Let’s just reflect for a few minutes about the importance of music in our lives. I had the pleasure of having Ed Terry on my TV show this past week. He is from Grantsboro and was introduced to me by Reuben Davis and Lonnie Blizzard. He promotes The County Opry off Hwy 55 in the Grantsboro area, and it runs every Saturday night from 7:30-10:30.
His musical preferences run the gamut from classic country to gospel to rock and roll, and he is a truly talented artist.
On my program, he played and sang various tunes, but the one that stood out the most for me was Marty Robbins’ “Don’t Worry about Me.” Marty himself would have been proud.
Ed also is an international airline pilot, as well as a novelist and painter. His lovely wife Beverly accompanied him to the studio and it was obvious they both love classic country music.
Ed commented that many times on his international travels, he finds time to step back and play and sing some of his favorite songs and that this is a soothing experience for him.
Every time I have Michael Parker or Bob Gaddis on my show, it is a pleasure to have them relive, in song, events of days gone by.
There is usually a very interesting message woven into the fabric of every memorable song that reveals the various ongoing trials of the author, the entertainer, or both, and it can often touch the hearts, not only of those who present it, but all who hear it as well.
When Hank Williams sang “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” you could feel his emotional involvement (he wrote and in many cases lived the words of this song), as well as when George Jones sang “Fifty Thousand Names Carved in the Wall” about those who had died in The Vietnam War. So many of these songs touch us right where we live — they are all about our regrets, hopes, aspirations and dreams.
I am looking forward to joining the Faith Fellowship Church Choir this coming Sunday at 11 a.m. for what I know will be a rousing rendition of “Will The Circle Be Unbroken,” under the excellent musical direction of Dr. Alan Armstrong, the church’s minister of music. This song, as you probably know, is about saying goodbye to a loved one and hoping that the family circle would not be broken.
So many of these songs are all about life — they are all about us
I don’t know what heaven is like, but I think I can get a pretty good idea by listening to Tennessee Ernie Ford sing, “Oh, the bear will be gentle, the wolf will be tame, and the lion shall lie down by the lamb, the beast of the wild shall be led by a child, and I will be changed from this creature that I am.”
This song then ends this way, “There’ll be no sadness, no sorrow, no pain there to bear, there will be peace in the valley for me?” Wow! Peace in the valley!
Many of those who wrote some of the most beautiful music in this world were themselves living in dire straits.
One of my favorite hymnists, Fanny Crosby, though she was blind, wrote many beautiful hymns.
Robert Morgan tells about how one of her hymns served as a prelude to her second career. About age 60, she began working in downtown rescue missions, spending several days a week in lower Manhattan, witnessing to the down-and-out. Despite her fame as a hymn-writer, she chose to live in poverty in New York’s ghettos.
Just a few blocks from her little tenement apartment was the Bowery, an area where all kinds of vice flourishes. There, Fanny would go day after day to rescue the perishing.
J.C. Penney descended from a long line of Baptist preachers and was on his way to establishing a successful career when the 1929 Great Depression hit. His business deals failed, and he became very ill. He developed a painful case of shingles that tranquilizers only made worse. He felt he had nothing to live for.
Then one morning, he heard singing coming from the little hospital chapel, “Be not dismayed whate’re betide, God will take care of you.” He said that he felt as if he had been instantly lifted out of the darkness and into the sunlight.
So many times, what really matters in this life is reflected in song. It is interesting that as the great Titanic sank to its watery grave on April 14, 1912, those standing on the deck, who just hours before had been dressed in their finest, wining and dining the night away, were now spending their last minutes huddled together, singing “Nearer, My God to Thee.”
Reece Gardner is the host of “The Reece Gardner Hour,” which airs on TACC-9 on Mondays at 9 p.m., Tuesdays at 8 p.m., Thursdays at 11 p.m., Sundays at 10:30 p.m.and on-demand anytime at TACC9.com. You can reach Reece at rbgej@aol.com.