopeful and it's easy to remember. You know.
Grandpa always wrote and he would say that if you
(06:03):
can't come out singing the song, then it's not good enough,
because you have to be something that's memorable, something that
people will remember. And another thing Grandpa used to say
was that never you get too far from the people,
and then you'll never be too far from the mainstream
because everything is about people. If it doesn't matter what
you do, whether you write a song, whether you sew close,
(06:24):
it doesn't matter what you do. If people will not
accept it and make that part of their lives, then
it doesn't matter how good it is. So he always
kept that in mind. It's like, will people sing it
doesn't connect to people? Is this going to be something
that they will remember, and I think All Flyway is
a very good example of that. I mean what nineteen
(06:45):
seventy six we got We won an award for All
fly Away being the most recorded song in history, a
gospel song in history at the time, and it was
seven hundred and twenty six times. And that means when
we say recorded, we mean licenses, and that was nineteen
seventy six, So here we want thirty forty five years
later and we're over twelve thousand licenses. And when he
first wrote it, it took a few years for it
to become even popular, and it was even recorded, but
(07:08):
not until the Chuck Wagon Gang recorded their recording, and
it just somehow connected with people. Plus things in the
industry were changing from convention singing and the things he
did to more professional group performances. But they made a
recording of that and it just really took off, and
that's when the awareness of the song went beyond convention
(07:32):
singing and church singing. It was because the Chuck Wagon
Gang is not necessarily only Christian music. They had sing
all kinds of music and they've been around for almost
as long as we have and are in the second
and third generation of their singing, and so there's a
connection there that's lasted as well, and that started the road.
And Grandpa was such a smart man. He recognized the
(07:54):
shift in the industry and began to do more of
the publishing. And that's when he was moving toward his
own publishing company and bought Hartford and did all these
other things, and so off by Away was obviously a
part of that. It's become part of the fabric of
America and the world even I mean, the Smithsonian has
named Grandpa but the greatest American they did use this,
they said the greatest white songwriter before World War Two,
(08:17):
which I don't know why they made extinction, but they did.
And of course all Flyways now in the Library of
Congress as well, along with Rank Strangers. So you know,
I don't know if there's not many songwriters who have
two songs in the Library of Congress.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
And you've been listening to this story of Albert E.
Brumley as told by his granddaughters Elaine and Betsy, and
his ditties indeed are masterpieces and staying close to the
people and making sure that it's a memorable melody. Well,
we learned that about Irving Berlin too. Stay close to
the people, make sure they can humme it and then
sing it after hearing it once. By the way, our
(08:56):
Irving Berlin piece is beautiful, and you can go to
our American stories come and listen to it. In so
many ways, though these men came from different places, one
from New York City, one from Oklahoma and Arkansas, their
stories are the same American story. When we come back,
more of Albert E. Brumley's story, a uniquely American story,
and a great music and art story, and so much
(09:19):
more here on our American story. And we returned to
(10:10):
our American stories and our story on Albert E. Brumley,
the man who wrote many classic American bluegrass and gospel
standards such as I'll Fly Away and turn your Radio On.
When we last left off, Albert had got his start
in music at the Hartford Music Company after walking there
with just two dollars in his pocket, and Albert would
(10:30):
soon form his own company. Here again are his granddaughters,
Elaine and Betsy with his story.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
So Grandpa started what he called Albert ebroman Son's, his
own publishing company in nineteen forty four, and he started
writing for himself and he was also a writing for
Stan Sbaster and for Hertford's all the time. But he
went back and purchased all of Hartfords who could get
all of his songs back, and that ended up with
nineteen forty eight and we got all of that started, yeah,
when we got one hundred percent. Because it was different,
people had owned portions of it, so we bought each
(11:02):
percentage from each person to one hundred percent of Hartford.
And because of his relationships with people, we printed books
for literally everybody. I mean, we printed songbooks for the Opry,
we printed songbooks for Louisiana Hayride, printed songbooks for the
Renfro Valley, Ozark, Jubilee, Bob Wills, the groups, all the groups,
Charlie Humbard, we printed songbooks for everybody. So over these
(11:24):
years that we've had this, we've sold just our own
books that we've made, plus our own books we made
for ourselves and sold which we used to sell in
the National Inquirer. Of all things we did, we sold
millions of them, and we've sold them all over the world.
We've sold over forty million songbooks and we've made over
one hundred million songbooks because Grandpa was genius. The man.
He was smart. So I like to say he invented iTunes.
(11:45):
That's just my own thing. But that's because Grandpa got
He made a contract with all those publishers around and
everybody get a list of all the songs that they owned,
and he would send them to people like the Opry,
the Louisiana Hayride, all those folks. Pick your favorite one
hundred and fifty songs, send me a list. We'll put
him in a songbook. Put your name on it, and
you can sell it. Which is why we sold so
(12:06):
many songs. We made so many songbooks because everybody would
pick different songs that would personalize. They would have their
playlist of songs, we'd make it in a book, and
then they would sell it with their name on the
front on the cover. It was a brilliant shift over
in the industry to be able to do that. Yeah,
And on the more personal side of this that I love.
(12:27):
I love the songs and stuff. But you know, Grandpa
was so artistic in so many ways. He helped create
the illustrations on the covers of the books. So the
evidence of his folksy image the way he was in
real life was presented on the covers of these books
with cabins and pine trees, which I love, and little
church buildings. So he was such a hands on person.
(12:49):
He had from the beginning to end. He had an
idea and in the later days in the sixties and seventies,
Dad and Bill, his older brother Bill, were the only
one really left at the company, and they contributed and
participated in the creation and putting together these books, which
is where we learned how to stable and stitch books,
because we did do that on site for a long
(13:12):
time and I've packed so many books, but you know,
that was just part of the business. That's what we
did in the middle of nowhere. It was enough to
where we even have a post office. There's like ten
people in Palmasuri, which is where ground pond, Grandma's house is,
and across the road is the business he built and
a post office. But there used to be a thriving
community there as well. But the post office still exists
(13:34):
because we shipped from that rural area all over the country.
One of the things that I was always impressed with
was how he lays the books out. He had a
specific way of laying them out with the numbers correlating,
like he loved the number one hundred. He put his
song on there a lot of times because this one
his song book was when you had the Convention style books,
that was his number. That was number number one hundred
(13:54):
of me. Huh. So he kept out connection and put
him in those new books. And I think that kind
of stuff is pretty cool, you know, the way he
continued that tradition really and it meant something to him.
So he named his kids after song people, and he
kept the traditions of what gave him his beginnings and
the music. It meant a lot to him. I think
because of these behaviors, I showed it.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
And over the years, because of his work, Albert developed
long asking friendships with countless well known musicians who would
sometimes come over for dinner at his house in Pouell, Missouri,
where Elene and Betsy would meet them.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
I didn't know this was anything. I didn't know about
fame or celebrity. I didn't know they were famous people
from Nashville. I didn't know anything but what Dad and
Grandpa did and what was normal life, and the fact
that those people came to the house. They were just friends.
We just sat around the table at eight. It was
not I mean, it's all about food. I mean I
(14:52):
have a memory, oh totally about food. But you know,
I have a memory of sitting on Ernest Tub's lap
and he had wearing his cowboy hat and he ate
my green beans because I hate green beans. But I
would get in trouble if I couldn't eat green beans,
but he would he ate my green beans, so I
would get in trouble. I mean, I have that memory.
But to me that was nothing. Was like, oh man,
I got somebody eat my green beans. That's all I
(15:13):
cared about. You know, everybody came to the house. It
never even occurred to me that they were famous, not
even one time. And we can't not talk about the
Hill in Hollow. Yeah, we had what was called the
Hill and Hollow Folk Festival where we had local arts
and crafts and local music and it was focused more
(15:34):
on that the gospel aspect. On Sundays had have gospel
formats and there'd be you know, there'd be a church
service locally. And as time moved on, they decided to
add in bluegrass and bring in some of those people
that were famous that we didn't know we're famous to
sing on Saturday nights. He'd bring in the opry stars
like Ernest Tubb and Girlpa Jones and Minnie Pearl, the
all of everybody came. I mean, if you can't not
(15:56):
name an opry star that wasn't in pell on the
stage and you had dinner with them, because that's just
what you said. You did. You made some homemade ice cream,
had a conversation, picked a little, they went on stage
and then you did it again. You know, you had
you jammed afterward or you ate more whatever. Yeah, because
they would they would just show up. I mean I
remember the busses coming in and everything is down behind
(16:18):
the stage. There's this low wire that goes to the barn.
You have to hold You have to get the pickup
truck and hold up the wire so the buses could go. Wonder.
I love I used to. That was my favorite part,
to see the wire. Who's gonna get stuck on the wire?
But like you know, the Thrasher Brothers got stuck that
one time, Blackwood brothers. As far as the Gospels are concerned,
everybody was there. Everybody came and sang on that stage.
(16:39):
I mean what Marty Stewart was with Lester Flat when
he was like seventeen years old played on that stage. Yeah,
Lester flat Neirl Scrugs and Marty Marty and oh golly, Jude,
I can't even think of them because they're just like there.
But anybody back. George Lindsay came one time. I remember
Gooper showed up. Yeah, that was weird. But also industry
people showed up, so it wasn't just the stars showing.
(17:01):
Everybody would say I'm going to Brumley, whether it be
the singer to the Hill and Hollow, they would always
show up because it was such a good time. And
it was just whether they were from New York or
you know, thirty miles away, it meant something for people
to gather at these events and connect and get away
and relax and enjoy well. And Grandpa was very particular too.
I mean he did not like to leave pale. He
(17:22):
didn't I mean even to get awards and stuff. He'd
be like whatever. But I do remember the story when
he went down to see Governor Jimmy Davis.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
The governor of Louisiana who wrote the song You Are
My Sunshine.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
And they were down there on the Governor's mansion and
he served fried chicken and everybody's all nervous and Grandpa,
Grandpa's his grandpa. He had chicken leg pit, his elbows
up on the up on the table and just start
eating and everybody's like, oh, thank goodness, and then everything
was fine. Then everybody all the nerves were gone. You know.
His grandpa was just Grandpa, always relaxed. He wasn't stressed
(17:54):
about anything. And he didn't want the limelight either. Remember
he was either off behind the stage or sit on
some He liked to sit on stairs. You sit on
the stairs, or squat on sit off to the side
to watch what was going on around. He would talk
to anybody that came up, but he never really went
up on stage very often. Even at whatever event we
were at, he was. He just preferred that relaxed everything
(18:18):
is okay, I'm eating my chicken leg with my elbows
on the tableci very laid back. Yeah, And people loved
that because they didn't have to put on a face.
They could be themselves around him, that whole authentic self thing.
You couldn't help it because that's just that's who he was.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
And you're listening to the granddaughters or Albert E. Bramley
tell his life story, and in a way, the granddaughters
are telling their own because these stories are so intertwined
in this remarkable American story and this remarkable American family.
When we come back more from the granddaughters. And by
the way, if you've got grandkids, empower them to tell
your family's story, empower them early, because my goodness, to
(19:01):
not know your family's story, for better or for worse,
is a crime. When we come back more of this
remarkable American story. Albert E. Brumley's here on our American story,
(19:38):
and we return to our American stories, and the final
segment of our story on American composer Albert E. Brumley
and also American entrepreneur is told by his granddaughters, Betsy
and Elaine. In nineteen seventy, Albert would be inducted into
the Nashville Songwriters Association Hall of Fame, becoming a charter
(19:58):
member of that organization, which, according to the granddaughters, was
something he really enjoyed going to. Let's continue with the story.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Okay, so here's what happened. So he goes and Grandpa
left Powell for like five reasons, and that was one
of them. Grandpa like Elaine was saying, no, limelight, not
his thing. He would sit in the back of the
room and Grandpa hold a cup of coffee in by
the bowl in his palm, and that's how he would drink.
So he would lean up against the back wall, very unassuming.
(20:30):
You don't know who he is. He doesn't make a fuss.
That's just how he spent most of his time. But
this young songwriter had just got some award. I have
no idea what it was. He came up and said, man,
look what I just did. Blah blah blah. He was
so excited about it. He said, dude, what's your name.
He goes, I'm Albert Brumley. He goes, man, have you
read anything I know? He said, I'll fly away, and
the guy goes, oh and just walked off. I mean,
(20:56):
but Grandpa was fine. He just, you know, he just
did his thing, never made a fuss, and he ate
weird stuff. He ate weird stuff and slept weird. And
he was an sanct trick by today's standards. The way
I remember him when I was really small, it was normal.
But now when you talk about it, it's just humorous.
It's funny because he did eat funny things and different
(21:18):
things at what we normally eat, like buttermilk on wheaties
or tomato juice on wheaties. Oh, and the treat that
was in the oh god, yeah, he like to slice
a can of it wasn't called spam then, well it
was a treat, yeah, which is another kind of canned
meat product, and it's a pork product that came in
a tin can that had a key, and he'd leave
(21:40):
it open in the fridge and then goa slice some
off when he wanted it at three o'clock in the morning.
Many times. There are tons of stories. And when I
was little, before a lot of the other kids came along,
I would go down with Grandma Brumley on Friday nights
and Grandpa would be in his room because he had
a room right off the kitchen where he lived on
this couch, and I mean he slept there, he ate there,
(22:03):
he did everything there. But he would come out and
he would stand because we weren't supposed to watch scary shows,
but Grandma would let me watch something called Dimension sixteen,
and that was on the UHF channel, which, by the way,
we had to run a wire from the house up
to the top of the bluff behind the house to
get the signal. And that's another story to watch that.
(22:24):
But he would come out and just stand there. He
would never sit with us. He would just stand there
and watch it a few minutes and he mosey to
the bathroom wherever he was going, and he would come
back through and stand there for a few minutes and
you know, watch with us and go back to his couch.
And that was just my Friday for a very long time.
That's how I spent my fridays, by nights with Grandma
Brumley and the snacks and all the things, and she
(22:46):
makes them and toast for you. Oh and coco. We
did that, yeah, And she let me sip her coffee,
which was also in no doubt, And never did take
up the smoking that Grandpa did, though I never cared
for that. He would smoke a lot, or at least
hold a lot of cigarettes. He would hold them while
he was thinking and they would burn down and the
(23:07):
ash would drop off, and there was a lot of
cigarette burns on the table beside his couch where laidam
And I have myself seeing Grandma go up to him
with an ash tray and tap the cigarette into the
ash tray so it wouldn't drop it all over the
floor or something. And it was kind of something. He
would go, oh yeah, and then just keep on because
his mind was focused on whatever, whatever, And sometimes he
(23:31):
had a lot of thoughts and he would write him
down on ice cream sticks and pieces of paper and
lines for music, music notes and whatever. Telephone building, tell oh,
whatever he can get. And he always wanted a Cadillac.
And when I was little, just just to give you
a picture, because we like to draw the pictures. There's
we live out in the middle of the country with
a two lane road, and just across the street literally
(23:53):
was where they started their business and built the buildings.
I don't know, five hundred feet maybe, but it was
across the two lane highways. So Grandpa got his car
and he would get up in the morning when he
was ready to go to work, and he would jump
in the car and drove it across the street and
park it and walk in the building. And then at
lunch he would jump in the car, drove across back
(24:14):
to the house and go eat and take his nap,
and then he would do the same thing in the afternoon.
And that was his regiment. The walking was not his thing.
He wanted to drive his car back and forth across
the street. As you know, Dad did the same, the same,
same exact thing. Yeah, but that's what you did because
you went to and from work. Yep. It's fun to
think about those days. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Albert E. Brumley would pass away in nineteen seventy seven,
leaving a legacy of over eight hundred songs, all penned
by his hand, but only one of them can claim
the title is the most recorded gospel song in all
of history, that song being I'll Fly Away, and its
legacy isn't lost on the family.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
I used to work for American Airlines because I wanted
to travel, and Dad said he wasn't paying for it.
And I literally heard all fly away all over the
world because Kevin and I heard it and Fiji on
our honeymoon. But I was in Australia on a bus
and nobody has a clue who I am. And I'm
on the way to this this cave thing. It's like
thirty minutes outside town and myself and my friend are
the only Americans on the bus. Everybody else is Australian
(25:25):
and they're singing Walton Matilden were like, that's kind of cool,
blah blah. But the next song they sang was I'll
fly Away Now. They again they had no clue who
I was or I didn't say anything, but it's like,
it's so amazing to me the impact of that song.
It's been recorded in every country, in every language on
the planet. We have a license for it until they keep,
(25:46):
you know, getting new countries, and then we have to
go back. But it changed the name, changed the names,
but that song has has touched millions upon millions of
people because the song is over eighty years old, so
it's been around long enough for generations of people to
connect to it and sing to their grandchildren and their
(26:06):
families at funerals, at gatherings, it sings and whatever. And
Betsy's story in Australia, those things are motivational to keep
it alive because it still does mean something. So whenever
we can get it out there, like it was recently
on a TV show and they sang it and I
still got tears and I still got the chills, and
(26:27):
it's just still relevant. And Grandpa, as Betsy was saying,
knew that was a factor in continuing things when it
means something to the people. One of my favorite things
is when people tell me their I'll Flyaway stories, because
everyone has one. I have literally hugged people in the
grocery door, I've cried with them, I've cried with them
(26:48):
in the hospitals. A lady, a friend of mine used
that as her wedding march, which I thought was really interesting.
Is I've never heard that before, but that song brings
back memories for people of things that they may have
forgotten about, but it like transports them to a place
that that is so special, in such a place in
their heart that that nothing else can get them there.
(27:09):
And the fact that they're willing to tell me that story,
because it really happens to me almost daily that someone
tells me the same. Here, I'm always sharing stories. So
one of the ones that I have is that gentlemen
told us that he was in a car accident and
he was being life flighted out and he was dying.
He and he he felt that he actually died, and
(27:30):
he was singing all fly away to bring himself back
so he would not die. So he's saying that he's
sang himself back to life, is what he was saying.
He said, I just kept singing all fly away, so
I would not die to know that that my name,
that as a person in this world represents something that
(27:51):
that can literally change someone's life in a moment is
so huge. That's an honor to be able to be
connected to something like that. And it's just that people
tell us those stories. I mean, I'm serious. I've cried
with so many strangers. I've had more people telling me
those stories, especially in hospitals. I don't know how I
(28:12):
end up in hospitals, but I tend to while I
get hurt a lot, I do. I get in the
emergency room what. I don't know why, I'm danger prone
or whatever, accident prone, whatever, but people tell me their stories.
And I mean I just cried and cried with people.
They've seen that to their to their loved ones when
they're older loved ones. I mean, we've done that in
the hospice. We've we've brought people into hospice into like
(28:34):
the Chuck Wagon gang because we still they say, and
work with them, brought them to hospice and people and
they sing off flyaway and people have come out of
their rooms and it's like the nurses would like It's
like they haven't walked in a week, but they've come
out of their rooms to sing and participate and be
near that song. It's amazing to me the power of
the melody that Grandpa conjured up out of out of
(28:57):
literally nowhere, out of a cotton field in Oklahoma. You know,
to be able to move someone to where as they
are literally slowly passing away, they have the strength to
get up and they want to be near that song.
That's amazing to me.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
And a great job by Monte Montgomery on the production
of that piece. A special thanks to Betsy and Elaine,
the granddaughters of this great man, Albert E. Brumley, and
a special thanks to Katrina Hine as well. And again
remember he started as the son of sharecroppers in cotton
fields in the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma and walks
his way to a new life and a life of
(29:37):
art and music, and in the end, forty million music
books sold, and the greatest and most recorded gospel song
of all time that as you could hear from the
Granddaughter's touched millions. We love telling these stories because it
connects American history with the American present and everything in between.
A special thanks to any granddaughter, any grandkid who wants
(29:58):
to keep the story of their family alive, the Albert E.
Brumley story. Here on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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