Album Liner Notes - Church

[guitarchuck]

I was reading the liner notes on Chet Atkins & Doc Watson's Reflections album today. It was of interest to me because I attend a Holiness church here in Oklahoma and we have a lot of fingerstyle guitarist in our Holiness churches.
Here's what Chet said, talking about the song "I'm On My Way To Canaan's Land":

I heard this song when I was about 10 years old, in the Copper Ridge Holiness Church in Luttrell, Tennessee. I think it's kind of traditional to mention friend's names in the lyrics.

It also reminded me of Merle Travis' liner notes on his album "Country Guitar Giants, Merle Travis & Joe Maphis.

Here's what Merle said:

When Joe and I were young fellers, one of the places to go flirt with girls was at church. Not the big red brick churches where everybody dressed up and sang slow, mournful songs that bounced from the stained glass windows. Not at all! We went to small, white weatherboarded churches that got their light from coal oil (kerosene) lamps. Everybody in the church sang, hands were clapped in tempo, and feet kept time patting on the floor. The songs were fast and spirited. The churches were places where preachers delivered their sermons for the glory of God and not for money. They were Holiness, or Pentecostal churches. A lot of folks looked down on them and called them "holy-rollers." At the age of nineteen, I married a girl whose father was a Holiness preacher. He worked in the mines for money and preached to save souls. Hank Williams wrote a song during his short stay on earth that sounds exactly like one of the old Holiness hand-clapping, foot-patting, shouting songs. We played it, it's titled I SAW THE LIGHT.

[Drail]

Chuck,
Thanks for posting this tidbit of information. I also find that very interesting because I too attend a Holiness/ Pentecostal church down here in Louisiana. I think a lot of singers, musicians, and performers of that era were influenced by churches of some kind or another. Elvis Presley for example grew up in the Assemby of God Church and others such as Jerry Lee Lewis grew up singing in churches. Hank Williams even had a spiritual background, made evident by the many gospel songs he wrote and sang. The Louvin Brothers are another example of church influence. I think I read an interview where Charlie Louvin said they were heavily influenced by the harmonies of the Sacred Harp singing in the southern US.

Anyway, I find it really cool that two of my guitar heroes might have been influenced in a small way by a church similar to mine! Now if I could just play I Saw The Light like Chet or Merle I might be doing some good!

Thanks,
Darryl