Charles F. Brown - Kum Ba Yah

Topic: Religious Folk Music Revival
The Southern Baptist Convention did not accept speaking in tongues because it “did not accord with their doctrines and traditions.” [1]  The pop music of Up with People was as far as it would venture into music favored by adolescents. [2]

The convention was headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.   Bob Oldenburg remembered, after a Moral Rearmament group appeared in the city in 1966, “the young people they impacted were not the regular kids off the street—these were kids in the church.  All of the sudden, the ministers of music in Nashville discovered that the kids were leaving the church in droves, and the youth music programs were going down the drain.” [3]

A church member recruited to play in the local Up with People group asked a friend, who worked for the Sunday School Board, why couldn’t the Southern Baptists “have something like this.”  Eddie Lunn was turned over to Oldenburg, but men higher in the hierarchy were skeptical.  The board told them to “conduct a test at Church Recreation Week at both Glorieta Baptist Assembly in New Mexico and Ridgecrest Baptist Assembly in North Carolina that summer to see how young people would respond to religious folk music.” [4]

The result was a “a compilation of eighteen Christian-themed folk songs for choir and soloists accompanied by rhythm instruments.”  Good News was so popular at Glorieta, Broadman Press sent recording engineers and a stenographer to record the music and produce a songbook. [5]  A group then toured the country, and performed before Billy Graham at the national convention in Houston. [6]  Local churches copied them. [7]  Broadman sold 72,576 copies of the score in 1968. [8]

Kurt Kaiser watched the performance in Houston, and asked the choir director to meet the owner of Word Records in Waco.  Billy Ray Hearn had met Joel McCracken earlier when Hearn was a student at Baylor in the early 1950s. [9]  He was officially hired as director of music promotion in 1968. [10]

The first musical by Kaiser and Ralph Carmichael, released in 1969, alluded to Hippies with its title, Tell It Like It Is. [11]  The 1970 Natural High [12] used the gloss of the Jesus Movement, but was described as “a folk musical about God’s son,” rather than about “Jesus.”

The scores were marketed as folk musicals because they used acoustic instruments.  Tell It Like It Is, like Good News, was sung by church choirs who often took it on local tours. [13]  Kaiser’s song, “Pass It On,” entered tradition. [14]

By the time Natural High was published, the innovation was familiar.  Rick Warren remembered some campers who brought “some early Jesus songs” to Cazadero Baptist Camp in northern California in 1970.  The response was climatic: “it was ‘our kind of music’—written by us, for us, in contrast to the many youth musicals that were circulating in churches those days.” [15]

Meantime, Hearn tiptoed into the Jesus music genre in 1970 when he produced an album by Randy Matthews that included Larry Norman’s “I Wish We’d All Been Ready.” [16]  It was sung by someone steeped in country music. [17]  The accompaniment for his own songs used electric guitars, drums, and female backup singers.  It was only later that he would use rock motifs. [18]

The album was released with an accompanying songbook.

Charles Brown was working for Word’s publishing division at the time.  Something prompted him to produce a songbook in 1971 that bridged the chasm between Word’s usual religious music and that emerging on the west coast.  Sing ‘n’ Celebrate! included both two songs recorded by Matthews and “Kum Ba Yah.”

The selections were made by Kaiser, Hearn, and Sonny Salsbury.  The last was involved with summer resident camps in Washington. [19]  His most famous song, “Psalm 19,” began “Don’t you wonder why the stars are in the sky.” [20]  All were born before or during World War II.

Like Matthews’ singing, the collection was more attuned to Nashville than California.  The popular songs included were Anne Murray’s “Put You Hand in the Hand” [21] and Glen Campbell’s “Less of Me.” [22]  It also reprinted songs from the folk mass movement by Ray Repp [23] and Peter Scholtes, [24] along with “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.” [25]

The compilers included the two hymns popularized by Judy Collins, [26] three Negro spirituals, [27] and nineteenth-century gospel songs by Fanny Crosby [28] and Philip Bliss. [29]  The rest came from the Word catalog: 61 of 92.  More than half of the Word songs were by the four men involved in the book.  Three of those were from the most recent musical, Natural High.

The version of “Kum Ba Yah” used the verse order introduced by Tommy Leonetti, with an additional verse, “shouting.”  It did not include his premillennial interlude.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: single melodic line
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano, guitar
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Credits
From Angola, Africa
Arr. ©1971 by Word Music, Inc., in Sing ‘N’ Celebrate

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: Kum is pronounced “koom”
Verses: kumbaya, crying, praying, singing, laughing

Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none

Basic Form: verse-burden
Verse Repetition Pattern: repeat chorus after each stanza
Ending: none
Influences: Tommy Leonetti’s verse order

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 3/4
Tempo: not indicated
Key Signature: no sharps or flats
Guitar Chords:  C F G7

Basic Structure: strophic repetition
Singing Style: one syllable to one note except for final “Lord”

Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: chords at the beginning of each measure and each “kumbaya”

Ending: none

Notes on Performance
The songbook’s orange cover featured a photograph of seven young women and five young men.  The girls all had long, straight hair.  The boys had sideburns, but not long hair; one had a short beard.  The title was in bright yellow.

Word released an album to teach choir leaders how to perform the new material.  It exploited the technology of stereo recording by placing the voices on one track and the instruments on the other.  Individuals could manipulate the dial on their phonograph so one, the other, or both were heard.  It assumed that people learned by listening, rather than by reading music. [30]

All the arrangements used piano, acoustic guitar, muted drums, and, probably, a bass.  The arrangements of songs by Brown, Kaiser, and Carmichael relied on techniques associated with piano bars and easy listening jazz.  Salsbury’s songs used Southern Gospel piano motifs and more syncopation.  It did not include “Kumbaya.”

Audience Perceptions
A friend of Brown said Brown produced “what would become an industry-disrupting idea of his own - a collection of new music called Sing N Celebrate.” [31]  Its success spawned additional volumes, [32] including some for children. [33]

One person told Amazon customers Sing ‘n’ Celebrate! included “all the songs I remember as a teen singing in church youth group choir.” [34]

Notes on Performers
Hearn had the greatest influence on Word’s future relations with contemporary Christian music.  In 1972, he established the Myrrh Label [35] for Matthew’s second album. [36]  It later became the home of Amy Grant. [36]

He was born in 1929 [37] into a family of Southern Baptists in Beaumont, Texas. [38]  He was working as the minister of music in Thomasville, Georgia, [39] when Oldenburg asked him to get involved with Good News.” [40]  Lunn remembered: “he had a good sense of what songs “worked” and which didn’t, and if a song didn’t work with the staffers in the choir he’d recommend that we rewrite it.” [41]

Brown, born in 1942, [42] was the son of a Southern Baptist preacher assigned to churches in Texas.  He graduated with a degree in music from Baylor and earned a masters from Southern Methodist University.  While he worked for Word, he also worked with Baylor student songwriters. [43]

Salsbury graduated from Pasadena College in 1956. [44]  Although he was raised in the Church of the Nazarene, he directed the Gospel Press youth choir for the Yakima, Washington, Presbyterian church that toured local churches.  Robert Redman remembered he used the 8 am service

“to experiment with new contemporary worship songs.  Our introits and anthems were songs from youth musicals that were popular then, including many of Sonny’s own songs.  We also sang the new ‘Jesus music’ from southern California, along with some of the early Scripture choruses coming out of some charismatic churches.  Sonny was a stickler for detail.  We practiced everything, including the hymns.  The organ usually accompanied them, but from time to time the Gospel Press band played instead.” [45]

He came as close as any of the men involved with Sing ‘n’ Celebrate! to have some contact with the charismatic movement.  When he was a youth minister in La Jolla, California, he was interested in the work of C. S. Lewis, mentioned in the post for 27 September 2020. [46]  His music remained in the folk-revival period that preceded the Jesus Movement. [47]

Kurt Kaiser was born in 1934.  See the post for 15 December 2017 for more information on him.

Availability
Book: “Kum Ba Yah.”  In Sing ‘n’ Celebrate!  Waco, Texas: Word Music, 1971.  62.

End Notes
1.  Vinson Synan.  The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition.  Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997 edition.  259.

2.  Up with People is discussed in the post for 23 February 2020.

3.  Bob Oldenburg.  Quoted by Will Bishop.  “‘We’re Gonna Change This Land’: An Oral History Commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary of Good News: A Christian Folk-Musical.”  Artistic Theologian 5:58–81:2017.

4.  Bishop.
5.  Bishop.

6.  Bob Gerszytn.  “Billy Ray Hearn.”  Jesus Rocks the World website.  23 February 2016.

7.  Recordo Obscuro posted a description of Good News that attracted comments from people who had sung it in the 1970s. [48]  A woman remembered the Memorial Baptist Church in Grapevine, Texas, “sang it at TX prisons as a ministry.” [49]  Another living in Umatilla, Florida, recalled they “ had a production of this as well.  We were fortunate enough to travel all over the state” [50]

8.  Bishop.
9.  Gerszytn.

10.  “A Short Autobiography with Some Philosophy.”  Billy Ray Hearn website.  3 September 2008.

11.  Ralph Carmichael and Kurt Kaiser.  Tell It Like It Is: A Folk Musical About God.  Light Records LS-5512-LP.  1969.  Vinyl LP.  [Discogs entry.]

12.  Ralph Carmichael and Kurt Kaiser.  Natural High.  Light Records LS-5558-LP.  1971.  Vinyl LP.  [Discogs entry.]

13.  One person told Amazon customers that “my youth choir performed this numerous times at local churches in the early 70’s.  The congregation accepted guitars and autoharps and we thought we were on the cutting edge of contemporary worship music.” [51] This was one of several such comments.

14. Charles E. Fromm.  “Textual Communities and New Song in the Multimedia Age: The Routinization of Charisma in the Jesus Movement.”  PhD dissertation.  Fuller Theological Seminary, 2006.  179.  Camp Songs, Folk Songs heard from 24 people in camps in 1976 who were singing “Pass It On.”

15.  Fromm.  204.  This is the same Rick Warren who founded Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.  He was then sixteen-years-old and working as a lifeguard.  At night, he played guitar and led singing around campfires. [52]

16.  Randy Matthews.  Wish We’d All Been Ready.  Word WST-8547-LP.  1971.  Vinyl LP.  [Discogs entry.]  Larry Eskridge said Hearn auditioned Matthews after Matthews called him from Cincinnati to tell him “that the music we were doing [youth musicals] really wasn’t connecting with kids on the street.” [53]

17.  Mathews was raised in Missouri.  His father was a Disciples of Christ preacher [54] and member of the Zionaires southern gospel quartet. [55]  Earlier, Monty Matthews had been in the group that became the Jordonaires when they worked with Red Foley on the Grand Old Opry.  He left in 1948. [56]

18.  Matthews began singing religious folk-revival influenced songs when he was in college.  He became increasingly involved with rock idioms after he signed with Word. [57]  In 1974, he was forcibly removed from the stage at a Jesus Festival in Mercer, Pennsylvania, because his rendition of “Four Horsemen” [58] used electric guitars that exploited amplifiers. [59]

19.  James D. Berkley.  Leadership Handbook of Preaching and Worship.  Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1992.   Salsbury was identified as the executive director of Camp Ghormley in Rimrock, Washington.   It was sponsored by the First Presbyterian Church of Yakima. [60]

20.  Sonny Salsbury.  “Psalm 19.”  Copyrighted by Sacred Songs in 1968.

21.  Anne Murray. “Put Your Hand In The Hand.”  Capitol Records 3082.  1971.  It was written by Gene MacLellan.  [Discogs entry.]

22.  Glen Campbell.  “Less of Me.”  Copyrighted by Beechwood Music in 1965.  Recorded on Burning Bridges.  Capitol Records T 2679.  1967.  Vinyl LP.  [Discogs entry]

23.  Ray Repp.  “Allelu!”  This is discussed in the post for 16 August 2020.

24.  Peter Scholtes.  “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love.”  Copyrighted by F. E. L. Publications in 1966.

25.  “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” is discussed in the post for 2 August 2020.

26.  Judy Collins.  “Amazing Grace” and “Simple Gifts.”  Whales And Nightingales.  Elektra EKS-75010.  1970.  Vinyl LP.  [Discogs entry.]  The Shaker’s “Simple Gifts” was first revived by Aaron Copeland in his Appalachian Spring ballet of 1944.

27.  “Amen” was identified as Traditional, but was African-American.  “Jacob’s Ladder” was described as a “Traditional Negro Spiritual.”  “Standin’ in the Need of Prayer” also was classed as African American, although I’m not sure that’s correct.

28.  Fanny J. Crosby and W. H. Doane.  “To God Be the Glory.”  In Brightest and Best.  Edited by Robert Lowry and W. Howard Doane.  New York: Biglow and Main, 1875.

29.  Horatio G. Spafford and Philip P. Bliss.  “Is It Well with My Soul.”  In Sacred Songs No. 2.  Edited by Ira D. Sankey, James McGranahan and George C. Stebbins.  New York: Biglow and Main, 1899.

30.  Sing ‘n’ Celebrate Chorus of Baylor University.  Sing ‘n’ Celebrate!  Word WST-8578-LP.  1972.  Vinyl LP.

31.  Anonymous comment on David Cain.  “A Common Love -- Charles F. Brown.”  Sing Scoops website.  30 July 2016.

32.  Sing ‘n’ Celebrate II.  Waco, Texas: Word Inc., 1975.

Sing ‘n’ Celebrate III.  Waco, Texas: Word, 1982.

33.  Sing ‘n’ Celebrate for Kids!  Waco, Texas: Word, 1977.

Sing ‘n’ Celebrate for kids!, Volume II.  Waco, Texas: Word, 1982.  This one contained “Kum by yah.”   This will be discussed in a future post.

34.  Roland Close.  Comment added on 10 May 2020 to Amazon page for the 1971 paperback edition of the songbook.

35.  Hearn, Autobiography.

36.  Randy Matthews.  All I Am Is What You See.  Myrrh MSA 6502.  1972.  Vinyl LP.  [Discogs entry.]

37.  Wikipedia.  “Amy Grant.”
38.  Gerszytn.
39.  Hearn, Autobiography.
40.  Bishop.
41.  Eddie Lunn.  Quoted by Bishop.
42.  “Charles F. Brown.”  Hymnary website.
43.  “Charles F. Brown.”  Texas Gospel Music Hall of Fame and Museum website.

44.  La Sierra.  Pasadena College yearbook, 1956.  He was in the choir and quartet.  Pasadena College was run by the Nazarenes. [61]

45.  Robert Redman.  “How I Caught the Worship Bug: and Never Got Over it.”  Reformed Worship website.

46.  Will Vaus.  “Hidden Story of Narnia in California.”  His website.  22 October 2010.

47.  In 1975, Salsbury recorded The Backpacker’s Suite for Word WST 8659. [62]  The vinyl LP  used a choir, orchestra, and “an assortment of guitars, banjos, and other acoustic instruments.”  One person at the time noted it “was ‘three years late,’ providing the kind of production that might have satisfied young Christians’ thirst for contemporary worship music in the days before the Jesus movement revival drastically increased their options.” [63]

48.  “Good News: A Christian Folk-Musical.”  Recordo Obscura website.  12 April 2009.
49.  Susan Sanford.  Obscura.  Comment added 4 January 2012.
50.  Elise.  Obscura.  Comment added 9 December 2018.

51.  Kyriel West.  Comment posted 8 November 2011 to Amazon page for the original recording of Tell It Like It Is.

52.  Jeffery L. Sheler.  Prophet of Purpose.  New York: Doubleday, 2009.  54.

53.  Larry Eskridge.  God’s Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.  No page in online edition.

54.  Wikipedia.   “Foggy River Boys.”
55.  Wikipedia.  “Randy Matthews.”
56.  Wikipedia, Foggy River Boys.
57.  Wikipedia, Matthews.

58.  Randy Matthews.  “Four Horsemen.  Later recorded on Eyes To The Sky.  Myrrh MSA-6547-LP.  1975.  Vinyl LP.  The album cover listed guitars, keyboards, a bass, drums, and percussion.  [Discogs entry.]

59.  Wikipedia.  “Christian Music Festival.”
60.  Camp Ghormley website.
61.  Wikipedia.  “Point Loma Nazarene University.”
62.  Discogs entry.

63.  “Sonny Salsbury.”  Christian Music Archive website.  It quoted Blue Samuel Flying - a popular ’70s reviewer for Harmony magazine.  Its source was MA Powell.  Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003 edition.