January 2, 2025 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Albert Brumley wrote classic hymns like “I’ll Fly Away” and “Turn Your Radio On,” but he left behind much more. His son Bob carried the legacy – and Bob’s daughters did the same. Here is the Brumley family story.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
including yours. Sent them to our American Stories dot com.
Up next, a story from Betsy and Elaine Brumley on
their father, Bob. Bob Bromley inherited a lot from his father, Albert.
Not only was Albert one of the most impactful songwriters
(00:32):
in American history, writing songs such as I'll Fly Away
and Turn Your Radio On, but he also had a
major music publishing company in Powell, Massour. Here's the sisters
talking about how Bob handled that and went about living life.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
He was born in December of nineteen thirty seven, so
January of nineteen thirty eight he was in the business.
It was pretty much like that. We did the same thing.
I mean once the kids were born. And we even
had photos that had recently been posted in the late
fifties early sixties of the brothers before they went their
separate ways, all working together, putting the books together. I mean,
that's just part of your family business. It supported you,
(01:17):
it brought income, and it's what's what you did. But
that's how Dad, he was always a part of the business. Yeah,
Dad never loved. Dad was really very passionate about continuing
the legacy for what Grandpa brought to the world, bringing awareness,
sharing it with people, selling books, performing, I mean, Dad
(01:38):
had his own. They all did the business, but they
all sang too. Now I'm sure you know the story, Betsy,
but one of my favorite stories of their singing was
as a group that all the kids, when the boys
were older, they would travel together in this car with
barely any gas in it, barely any money, and that
would stop at a general store somewhere when they got
closer to whatever coon hunt or fox Hunt or pie
(02:00):
supper or whatever events ever, gonna go play out and
pick up some ring baloney and some salting crackers and
for you know, coke and some coke. And that was
They ate on that for days. Well, because they didn't
leave and then come back like we do now. They
left for a while because it was a thing to drive,
and you had to be able to You probably needed
to get paid to afford gas sometimes when you're going around,
(02:22):
and that's that's just how they ate. Plus they liked
it well. And Dad used to have to sit on
the floor underneath his bass. Yeah that's true, because I
played the bright bass, so he was his place in
the car was on in the floorboard of the back
seat under his bass. That's how he wrote. For a
frame of reference for I think about is when on
Andy griff with Johnny Fleet and the beat or whatever
(02:44):
comes through in that long, big old busketball like cadlic car.
That's totally what they did. I mean, they all piled
in there with their at their instruments and just did it.
I mean, so you're you know, you've got a couple
of guitars, you've got the big old bass, you've got
the steel guitar, Jack's mandolin stuff. I mean, so there's
a lot of instruments in their plus the clothes, their
outfits or uniforms whatever, they called them stage clothes, and
(03:05):
then they're regular clothes. So I mean, if you think
about all the space that takes up, that's a lot.
They all played instruments because Grandpa gave him instruments when
they were around eight or nine years old to start learning.
And Dad was a guitar and the upright bass and
the piano piano, and he kept being able to play
those his entire life. They didn't take the piano back
(03:27):
then but they did take the bass and the guitars
and stuff with them, and that was part of being
in the business too, because that was Grandpa's background. You
traveled around, you sang your music, you let people hear it,
took books with you to sell, you know, And that
was how he was introduced and participated in the business.
(03:50):
And then his brothers left, some of them went to
the service, but in the sixties was something called the
Bakersfield Sound that was being developed and they wanted to
be a part of that, and so Tom and Al
and Dad's younger brother Jack, they just picked up and moved. Well,
Dad decided to stay to keep the business going because
they really didn't have anybody working for him that did
(04:13):
the things the boys did, so he and Bill stayed.
So that was what happened where Dad just made that
choice to stay. But he also loved to perform because
he had his own band. He had not with just
his family and the brothers, but his own that he
toured around. If I can remember when I was a
little specific Fox Hunt in Stella, which is where my
mom grew up. But this was after they met and married,
(04:34):
and then he played on the stage and we'd go
do the hangout thing and then he packed up and
we come home. And so he was always part of
the music, whether it was behind the scenes like what
we do mostly now, or on the stage. And he
had a great voice. He's really good with his pitch.
I mean, he was really good until he was gone.
He could sing really well. And then in nineteen seventy
(04:58):
six Bill and Dad bought the company from the publishing
company from Grandpa. Grandpa was ready to retire because he
was in his seventies, so they bought the company and
then Dad purchased Bill out in nineteen eighty three and
then it's been we've run it ever since, you know.
So you know, Dad just is always, like Elaine said,
had always had a love for this, the music and
(05:19):
the industry side. But you know, having a passion for
the publishing is different than having a passion for the
music because publishing is such a unique animal. And there's
like five people in the world that understand publishing and
copyright right, and thank goodness, we're one of them. But
it's which is part of the reason we've lasted so long,
because we actually do understand the business. We know how
(05:40):
it works because we've been around since it was invented basically,
So yeah, I mean Dad learned those things and kept
our business relevant, so you know, understanding seeing the trends,
keeping it up, keeping his finger on the pulse with
the old stuff too, because understanding that the nostalgia, you
know that the ages as we ate, our taste change.
(06:00):
Knowing that the older generation as they as they come
into being, the baby boomers or whatever they're called, are
going to be looking for those old songs that they
grew up with when we have those, and then that's
gonna be passed on. So there's always there's always going
to be there. So we always have kept the books,
but we had the singings, and we did the when
we upgraded to different things, you know, and just got
involved in movies and television and streaming and all the stuff.
(06:23):
But his main goal was keep that legacy alive, to
make sure that people because as time passes and generations
come anew, the name is not associated with music anymore.
And that's part of the thing that we're trying to
do is bring him to people's minds and what he contributed,
at least in my mind, that's what I think about,
and making sure that they know this song that was
(06:47):
in O Brother Arthou that sold millions of copies, was
done by this amazing human being a long time ago,
and people still love to hear what he had to
say from them, and that it really was big on
that Willy wanted to do that too.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
And you're listening to Betsy and Elaine Brumley tell the
story of their father Bob, and by the way, they
told a brilliant story of their granddaddy, Albert, the composer
of our flyaway, and turn your radio on, and so
many others when we come back more of this remarkable
family and musical story here on our American Stories. Folks,
(07:30):
if you love the great American stories we tell and
love America like we do, we're asking you to become
a part of the Our American Stories family. If you
agree that America is a good and great country, please
make a donation. A monthly gift of seventeen dollars and
seventy six cents is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters.
Go to our American Stories dot com now and go
(07:51):
to the donate button and help us keep the great
American stories coming. That's our Americanstories dot Com and we
returned to our American stories and the story of Bob
(08:13):
Brumley as told by his daughters Betsy and Elaine. When
we last left off, the sisters were talking about their
father's mission to preserve and honor the legacy of his father,
Albert E. Brumley, who was a composer and music book publisher.
Let's continue with this great family story.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Part of the book part and the printing and all
that stuff was they were raw books, which they had
raw edges, and there was something called a book press
and something called the book cutter. Well, Dad was ended
up being the champion book cutter, and he developed this
amazing muscle on that road right right across the top
of his elbow that not many people develop. And he
was really strong hands. Because you put the books in,
(09:01):
you'd smush them back, You cut the edges, turn them,
cut them. You had to cut three of the edges off,
and we would play in the pilings of the paper
like they were leaves, like fall we get paper cuts,
I don't. I was just thinking that, I don't know.
Maybe we did, but it was just so much. It
was fun. He had his own way of looking at things,
just like Grandpa did, and it wasn't exactly like Grandpa's.
(09:23):
It was a little bit. It was different. Yeah, Dad's
favorite stuff though, I mean Dad, it was Christmas time.
Dad was like a five year old at Christmas time.
The magic of Christmas always told him. And we had
some amazing stories from our childhood with Christmas. You know
he left footprints for you guys, right, Yeah, Exanta Claus
put printsy out on the powder. Yeah. He put lights up.
(09:45):
I mean, the man puts so many lights up. It
wasn't like it wasn't Christmas vacation lights. But but he
loved lights. He loved all of all the stuff that
came with Christmas. And we always had stockings and we
always had a toy and would have the same candy.
So Mom and Dad we have Christmas song every year.
(10:06):
Every year. It was literally the same can, literally the
same candy you know you get growing up because there's
part there's German parts. You would get an orange and
apple and candy and your stocking at Christmas time. Well
they got it got to be because we never ate
it because it was gross candy. But they had to
put it in there. So literally they would put the
candy in plastic and just drop it in our socks,
(10:26):
the same candy every single year because it's stuck together.
It's stuck together because it was above the fireplace. It
melted it and it stuck together. But they used to
because we never ate it, even when even we were little,
we never ate it. But they That's one thing about him,
and I think Grandpa as well, and my mom and grandma.
There was a lot of traditions like that that really
(10:48):
because it didn't matter what it was. It was a
matter that it was year by year. I mean, he
really liked following certain traditions like that. It meant nostalgic,
it meant something damn to do those kinds of things
every and it didn't matter if the candy stuck together
or not, or we ate the orange of the apple
because we didn't need those either. We didn't and you know,
we just got the stocking present. But those kinds of things.
(11:09):
He did that with a lot of aspects of his life,
you know. And literally as we got older and he
got older, if you lived in Powell, you could set
your watch by Dad. And I mean that because every
single day at eleven thirty he went to get the mail.
It doesn't matter where he went to get the mail,
and I mean people wouldn't they knew what his schedule was.
(11:32):
I mean people would know and if if Dad wasn't
getting the mail or whatever, people would call and says Bob, okay,
because he wasn't there to get the mail. He would
tradition his routine. Everything was very precise and scheduled for him.
He did have a fabulous sense of humor that was
(11:53):
very corny and the I guess we even use that
in his habituary because it was part of his personal
and it's how he connected with people. He would tell
you this corny joke and you'd roll your eyes, but
you find yourself telling it ten minutes later because it's
so fun It's kind of funny and silly. And that
was That's how I remember a lot about him. And
(12:14):
it doesn't He never meant to be. He was never disrespectful,
but he told them at all the weird times, you know,
at visitations for funerals, or at a funeral or some
serious events, some serious event, he would come up with
this corny joke that he remembered and he's relevant somehow,
and somehow I connected to the situation you were in.
(12:35):
He was. I remember, he's really smart. That's what I
really have a great memory of is how smart Dad was.
His brain. He was a very internal person, but he
had he had a way of and a perspective of
viewing things. Now, it took him fifteen minutes to get there,
but once he got there, it made a lot of sense.
And you ask how we I'd want him to be remembered.
You know, I just wanted to be remembered as Dad,
(12:56):
as Bob. Yeah, he really cared about everything he did. Dad.
You know, he never met a stranger, and he was
like Grandma Brumby like this. If he met you once,
he remembered your name, he remembered what your kid's names were,
he remembered what illnesses you have. I mean, the man
remembered everything about you. But everything about him was authentic.
(13:22):
Dad didn't even know how to put on airs. If
he tried, he wouldn't know how to put on airs.
And it was an old saying. You never good above
your raisin or whatever. Dad never did. He never forgot
where he came from. He felt that he earned everything,
and I think he absolutely earned everything he did. And
just that passion he had for that legacy I mean,
it was the drive of behind his business life, and
(13:44):
he made sure that it was in a place of honor.
People in the industry recognized that. So he was recognized
for respecting the Southern gospel roots, the gospel roots, when
a lot of people tend to push them aside. He
kept them alive. And a lot of people in the
industry and in the music industry really respected him for that,
(14:04):
And so he had his own accomplishments like that. A
lot of it we talk about because Grandpa's legacy was
so big. But when you live in the shadow of
someone with a name like Alberty Brimley and his works
are considered part of the fabric of America, it's hard
to have your own because you do find yourself preserving,
(14:25):
just like even Freelane, and it's hard. I mean, we're
still living in Grandpa's shadow, if you will, but we're
making our own way. Dad did his, yeah, and he
had his own set of awards and accomplishments that he
achieved after Grandpa passed and he bought the business. And
to me, this is a thing that always meant something
to me, one thing that Dad always made sure of
(14:46):
because of the respect he had for the industry was
to make sure he paid his people. Now, if you
know the industry, that didn't always happen in events and
things like that. It was a tough business. Music can
be tough, and I if you're in it at all,
you probably understand that. But he always made sure to
respect the people he brought on, whether they were talent
(15:07):
or to We paid attribute every year to the volunteers
that helped our events with this delicious food, because food
is fine and it was something they could all gather
in and appreciate. He appreciated what the people contributed to
his whatever it was, but he also respected the fans,
(15:30):
and he appreciated the fans absolutely. I mean, one of
my favorite stories is when one of the groups wanted
to leave early from the singing one year, and he
pulled them over from backstage and pulled the curtain back
and he said, you see all those people out there,
and he said yeah, he said, now, I can't do
without them. You I can do without If you want
to leave, you're not going to get paid and you're
not coming back because you're disrespectful. You're disrespecting these fans
(15:53):
who came to see you and paid to see you,
but if you want to stay, I'll be happy to
pay you. And that's exactly what they did because Dad
understood the relationship of these are hardworking people. These are
your fans who have who have take their hard earned
money and paid a ticket to see you perform. And
if you are going to disrespect them by not thinking
(16:15):
they're worthy or or whatever your problem is, then that
I'm not having you back, because this is an equal
respect back and forth between the between the artist and
the fan, and then also as the promoter, the person
who we all respect each other. Everybody adds something, nobody's
better than anybody else. I love that about Daddy. Is
it always everybody had a place, and everybody had a job.
(16:39):
You did your job, you got paid for your job,
unless you were volunteered, which you still got paid for
because man, we took over everything. And you know that's
what you did. So you're exactly right that that was
a very big factor of Dad's personality and that I
really always greatly appreciated, and I carry that with me now.
I'm very aware and very particular that when I do
(17:00):
something with people, I treat them with that same respect.
To the best of my ability in the situation absolutely
so that to me was pretty cool about him because
he was that way in everything he knew.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
And a great job as always by Monte Montgomery on
the production and the storytelling. And a special thanks to
Betsy and Elaine Brumley sharing the story of their father
Bob this time, last time it was a granddaddy, Albert
and my goodness, if you can have two daughters tell
the story of your life as a mother or a father,
well blessed her, you and lucky or you the story
(17:37):
of the Bromley family and this time Bob Brumley as
told by his daughters Betsy and Elaine. Here on our
American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
including yours. Sent them to our American Stories dot com.
Up next, a story from Betsy and Elaine Brumley on
their father, Bob. Bob Bromley inherited a lot from his father, Albert.
Not only was Albert one of the most impactful songwriters
(00:32):
in American history, writing songs such as I'll Fly Away
and Turn Your Radio On, but he also had a
major music publishing company in Powell, Massour. Here's the sisters
talking about how Bob handled that and went about living life.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
He was born in December of nineteen thirty seven, so
January of nineteen thirty eight he was in the business.
It was pretty much like that. We did the same thing.
I mean once the kids were born. And we even
had photos that had recently been posted in the late
fifties early sixties of the brothers before they went their
separate ways, all working together, putting the books together. I mean,
that's just part of your family business. It supported you,
(01:17):
it brought income, and it's what's what you did. But
that's how Dad, he was always a part of the business. Yeah,
Dad never loved. Dad was really very passionate about continuing
the legacy for what Grandpa brought to the world, bringing awareness,
sharing it with people, selling books, performing, I mean, Dad
(01:38):
had his own. They all did the business, but they
all sang too. Now I'm sure you know the story, Betsy,
but one of my favorite stories of their singing was
as a group that all the kids, when the boys
were older, they would travel together in this car with
barely any gas in it, barely any money, and that
would stop at a general store somewhere when they got
closer to whatever coon hunt or fox Hunt or pie
(02:00):
supper or whatever events ever, gonna go play out and
pick up some ring baloney and some salting crackers and
for you know, coke and some coke. And that was
They ate on that for days. Well, because they didn't
leave and then come back like we do now. They
left for a while because it was a thing to drive,
and you had to be able to You probably needed
to get paid to afford gas sometimes when you're going around,
(02:22):
and that's that's just how they ate. Plus they liked
it well. And Dad used to have to sit on
the floor underneath his bass. Yeah that's true, because I
played the bright bass, so he was his place in
the car was on in the floorboard of the back
seat under his bass. That's how he wrote. For a
frame of reference for I think about is when on
Andy griff with Johnny Fleet and the beat or whatever
(02:44):
comes through in that long, big old busketball like cadlic car.
That's totally what they did. I mean, they all piled
in there with their at their instruments and just did it.
I mean, so you're you know, you've got a couple
of guitars, you've got the big old bass, you've got
the steel guitar, Jack's mandolin stuff. I mean, so there's
a lot of instruments in their plus the clothes, their
outfits or uniforms whatever, they called them stage clothes, and
(03:05):
then they're regular clothes. So I mean, if you think
about all the space that takes up, that's a lot.
They all played instruments because Grandpa gave him instruments when
they were around eight or nine years old to start learning.
And Dad was a guitar and the upright bass and
the piano piano, and he kept being able to play
those his entire life. They didn't take the piano back
(03:27):
then but they did take the bass and the guitars
and stuff with them, and that was part of being
in the business too, because that was Grandpa's background. You
traveled around, you sang your music, you let people hear it,
took books with you to sell, you know, And that
was how he was introduced and participated in the business.
(03:50):
And then his brothers left, some of them went to
the service, but in the sixties was something called the
Bakersfield Sound that was being developed and they wanted to
be a part of that, and so Tom and Al
and Dad's younger brother Jack, they just picked up and moved. Well,
Dad decided to stay to keep the business going because
they really didn't have anybody working for him that did
(04:13):
the things the boys did, so he and Bill stayed.
So that was what happened where Dad just made that
choice to stay. But he also loved to perform because
he had his own band. He had not with just
his family and the brothers, but his own that he
toured around. If I can remember when I was a
little specific Fox Hunt in Stella, which is where my
mom grew up. But this was after they met and married,
(04:34):
and then he played on the stage and we'd go
do the hangout thing and then he packed up and
we come home. And so he was always part of
the music, whether it was behind the scenes like what
we do mostly now, or on the stage. And he
had a great voice. He's really good with his pitch.
I mean, he was really good until he was gone.
He could sing really well. And then in nineteen seventy
(04:58):
six Bill and Dad bought the company from the publishing
company from Grandpa. Grandpa was ready to retire because he
was in his seventies, so they bought the company and
then Dad purchased Bill out in nineteen eighty three and
then it's been we've run it ever since, you know.
So you know, Dad just is always, like Elaine said,
had always had a love for this, the music and
(05:19):
the industry side. But you know, having a passion for
the publishing is different than having a passion for the
music because publishing is such a unique animal. And there's
like five people in the world that understand publishing and
copyright right, and thank goodness, we're one of them. But
it's which is part of the reason we've lasted so long,
because we actually do understand the business. We know how
(05:40):
it works because we've been around since it was invented basically,
So yeah, I mean Dad learned those things and kept
our business relevant, so you know, understanding seeing the trends,
keeping it up, keeping his finger on the pulse with
the old stuff too, because understanding that the nostalgia, you
know that the ages as we ate, our taste change.
(06:00):
Knowing that the older generation as they as they come
into being, the baby boomers or whatever they're called, are
going to be looking for those old songs that they
grew up with when we have those, and then that's
gonna be passed on. So there's always there's always going
to be there. So we always have kept the books,
but we had the singings, and we did the when
we upgraded to different things, you know, and just got
involved in movies and television and streaming and all the stuff.
(06:23):
But his main goal was keep that legacy alive, to
make sure that people because as time passes and generations
come anew, the name is not associated with music anymore.
And that's part of the thing that we're trying to
do is bring him to people's minds and what he contributed,
at least in my mind, that's what I think about,
and making sure that they know this song that was
(06:47):
in O Brother Arthou that sold millions of copies, was
done by this amazing human being a long time ago,
and people still love to hear what he had to
say from them, and that it really was big on
that Willy wanted to do that too.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
And you're listening to Betsy and Elaine Brumley tell the
story of their father Bob, and by the way, they
told a brilliant story of their granddaddy, Albert, the composer
of our flyaway, and turn your radio on, and so
many others when we come back more of this remarkable
family and musical story here on our American Stories. Folks,
(07:30):
if you love the great American stories we tell and
love America like we do, we're asking you to become
a part of the Our American Stories family. If you
agree that America is a good and great country, please
make a donation. A monthly gift of seventeen dollars and
seventy six cents is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters.
Go to our American Stories dot com now and go
(07:51):
to the donate button and help us keep the great
American stories coming. That's our Americanstories dot Com and we
returned to our American stories and the story of Bob
(08:13):
Brumley as told by his daughters Betsy and Elaine. When
we last left off, the sisters were talking about their
father's mission to preserve and honor the legacy of his father,
Albert E. Brumley, who was a composer and music book publisher.
Let's continue with this great family story.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Part of the book part and the printing and all
that stuff was they were raw books, which they had
raw edges, and there was something called a book press
and something called the book cutter. Well, Dad was ended
up being the champion book cutter, and he developed this
amazing muscle on that road right right across the top
of his elbow that not many people develop. And he
was really strong hands. Because you put the books in,
(09:01):
you'd smush them back, You cut the edges, turn them,
cut them. You had to cut three of the edges off,
and we would play in the pilings of the paper
like they were leaves, like fall we get paper cuts,
I don't. I was just thinking that, I don't know.
Maybe we did, but it was just so much. It
was fun. He had his own way of looking at things,
just like Grandpa did, and it wasn't exactly like Grandpa's.
(09:23):
It was a little bit. It was different. Yeah, Dad's
favorite stuff though, I mean Dad, it was Christmas time.
Dad was like a five year old at Christmas time.
The magic of Christmas always told him. And we had
some amazing stories from our childhood with Christmas. You know
he left footprints for you guys, right, Yeah, Exanta Claus
put printsy out on the powder. Yeah. He put lights up.
(09:45):
I mean, the man puts so many lights up. It
wasn't like it wasn't Christmas vacation lights. But but he
loved lights. He loved all of all the stuff that
came with Christmas. And we always had stockings and we
always had a toy and would have the same candy.
So Mom and Dad we have Christmas song every year.
(10:06):
Every year. It was literally the same can, literally the
same candy you know you get growing up because there's
part there's German parts. You would get an orange and
apple and candy and your stocking at Christmas time. Well
they got it got to be because we never ate
it because it was gross candy. But they had to
put it in there. So literally they would put the
candy in plastic and just drop it in our socks,
(10:26):
the same candy every single year because it's stuck together.
It's stuck together because it was above the fireplace. It
melted it and it stuck together. But they used to
because we never ate it, even when even we were little,
we never ate it. But they That's one thing about him,
and I think Grandpa as well, and my mom and grandma.
There was a lot of traditions like that that really
(10:48):
because it didn't matter what it was. It was a
matter that it was year by year. I mean, he
really liked following certain traditions like that. It meant nostalgic,
it meant something damn to do those kinds of things
every and it didn't matter if the candy stuck together
or not, or we ate the orange of the apple
because we didn't need those either. We didn't and you know,
we just got the stocking present. But those kinds of things.
(11:09):
He did that with a lot of aspects of his life,
you know. And literally as we got older and he
got older, if you lived in Powell, you could set
your watch by Dad. And I mean that because every
single day at eleven thirty he went to get the mail.
It doesn't matter where he went to get the mail,
and I mean people wouldn't they knew what his schedule was.
(11:32):
I mean people would know and if if Dad wasn't
getting the mail or whatever, people would call and says Bob, okay,
because he wasn't there to get the mail. He would
tradition his routine. Everything was very precise and scheduled for him.
He did have a fabulous sense of humor that was
(11:53):
very corny and the I guess we even use that
in his habituary because it was part of his personal
and it's how he connected with people. He would tell
you this corny joke and you'd roll your eyes, but
you find yourself telling it ten minutes later because it's
so fun It's kind of funny and silly. And that
was That's how I remember a lot about him. And
(12:14):
it doesn't He never meant to be. He was never disrespectful,
but he told them at all the weird times, you know,
at visitations for funerals, or at a funeral or some
serious events, some serious event, he would come up with
this corny joke that he remembered and he's relevant somehow,
and somehow I connected to the situation you were in.
(12:35):
He was. I remember, he's really smart. That's what I
really have a great memory of is how smart Dad was.
His brain. He was a very internal person, but he
had he had a way of and a perspective of
viewing things. Now, it took him fifteen minutes to get there,
but once he got there, it made a lot of sense.
And you ask how we I'd want him to be remembered.
You know, I just wanted to be remembered as Dad,
(12:56):
as Bob. Yeah, he really cared about everything he did. Dad.
You know, he never met a stranger, and he was
like Grandma Brumby like this. If he met you once,
he remembered your name, he remembered what your kid's names were,
he remembered what illnesses you have. I mean, the man
remembered everything about you. But everything about him was authentic.
(13:22):
Dad didn't even know how to put on airs. If
he tried, he wouldn't know how to put on airs.
And it was an old saying. You never good above
your raisin or whatever. Dad never did. He never forgot
where he came from. He felt that he earned everything,
and I think he absolutely earned everything he did. And
just that passion he had for that legacy I mean,
it was the drive of behind his business life, and
(13:44):
he made sure that it was in a place of honor.
People in the industry recognized that. So he was recognized
for respecting the Southern gospel roots, the gospel roots, when
a lot of people tend to push them aside. He
kept them alive. And a lot of people in the
industry and in the music industry really respected him for that,
(14:04):
And so he had his own accomplishments like that. A
lot of it we talk about because Grandpa's legacy was
so big. But when you live in the shadow of
someone with a name like Alberty Brimley and his works
are considered part of the fabric of America, it's hard
to have your own because you do find yourself preserving,
(14:25):
just like even Freelane, and it's hard. I mean, we're
still living in Grandpa's shadow, if you will, but we're
making our own way. Dad did his, yeah, and he
had his own set of awards and accomplishments that he
achieved after Grandpa passed and he bought the business. And
to me, this is a thing that always meant something
to me, one thing that Dad always made sure of
(14:46):
because of the respect he had for the industry was
to make sure he paid his people. Now, if you
know the industry, that didn't always happen in events and
things like that. It was a tough business. Music can
be tough, and I if you're in it at all,
you probably understand that. But he always made sure to
respect the people he brought on, whether they were talent
(15:07):
or to We paid attribute every year to the volunteers
that helped our events with this delicious food, because food
is fine and it was something they could all gather
in and appreciate. He appreciated what the people contributed to
his whatever it was, but he also respected the fans,
(15:30):
and he appreciated the fans absolutely. I mean, one of
my favorite stories is when one of the groups wanted
to leave early from the singing one year, and he
pulled them over from backstage and pulled the curtain back
and he said, you see all those people out there,
and he said yeah, he said, now, I can't do
without them. You I can do without If you want
to leave, you're not going to get paid and you're
not coming back because you're disrespectful. You're disrespecting these fans
(15:53):
who came to see you and paid to see you,
but if you want to stay, I'll be happy to
pay you. And that's exactly what they did because Dad
understood the relationship of these are hardworking people. These are
your fans who have who have take their hard earned
money and paid a ticket to see you perform. And
if you are going to disrespect them by not thinking
(16:15):
they're worthy or or whatever your problem is, then that
I'm not having you back, because this is an equal
respect back and forth between the between the artist and
the fan, and then also as the promoter, the person
who we all respect each other. Everybody adds something, nobody's
better than anybody else. I love that about Daddy. Is
it always everybody had a place, and everybody had a job.
(16:39):
You did your job, you got paid for your job,
unless you were volunteered, which you still got paid for
because man, we took over everything. And you know that's
what you did. So you're exactly right that that was
a very big factor of Dad's personality and that I
really always greatly appreciated, and I carry that with me now.
I'm very aware and very particular that when I do
(17:00):
something with people, I treat them with that same respect.
To the best of my ability in the situation absolutely
so that to me was pretty cool about him because
he was that way in everything he knew.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
And a great job as always by Monte Montgomery on
the production and the storytelling. And a special thanks to
Betsy and Elaine Brumley sharing the story of their father
Bob this time, last time it was a granddaddy, Albert
and my goodness, if you can have two daughters tell
the story of your life as a mother or a father,
well blessed her, you and lucky or you the story
(17:37):
of the Bromley family and this time Bob Brumley as
told by his daughters Betsy and Elaine. Here on our
American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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