Hello my friends and welcome back for another service of Cowboy Church.
Today's musical selection with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans singing In the Garden. This song was written by C. Austin Miles. As well as a hymnist, Austin's hobby was photography. He wrote this song in 1912 while waiting some film to dry in a cold and leaky basement. Miles had discovered earlier that he could read the bible in the red lighting of his darkroom and often did. This day he was reading John 20. He read about how Mary went into the garden to see Jesus' tomb. Her heart was full of sadness, but when she learned that Jesus had overcome the grave she was moved to great joy. This passage moved Miles as he read it, and this song started to come to him. Miles originally intended this song to be an Easter song and for it to be from the point of view of Mary Magdalene. Miles would later say about this song, “This is not an experience limited to a happening almost 2,000 years ago. It is the daily companionship with the Lord that makes up the Christian’s life.” Learning this story has made this song all the more powerful for me and I hope it enhances the power of this great hymn for you as well.
This followed by Randy Travis singing Don't Ever Sell Your Saddle. This song comes from his first, but far from last, gospel album, 2000's Inspirational Journey.
Next comes The Sons of the Pioneers with their 1948 recording of The Touch of God's Hand. This song was written by founding member of the group Bob Nolan. There is a lot of poetry in all the lyrics Bob had written over his career. This was no coincidence. Bob would once state in an interview, "You see, during my schooling I had been very impressed by a few of our most prominent poets—I guess you would call the 19th C poets—modern poets—namely Keats and Shelley and Byron, Burns and those fellows. I even tried my hand at it—writing poetry—and, as I say and I believe, they were…. I would try to write like Keats, say, but I would write about the desert and try to use his cadence and his rhyming. I copied. Let’s say it right out, I copied their style and wrote…. Although I was writing about a different topic, naturally—the desert—I think I was copying their styles."
Now for Eddy Arnold with Love Lifted Me. This song was written by James Rowe in 1912 and was based on two stories from the book of Matthew. One was asleep in the boat with the apostles during a storm. As the apostles were terrified of the storm, they couldn't understand how Jesus was so calm that he could take a nap. They wake Jesus up from his nap and Jesus simply tells the storm to stop and it does. The other story also involved the apostles, Jesus and the sea. It was about how when his eyes were fixed upon Jesus, he was able to walk on the water, but he lost the ability when his faith faltered, and he looked away. Still Jesus was a faithful friend and lifted Peter into a boat.
This is followed by Tennessee Ernie Ford with I Love to Tell the Story. No one can sing an old hymn better than Cousin Ernie.
Next is Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer (from The Clash) with Redemption Song. Producer Rick Rubin spoke about how this recording came about, "We were working in my house with Johnny and one day Joe just showed up - he was in L.A. on vacation and he came every day, lay down on the floor against the glass wall of the control room so he could watch Johnny sing. After he'd been there every day for ten days or so, I said to him, when Johnny wasn't around, if you can come up with a song you can do together we'll try it and he was really afraid. Johnny had a home in Jamaica and spent a lot of time there, he loved Jamaican music, so when I told Johnny that The Clash was a punk band who brought reggae into punk, John said, 'I love reggae.' We pulled out a bunch of reggae CDs and listened to a whole lot of songs and this is the one that won. As a matter of fact the first song that John suggested was 'Three Little Birds,' a different Bob Marley song. I suggested 'The Harder They Come,' because Joe had been singing it live and it was great. But we listened to those songs and every other song anybody else had suggested, and when we got to 'Redemption Song' - which I think John Carter, Johnny's son suggested - as soon as we heard it Johnny said, 'We'll do that.' There was one line I was wary about because it was not good English and I said, 'Johnny do you want to change this word to the way you'd say it?' And he looked at me and said, 'Bob Marley wrote that. I can't change that!'" John himself said about this recording, "This is a Bob Marley song that I recorded for the last album, but I just didn't feel I did the song justice. Maybe I did, I just wanted to feel like it was something really special, it has to be if you're covering a Bob Marley song. I chose it because I love Jamaica, and if you're going to do a song from Jamacia, it's got to be a Bob Marley song. Joe Strummer was on that session in Rick's house. What a good musician he was - and a good man."
We continue with Ray Price singing What a Friend We Have in Jesus. This recording comes from his 1976 gospel album, Precious Memories.
Today's musical selection ends with The Carter Family's 1934 recording of Working on a Building.
This week's movie trailer is for a really fun, Gene Autry film, Shooting High (1940). Gene does not get top billing in this trailer, which instead goes to Jane Whithers, a popular child actress at the time. Jane was a fan of Gene Autry and really wanted to make a movie with him. However she was under contract to 20th Century Fox and could not make a film for Republic Pictures (where Gene made his films). However she talked to the studios and convinced them to have Gene appear in one movie with her at 20th Century Fox. This marked the only time Gene ever made a film for 20th Century Fox and one of the rare times his screen character was not named Gene Autry. Also in this movie were Jack Carson and Charles Middleton (movie serial fans might know him for playing Ming the Merciless in the Flash Gordon serials).
Now for a message from the Reverend Billy Graham.
For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10
I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13
Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. Jeremiah 32:17
Therefore now let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue forever before thee: for thou, O Lord GOD, hast spoken: and with thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed forever. 2Samuel 7:29
Thank you for joining me. Come back next week for another service of Cowboy Church. Happy trails to you until we meet again.
Resources Used
https://www.tumbleweedtrail.net/griffis-nolan-interview-11272
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-i-come-to-the-garden-alone
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