The songs that stamp our lives
Music is a universal language. As Kenny Chesney says in one of his songs, “We all have a song that somehow stamped our life. Takes us to another place and time. Every time I hear that song, I go back.” There are songs I can’t hear today without thinking about certain people. Not sometimes. Every time.
Most of my song memories are from church. It isn’t just singers who make an impact. Sometimes it’s song leaders. Though they lead a plethora of songs over a lifetime, they have their favorites. It shows in their faces as they lead those songs.
Chalcedonia Baptist Church was no stranger to good singing and song leaders. The late Lester Hendrix would lead “Winging My Way Back Home” with such grace, you knew he where he was headed after this life. The late Robert Lathem would lead “Standing On The Solid Rock” while bouncing back and forth with his tie loosened. I cannot hear “Shall We Gather At the River” without hearing the voice of the late James Cain. He would lead the song at every baptizing. Whether in the pool behind the church, or the Etowah River where Jacob Carnes was baptized on a Sunday afternoon.
Chalcedonia brings memories of others too. Deborah Champion, Cathy Dobson, and Vickie Powell once sang as a trio. Though they sang many songs, they did none better than “Farther Along.” Rev. David Pruitt and his daughter Julie would sing “My God is Real” when Julie was just a little girl. I don’t know if anyone else was impacted by this song. I was.
I remember Granny Free sitting on the front porch of their home on Teasley Street singing “Just a Little Talk With Jesus.” She taught me to sing this song. Maybe she knew how bad I would need to have those talks during my life. The song “I Want to Live Beyond the Grave,” made famous locally by the North Canton Quartet, also makes me think about Granny. She knew she was dying. She told us if we sang that song at her funeral, she would come back and “haint” us. Now I don’t really believe in haints. But Granny was a woman of her word. So, when she died, that song wasn’t sang.
There are others outside of Chalcedonia who sang certain songs which left a stamp on my life. Anytime I hear “Holy Angels” I think of Morris Stancil. He wrote the song and I had the privilege to hear him sing it in his home before it ever found its way into a church hymnal. I can’t hear “The Old Ship of Zion” without thinking of the Ware Boys and Stacey singing it at Mill Creek Baptist Church. If I hear “Consider the Lilies,” I always think of Mitzi Saxon singing it at McHelen Baptist Church. “Go Rest High on That Mountain” always reminds me of Derrick Cornelison. If I had a dollar for every time he has sang it at a funeral, I’d be rich. When I hear the song “Little Is Much If God is In It,” I either think of Hilton and Beatrice Cloer or Junior and Sara Eubanks.
The song “I Can Tell You the Time” will always be my favorite. It’s the song the church was singing when I got saved. I love that song. It not only stamped my life. Every time I hear the song, it reminds me when I leave this world, I’ve got a better place to go.
It isn’t just church songs which cause me to reflect. There are other genres which do the same. When I hear a Jimmy Buffet song, it reminds me of gatherings at Reinhardt, or, at Roger Garrison’s house as a teen. Hearing Willie and Waylon always takes me back to gatherings at Mark Lewis’ house. It’s a wonder his parents, Ralph and Elaine, put up with us. Songs by Earth, Wind, and Fire, take me back to riding from Canton to Cartersville with Hall Fowler in his Camaro to cruise the strip. A song by Foreigner reminds me of riding with Joey Groover when he got stopped going 97 mph. That was a bad day. A song by the Rolling Stones reminds me of Holly Lathem. She was a super fan. Anything by Vern Gosdin or the Hee Haw Quartet reminds me of Daddy.
Music may not mean to you what it does to me. Then again, maybe it does. Every word I just typed is true. Each time I hear these songs or artists, it takes me back to a different time and place. It could be a song in church, a first date song, or some other song which takes you back.
What song has stamped your life?