October 22, 2024 • 30 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, the granddaughters of Albert E. Brumley share the story of how their grandpa entered this world as the son of penniless sharecroppers and left it as the writer of the most recorded Gospel music song in history.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Bromley was born on October twenty ninth, nineteen oh five.
Here's his granddaughters Betsy in Olaine to tell the rest
of the story.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Grumpha grew up in the little town in Oklahoma. He
was born near Sparro, Oklahoma, close to Rock Island, Oklahoma.
He grew up really poor. His family were sharecroppers, and
the sharecropt cotton. If you've ever been picked cotton, if
you've ever done that, it's terrible.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
It's awful. It hurts.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
I mean because I remember doing it as a school
experiment when I was a kids don't know why they
had his do that, you know, the pricks and from
the thorns or whatever those little sticky things are.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
But that was his childhood.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
But it was musical because his dad played instruments and
taught him how to love.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Music, and he played the piano.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
And we really hated picking Hotton like the life which
is one of the reasons he decided to move toward
the music and Hartford, Arkansas. I've 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
(01:36):
cents or so, not much money in his.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Pocket at all.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
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 is showed 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 to
up on his couch instead of paid tuition, so it
(02:02):
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, how to
write music to pay off the tuition debt.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
But who was em so?
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Ian Bartlett was a songwriter. He learned how to write
songs from the Stam Spaxtor Company and decided to go
out on his own and he began the Hertford Institute
in Hartford, Arkansas, and EM.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Did a lot of things at that music school. He
was a publisher as well as teaching music.
Speaker 3 (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 4 (02:47):
That's how like Grandpa made money. On all everyone that
worked for the Hertford Music Institute made money was by
going to sell these songbooks.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Some people would.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Attend school, and as you got more popular and your
songs became more popular than you was signed a page
in those songbooks. 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,
of course came from Grandpa. He wrote a lot of
(03:14):
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
each of the morning. If we never meet again, turn
your radio and ring strangers to me? Did I say
Jesus the only hand?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I can't remember.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
But Grandpa wrote all 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
(03:51):
is totally and it's just 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
(04:14):
it and get it the words right, 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
(04:36):
them a little bit in their day 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 as a tweet or
twenty twenty nine. Well, the other thing is Grandpa always
(04:57):
called that a little diddy. He never really it was
never anything spectacular to him. And Grandma is actually the
one who made him send it in because part of
his deal with Ian 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
(05:20):
for a song to submit one month and Grandma 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 porticured
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
(05:41):
forced iss correct, but she sure urged him to get
that song out there.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
For people to hear because she liked it. And as
we know, a couplebody likes it. A couple of other
people seem to like it.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
I think because it's easy and simple and happy, and
it just and it's hopeful and it's easy to remember.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
You know.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Grandpa always wrote and he would say that if you
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
(06:21):
you do, whether you write a song, whether you sew close,
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 Flyaway is
(06:41):
a very good example of that. I mean what in
nineteen seventy six we got we won an award for
All Flyaway 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 walt thirty forty five years
later and over twelve thousand licenses. And when he first
(07:03):
wrote it, it took a few years for it to
become even popular, and it was even recorded, but 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
(07:25):
of that and it just really took off, and that's
when the awareness of the song went beyond convention 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
(07:46):
there that's lasted as well, and that started the road.
And Grandpa was such a smart man. He recognized the
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 fy Away was obviously a
part of that. It's become part of the fabric of
(08:08):
America and the world even I mean, the Smithsonian has
named Grandpa that the greatest American. They did use this,
they said, the greatest white songwriter before World War Two,
which I don't know why they made extinction, but they did.
And of course all the Flyways now in the Library
of Congress as well, along with Ranks 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 hum 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 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 more here
(09:20):
on our American story. And we returned to our American
(10:11):
stories and our story on Albert E. Brumley, the man
who wrote many classic American bluegrass and gospel standards such
as I Will 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
soon form his own company. Here again are his granddaughters,
(10:34):
Elaine and Betsy with his story.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
So Grandpa started what he called Albert E. Broman Son's,
his own publishing company in nineteen forty four and he
started writing for himself and he was also a writing
for Stansbaster and for Hertfords all at the time. But
he went back and purchased all of Hartford so he could
get all of his songs back, and that ended up
in 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 own one hundred percent of Hartford.
And because of his relationships with people, we printed books
for literally everybody. I mean, we've printed songbooks for the Opry,
we printed songbooks for the 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
(11:23):
over these 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.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
The man.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
He was smart. So I like to say he invented iTunes.
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, SIMI a list, We'll put him
(12:02):
in a songbook, put your name on it, and you
can sell it. Which is why we sold so 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
(12:25):
personal side of this that I love, 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 log cabins
and pine trees, which I love, and little church buildings.
(12:47):
So he was such a hands on person. 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 way
really left 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
(13:10):
did do that on site for a long 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 Grandpond, 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.
(13:32):
But the post office still exists 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.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
He had a.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
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. It's because this
one his songbook was when you had the convention style books.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
That was his number. That was number one hundred of me. Huh.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
So he kept that 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 why gave him his beginnings and the music.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
It meant a lot to him.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
I think because of these behaviors I.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Showed it, 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 Poull, Missouri, where Elene and Betsy would meet them.
Speaker 4 (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 this 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 we'd
get in trouble. I mean, I have that memory. But
to me that was nothing. Was like, oh man, I
got somebody at my green beans. That's all I cared about.
(15:14):
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.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Not talk about the Hill and Hollow.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
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 on the gospel
aspect on Sundays and 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
(15:44):
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
giranpa Jones and Minnie Pearl, the all of everybody came.
I mean, if you can't not name an opry star
that wasn't in pal on the stage and you had
dinner with them, because that's just what you did. You
made some homemade ice cream, had a conversation, picked a little,
(16:07):
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 buses coming in and everything
is down behind the stage was this low wire that
goes to the barn. You have to hold You have
to get in the pickup truck and hold up the
wire so the buses could go under.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I love I used to.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
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. I mean what
Marty Stewart was with Lester Flatt when he was like
seventeen years old played on that stage.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Yeah, Lester Flat, Neural Scruggs and Marty, Marty and oh
Golley Jude.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
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.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Yeah, that was weird.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
But also industry people showed up, so it wasn't just
the stars showing. Everybody would say I'm going to Brumley,
whether it be the Singer or 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
(17:19):
was very particular too. I mean he did not like
to leave Pale.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
He didn't I.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
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 3 (17:29):
The governor of Louisiana who wrote the song You Are
My Sunshine.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
And they were down there in the Governor's mansion and
he served fried chicken, and everybody's all nervous, and Grandpa,
Grandpa's his grandpa. He had a 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.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Then everybody all the nerves were gone. You know.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
His grandpa was just Grandpa's relaxed. He wasn't stressed 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
(18:11):
stage very often. Even at whatever event we were at,
he was. He just preferred that relaxed. Everything 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.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
That's who he was.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
And you're listening to the granddaughters or Albert E. Bromley
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 stories,
(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 4 (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.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I have no idea what it was. He came up
and said, man, look what I just did. Blah blah blah.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
He was so excited about it. He said, dude, what's
your name, 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,
but Grandpa was fine. He just you know, he just
did his thing. He never made a fuss, and he
(21:01):
ate weird stuff. He ate weird stuff and slept weird.
And he was a tan tricked 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 things at what we normally eat, like buttermilk
on wheaties or tomato juice on wheaties. Oh and the
(21:23):
treat that was in the oh god, yeah, he like
to slice a can of It wasn't called spam then, well,
it was this 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 it open in the fridge and then gona slice
some off when he wanted it at three o'clock in
(21:45):
the morning.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Many times.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
There's 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, he
did everything there. But he would come out and he
would stand because we weren't supposed to watch scary shows,
(22:08):
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.
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 mose each
(22:30):
in 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 makes the toast for you. Oh and coco.
We did that, h and she let me sip her coffee,
(22:52):
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
ash would drop off, and there was a lot of
cigarette burns on the table beside his couch where laidam
(23:13):
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
had a lot of thoughts and he would write him
down on ice cream sticks and pieces of paper and
(23:35):
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 this 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
was where they started their business and built the buildings.
(23:56):
I don't know, five hundred feet maybe, but it was
across the two lane highway. 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 drive across the street and park
it and walk in the building. And then at lunch
he would jump in the car, drive across back to
the house and go eat and take his nap, and
(24:17):
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. But you know Dad did the same, the same,
same exact thing. Yeah, but that's what you did as
you went to and front work.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Yep. It's fun to think about those days. Yeah. Albert E.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
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 as
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 2 (25:03):
I used to work for.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
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 in 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 and they're singing Walton Matilden. We're like,
(25:27):
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 I keep, you know, getting new countries, and
(25:47):
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 families at funerals, at gatherings that sings
(26:09):
and whatever. And Betsy's story in Australia, those things are
motivational to keep it alive.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Because it still does mean something.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
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 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
(26:39):
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
in the hospitals. A lady a friend of mine used
that as her wedding march, which I thought was really
interesting is I'd never heard that before, but that song
brings back memories for people of things that they may
(26:59):
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.
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.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Here, I'm always sharing stories. So one of the.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
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 he was singing
all Flyaway to bring himself back so he would not die.
So he's saying that he's sang himself back to life,
(27:37):
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 that can literally change someone's
life in a moment is so huge. It's an honor
(27:57):
to be able to be connected is 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 end up in hospitals, but I
tend to well. 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
(28:21):
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 the Chuck Wagon gang because we
still was saying 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
(28:43):
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 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
(29:08):
have the strength to get up and they want to
be near that song.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
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 a life, the
Albert E. Bumley 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.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Bromley was born on October twenty ninth, nineteen oh five.
Here's his granddaughters Betsy in Olaine to tell the rest
of the story.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Grumpha grew up in the little town in Oklahoma. He
was born near Sparro, Oklahoma, close to Rock Island, Oklahoma.
He grew up really poor. His family were sharecroppers, and
the sharecropt cotton. If you've ever been picked cotton, if
you've ever done that, it's terrible.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
It's awful. It hurts.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
I mean because I remember doing it as a school
experiment when I was a kids don't know why they
had his do that, you know, the pricks and from
the thorns or whatever those little sticky things are.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
But that was his childhood.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
But it was musical because his dad played instruments and
taught him how to love.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Music, and he played the piano.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
And we really hated picking Hotton like the life which
is one of the reasons he decided to move toward
the music and Hartford, Arkansas. I've 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
(01:36):
cents or so, not much money in his.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Pocket at all.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
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 is showed 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 to
up on his couch instead of paid tuition, so it
(02:02):
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, how to
write music to pay off the tuition debt.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
But who was em so?
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Ian Bartlett was a songwriter. He learned how to write
songs from the Stam Spaxtor Company and decided to go
out on his own and he began the Hertford Institute
in Hartford, Arkansas, and EM.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Did a lot of things at that music school. He
was a publisher as well as teaching music.
Speaker 3 (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 4 (02:47):
That's how like Grandpa made money. On all everyone that
worked for the Hertford Music Institute made money was by
going to sell these songbooks.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Some people would.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Attend school, and as you got more popular and your
songs became more popular than you was signed a page
in those songbooks. 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,
of course came from Grandpa. He wrote a lot of
(03:14):
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
each of the morning. If we never meet again, turn
your radio and ring strangers to me? Did I say
Jesus the only hand?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I can't remember.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
But Grandpa wrote all 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
(03:51):
is totally and it's just 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
(04:14):
it and get it the words right, 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
(04:36):
them a little bit in their day 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 as a tweet or
twenty twenty nine. Well, the other thing is Grandpa always
(04:57):
called that a little diddy. He never really it was
never anything spectacular to him. And Grandma is actually the
one who made him send it in because part of
his deal with Ian 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
(05:20):
for a song to submit one month and Grandma 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 porticured
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
(05:41):
forced iss correct, but she sure urged him to get
that song out there.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
For people to hear because she liked it. And as
we know, a couplebody likes it. A couple of other
people seem to like it.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
I think because it's easy and simple and happy, and
it just and it's hopeful and it's easy to remember.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
You know.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Grandpa always wrote and he would say that if you
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
(06:21):
you do, whether you write a song, whether you sew close,
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 Flyaway is
(06:41):
a very good example of that. I mean what in
nineteen seventy six we got we won an award for
All Flyaway 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 walt thirty forty five years
later and over twelve thousand licenses. And when he first
(07:03):
wrote it, it took a few years for it to
become even popular, and it was even recorded, but 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
(07:25):
of that and it just really took off, and that's
when the awareness of the song went beyond convention 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
(07:46):
there that's lasted as well, and that started the road.
And Grandpa was such a smart man. He recognized the
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 fy Away was obviously a
part of that. It's become part of the fabric of
(08:08):
America and the world even I mean, the Smithsonian has
named Grandpa that the greatest American. They did use this,
they said, the greatest white songwriter before World War Two,
which I don't know why they made extinction, but they did.
And of course all the Flyways now in the Library
of Congress as well, along with Ranks 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 hum 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 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 more here
(09:20):
on our American story. And we returned to our American
(10:11):
stories and our story on Albert E. Brumley, the man
who wrote many classic American bluegrass and gospel standards such
as I Will 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
soon form his own company. Here again are his granddaughters,
(10:34):
Elaine and Betsy with his story.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
So Grandpa started what he called Albert E. Broman Son's,
his own publishing company in nineteen forty four and he
started writing for himself and he was also a writing
for Stansbaster and for Hertfords all at the time. But
he went back and purchased all of Hartford so he could
get all of his songs back, and that ended up
in 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 own one hundred percent of Hartford.
And because of his relationships with people, we printed books
for literally everybody. I mean, we've printed songbooks for the Opry,
we printed songbooks for the 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
(11:23):
over these 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.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
The man.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
He was smart. So I like to say he invented iTunes.
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, SIMI a list, We'll put him
(12:02):
in a songbook, put your name on it, and you
can sell it. Which is why we sold so 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
(12:25):
personal side of this that I love, 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 log cabins
and pine trees, which I love, and little church buildings.
(12:47):
So he was such a hands on person. 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 way
really left 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
(13:10):
did do that on site for a long 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 Grandpond, 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.
(13:32):
But the post office still exists 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.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
He had a.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
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. It's because this
one his songbook was when you had the convention style books.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
That was his number. That was number one hundred of me. Huh.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
So he kept that 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 why gave him his beginnings and the music.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
It meant a lot to him.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
I think because of these behaviors I.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Showed it, 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 Poull, Missouri, where Elene and Betsy would meet them.
Speaker 4 (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 this 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 we'd
get in trouble. I mean, I have that memory. But
to me that was nothing. Was like, oh man, I
got somebody at my green beans. That's all I cared about.
(15:14):
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.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Not talk about the Hill and Hollow.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
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 on the gospel
aspect on Sundays and 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
(15:44):
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
giranpa Jones and Minnie Pearl, the all of everybody came.
I mean, if you can't not name an opry star
that wasn't in pal on the stage and you had
dinner with them, because that's just what you did. You
made some homemade ice cream, had a conversation, picked a little,
(16:07):
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 buses coming in and everything
is down behind the stage was this low wire that
goes to the barn. You have to hold You have
to get in the pickup truck and hold up the
wire so the buses could go under.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I love I used to.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
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. I mean what
Marty Stewart was with Lester Flatt when he was like
seventeen years old played on that stage.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Yeah, Lester Flat, Neural Scruggs and Marty, Marty and oh
Golley Jude.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
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.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Yeah, that was weird.
Speaker 4 (16:57):
But also industry people showed up, so it wasn't just
the stars showing. Everybody would say I'm going to Brumley,
whether it be the Singer or 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
(17:19):
was very particular too. I mean he did not like
to leave Pale.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
He didn't I.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
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 3 (17:29):
The governor of Louisiana who wrote the song You Are
My Sunshine.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
And they were down there in the Governor's mansion and
he served fried chicken, and everybody's all nervous, and Grandpa,
Grandpa's his grandpa. He had a 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.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Then everybody all the nerves were gone. You know.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
His grandpa was just Grandpa's relaxed. He wasn't stressed 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
(18:11):
stage very often. Even at whatever event we were at,
he was. He just preferred that relaxed. Everything 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.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
That's who he was.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
And you're listening to the granddaughters or Albert E. Bromley
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 stories,
(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 4 (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.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I have no idea what it was. He came up
and said, man, look what I just did. Blah blah blah.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
He was so excited about it. He said, dude, what's
your name, 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,
but Grandpa was fine. He just you know, he just
did his thing. He never made a fuss, and he
(21:01):
ate weird stuff. He ate weird stuff and slept weird.
And he was a tan tricked 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 things at what we normally eat, like buttermilk
on wheaties or tomato juice on wheaties. Oh and the
(21:23):
treat that was in the oh god, yeah, he like
to slice a can of It wasn't called spam then, well,
it was this 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 it open in the fridge and then gona slice
some off when he wanted it at three o'clock in
(21:45):
the morning.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Many times.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
There's 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, he
did everything there. But he would come out and he
would stand because we weren't supposed to watch scary shows,
(22:08):
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.
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 mose each
(22:30):
in 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 makes the toast for you. Oh and coco.
We did that, h and she let me sip her coffee,
(22:52):
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
ash would drop off, and there was a lot of
cigarette burns on the table beside his couch where laidam
(23:13):
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
had a lot of thoughts and he would write him
down on ice cream sticks and pieces of paper and
(23:35):
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 this 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
was where they started their business and built the buildings.
(23:56):
I don't know, five hundred feet maybe, but it was
across the two lane highway. 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 drive across the street and park
it and walk in the building. And then at lunch
he would jump in the car, drive across back to
the house and go eat and take his nap, and
(24:17):
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. But you know Dad did the same, the same,
same exact thing. Yeah, but that's what you did as
you went to and front work.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Yep. It's fun to think about those days. Yeah. Albert E.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
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 as
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 2 (25:03):
I used to work for.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
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 in 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 and they're singing Walton Matilden. We're like,
(25:27):
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 I keep, you know, getting new countries, and
(25:47):
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 families at funerals, at gatherings that sings
(26:09):
and whatever. And Betsy's story in Australia, those things are
motivational to keep it alive.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Because it still does mean something.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
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 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
(26:39):
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
in the hospitals. A lady a friend of mine used
that as her wedding march, which I thought was really
interesting is I'd never heard that before, but that song
brings back memories for people of things that they may
(26:59):
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.
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.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Here, I'm always sharing stories. So one of the.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
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 he was singing
all Flyaway to bring himself back so he would not die.
So he's saying that he's sang himself back to life,
(27:37):
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 that can literally change someone's
life in a moment is so huge. It's an honor
(27:57):
to be able to be connected is 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 end up in hospitals, but I
tend to well. 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
(28:21):
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 the Chuck Wagon gang because we
still was saying 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
(28:43):
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 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
(29:08):
have the strength to get up and they want to
be near that song.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
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 a life, the
Albert E. Bumley story. Here on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.