Albert E. Brumley

We have a good time.

And you're right, if Bill doesn't have the publishing, Albert Brumley or somebody does.

That's right.

That's right.

[upbeat music]

I'll Fly Away was written by my grandfather, Albert E. Brumley.

His songs have touched millions and still continue to influence the music industry today.

Come along with me on my journey as I figure out our music history and the songs that's influenced us.

I mean, Alison Krauss, how do you go wrong with Alison Krauss? I know.

What a singer.

And I'm gonna mention Albert E. Brumley 'cause he was a songwriter.

Yes.

I wanted to share with you before we start this next song that I just learned about this.

So the original song, I'll Fly Away, was written by Albert E. Brumley.

It was composed between 1929 and 1932, and he got the idea...

Let me get to it here.

[upbeat music]

I'll Fly Away was written by my grandfather, Albert E. Brumley.

His song has touched millions, and it still influences music today.

Come along through this journey with me as we discover our musical heritage.

I'm Betsy Brumley.

With me today is Billy Blackwood of the Blackwood Brothers, and our families have known each other for so long, generations.

A long time.

Our family heritage.

All of them from the pencil and piano of the feller who may have been the greatest gospel composer of all time.

And that feller, Albert E. Brumley, is our long sweetenin'.

Albert Edward Brumley was born in 1905 to sharecropper parents at Spiro, Oklahoma, fewer than 20 miles west of Fort Smith, Arkansas.

When he was still a kid, his family bought a farm near the little railroad town of Rock Island, Oklahoma, even closer to the Arkansas state line.

It was at Rock Island where a teenage Albert E. Brumley attended his first singing school, a two- or three-week lesson on shape note music taught by an itinerant teacher.

Shape note music uses a different shape to represent the different tones on the musical scale.

Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do.

I don't like it any better than you, but to quote my favorite tenor, can you tell a bird to just go chirp, chirp, chirp? Okay, unlike Barney Fife, I wasn't born to sing.