April 9, 2024 • 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 your 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, going to 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 affod gas sometimes when
(02:21):
you're going around, 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, the beat or
(02:43):
whatever 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 call them stage clothes,
(03:05):
and 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 then,
(03:27):
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. And
(03:50):
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 with. 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
(04:33):
and married, 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
(04:57):
nineteen seventy 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
(05:19):
music and 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
(05:40):
know how 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 changed. Knowing that the older generation as they
(06:03):
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. But his main goal was keep
(06:26):
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 in O Brother Arthou that
(06:48):
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. It really
was big on that Willy wanted to do that too.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
And you're listening to Betsy and Elaine Bromley 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 Americanstories dot com now and go to
(07:51):
the donate button and help us keep the great American
stories coming. That's our American Stories 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 we 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 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.
(11:33):
I mean people would know and if if Dad wasn't
getting the mall 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 person
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 event, some serious event, he would come up with
this corny joke that he remembered and it'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 him, I want him to be remembered,
you know, I just want him to be remembered as Dad,
(12:57):
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,
(14:05):
and he 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 a tribute 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
(15:30):
fans and he appreciated the fan 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 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
(16:15):
thinking 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
(16:38):
a job. You did your job, You got paid for
your job, unless you were volunteered, which you still got
paid for because man, we took ore of everything. And
you know that's what you did. So you're exactly right.
That's 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
(16:59):
that when I do 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 of 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 or 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 your 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, going to 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 affod gas sometimes when
(02:21):
you're going around, 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, the beat or
(02:43):
whatever 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 call them stage clothes,
(03:05):
and 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 then,
(03:27):
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. And
(03:50):
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 with. 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
(04:33):
and married, 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
(04:57):
nineteen seventy 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
(05:19):
music and 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
(05:40):
know how 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 changed. Knowing that the older generation as they
(06:03):
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. But his main goal was keep
(06:26):
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 in O Brother Arthou that
(06:48):
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. It really
was big on that Willy wanted to do that too.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
And you're listening to Betsy and Elaine Bromley 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 Americanstories dot com now and go to
(07:51):
the donate button and help us keep the great American
stories coming. That's our American Stories 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 we 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 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.
(11:33):
I mean people would know and if if Dad wasn't
getting the mall 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 person
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 event, some serious event, he would come up with
this corny joke that he remembered and it'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 him, I want him to be remembered,
you know, I just want him to be remembered as Dad,
(12:57):
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,
(14:05):
and he 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 a tribute 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
(15:30):
fans and he appreciated the fan 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 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
(16:15):
thinking 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
(16:38):
a job. You did your job, You got paid for
your job, unless you were volunteered, which you still got
paid for because man, we took ore of everything. And
you know that's what you did. So you're exactly right.
That's 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
(16:59):
that when I do 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 of 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 or 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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