In our sharing of Crossing the Georgia Line, we began to see how many of the sights and scenes took on an entity of their own – the Chattahoochee River, Mud Creek, a vacant lot, a house on an Alabama hill, the multicolored downtown LaGrange fountain, a road well-traveled, and on and on.
These all become more than places – they become personalities, each with its own aura.
The songs in the story also do the same – they step up as characters themselves and become part of the world of the summer of ’73.
I haven’t counted how many are in the telling of the story – I’d guess as many as 50, ranging from “Delta Dawn” to “Midnight Train to Georgia.”
“How Great Thou Art” also finds its way in the story.
Perhaps that’s where the song first became part of a young man’s soul – not just a piece of music.
I remember when the Statler Brothers came out with their version of the song in the 70s. It was one of the few religious hymns that I can think of that made the charts and played daily on radio stations.
Kristofferson’s “Why Me” and Willie’s “Unclouded Day” are two others that come to mind.
I was in my early years of bricklaying in Houston when the Statlers’ song came out, and I remember hearing it play while out working. I don’t know if I could’ve afforded to stop and listen, but I am sure I paused and smiled within.
I put a pin in that moment.
It was in 1969 when they first recorded it on a gospel album, but then they re-recorded it in 1975. (Hold onto that date a bit).
By 1976 it had become a country music hit and made it to number 39 on the charts, etching its way day by day and chord by chord into the country’s consciousness.
Imagine the impact the song had on the workers in America, laboring hard to make a living when the unmatched harmony of “How Great Thou Art” would come across the airwaves in the middle of the day.
I was in my early years of my bricklaying apprenticeship at that time, trying to find myself out on the job with a number of masonry companies.
I had finished a three-week union bricklaying school in June of 1975, but jobs were tight, and I was unable to find a bricklaying job with the union.
So, I went to work with a non-union company called “Team Incorporated.”
It was a big company that my big brother – known as “Squatlow” – worked at. I spent about six months with Team.
A time or two we’d be between jobs, and I’d go to work as an apprentice with another company.
I remember one such company, and it sticks in my mind that the song came on in the short time I was with it.
It wasn’t necessarily a particularly good experience – in fact, it was the only company that I ever remember that failed to pay me what they owed, and the company kind of disappeared.
I forgave that long ago.
I suppose it was appropriate that in some hard times like that and in those growing times “How Great Thou Art” was playing in my consciousness – sung by my family’s favorite group.
It was also during that period that the amazin’ blonde and I would go every year to the Astrodome for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
All the big music stars would come and sing at the night sessions.
We saw Charlie Pride, B.J. Thomas, and even Elvis one year – that may have been our first year of marriage – and, of course, we saw the Statler Brothers.
Near the end of their performance each time we saw them, they would sing “How Great Thou Art.”
They would sing two verses and the chorus, then after the last chorus the high tenor would jump into the lead – and jump back to the beginning of the chorus again.
It was Lew DeWitt at first with his unique tenor harmony, then later Jimmy Fortune after Lew had serious health issues and had to retire.
We were blessed to hear both.
After repeating the chorus and ending with a powerful crescendo, the lights would go out, the crowd would applaud, and then a moment of silence. Then, in a flash – literally – the lights would come back on and the boys would hit that chorus one more time, Lew or Jimmy leading it just as before.
They would end again with what I think may be the most spine-chilling ending I had ever heard – the lights on … the tenor stepping in at the top of the chorus and stepping up the ladder to the tip top … the other three harmonizing flawlessly into a crescendo that built until the final note, which they seemed to hold for an eternity.
I can feel every bit of that Astrodome memory down in my soul right now this moment, 50 years later.
All I can say is, “Then sings my soul”! Both then and now.
I mentioned that it was in 1975 that the Statlers’ version hit the country charts and made its way into the soul of America. It was a special year for the amazin’ blonde, too. We began our own refrain that year – Oct. 24, 1975.
Coach Steven Ray Bowen served as a teacher and basketball coach at Red Oak High from 1998-2012 and recently came out of retirement twice for teaching tours at Ferris and Waxahachie High Schools. He and his wife Marilyn (the “amazin’ blonde”) have slowed down some of their travels and reconvened in their evangelistic work with the Church of Christ of Red Oak at Uhl/Ovilla Roads, in addition to Coach’s work as a writer and author, including the working to publish “Crossing The Georgia Line” that ran in the Ellis County Press. Call or text (972) 824-5197, email coachbowen1984@gmail.com, and see frontporchgospel.com.