I guess the first songs I recall were hymns. My family attended Gum Springs Pentecostal-Holiness Church, Taylors, SC, when I was born in 1947. I remember Ms. Virginia White playing the organ while people sang hymns during my childhood.
My Grandmother (“Ma”) Lillian Crain, who attended Gum Springs PHC, kept a guitar propped behind a kitchen door. She sang “Job’s God” and folk-country songs such as “Times Have Changed in Renfro Valley.” Renfro Valley was known around 1939 as “Kentucky’s Country Music Capital.”
Dad (J.B.) and Uncle Fred Crain played string music under Ma’s chinaberry tree on summer Sunday afternoons. Hymns and country music blended: Dad on guitar; Uncle on fiddle.
Preacher Merritt sometimes gave me a dime if I’d sing this song for him when I was five years old:
“Well, I went down to the big camp-meeting ’twas the most for to see the sight / But I got such a hearty greet-in’ that I went back ev-'ry night / They had an old-time gospel preacher from the good book of Psalms he read / But when he started preach-in ’bout the soul salvation, you oughta heard the things he said / You oughta heard him, that old time preacher man / You oughta heard him, such-a preachin’ you never heard / Well, he preached about an hour on the Sermon on the Mount, and when he ended up he had the devil on the rout / You oughta heard him, that old-time preacher man!”
Pastor Jimmy Thompson came to pastor Gum Springs PCH Church and later started a church band after Mr. Jack Shaw visited our congregation and played his trumpet; His late brother, Larry, played trombone. Jack gave some group lessons at the church. Uncle Fred bought a trombone, and Dad bought an old trumpet. I was maybe seven years old when Dad first brought his trumpet home from church band practice. I buzzed my lips into the mouthpiece and didn’t know any fingerings to press on the horn’s three valves, but I jiggled values, buzzed, and thought, “I can play this thing.”
Pastor Jimmy left Gum Springs PCH Church and founded Faith Temple Church, Taylors, SC, when I was in fifth grade. A lot of people left Gum Springs to venture to Pastor Jimmy’s new church, maybe seven miles from Gum Springs. After fifth grade, I moved with my parents to Greer, though we still attended Faith Temple.
In seventh grade, I learned to play Dad’s trumpet at Davenport Jr. High (where Ms. Sybil Humphries taught band) and joined Faith Temple’s church band. I thought I could sit right in and play, but I had not known that trumpet music at school was written a note higher than the hymnbook music. At church, when the piano played “C,” I had to play “D.” Gene Barnett played cornet (sort of like a trumpet), and he told me about the “transposing” of notes I’d have to do. The alto line wasn’t too hard in the songbook, so Gene played the soprano line and I played alto. Gene’s dad, Carl Barnett, played drums.
Preceding my joining the church band, the group enjoyed the trumpet playing of David White. He played in the Blue Ridge High band. Dan Lynn played cornet with him. They’d play duets at church. Dan was short and David was tall. Pastor Jimmy Thompson called them “Mutt and Jeff,” after cartoon characters in the “funny papers” (that what we call the “comics,” back in the day).
For the church’s offering time — “offertory” is what it’s called in high-class churches — the band would play a “special.” The song wasn’t all that special, as it would be a song out of our hymnbook, but the band made it sound special because of the song being played on instruments. Our hymnbooks were heavily influenced by Southern Gospel-style songs. The trombones liked to play “Let Us Have a Little Talk with Jesus” because the chorus featured the bass. Frank White and Don Hill went to Blue Ridge High School and played trombones in that school’s band.
During the late 1950s, accordions were popular, and at one time, we had three accordions in our church band. Mr. Bruce Foster played electric guitar. He was later joined by the Rev. Lamar Breazeale. Band members came and went, but those are some of the ones I remember.
One of the key figures during those late 1950s and early 1960s days was Mr. Leo Porter who played piano. He was a natural quartet-style player. People loved to hear him play, and he led the band. The church band played a rousing part in the early days of Faith Temple, founded in 1956.
Over the years, blue-collar church music changed. The piano is still central, but brass instruments don’t figure as much, I think. Guitars and keyboards are in style, and that has changed the keys that songs are written in, except for old hymnbooks which haven’t changed much. Guitar players prefer to strum in different keys than brass instrument players are comfortable with. Folk music’s popularity brought guitars to the fore, and, of course, rock music has had great influence.
The old church band at Faith Temple is mostly gone, now. The church is now smaller, as far as attendance, and a fine piano player, Mrs. Sandra Martin, plays for its services. A drum set sits near the piano. An unplayed bass guitar sits upright on a nearby stand. The singing is good and voices blend as Mrs. Ann Burrows leads with her pure voice.
Some churches still have “bands,” but they may be patterned after “club bands” — keyboard, drums, and guitars. Other churches have orchestras, which are considered culturally above the old Faith Temple-type bands, which may have reflected Salvation Army-type brass bands.
I miss the old days when we had a good church band at Faith Temple. Of course, I may remember that band from the late 1950s as grander than it was. Someone said, “Nostalgia is not what it used to be — and probably never was.”
My late Grandma Lillian Crain — I called her “Ma”— used to sing “Times have changed in Renfro Valley.” Well, Ma, times have changed in a lot more places than Refro Valley.
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