Charles Davis Tillman | |
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| Born | March 20, 1861  |
| Died | 1943 (aged 81–82) |
Charles Davis Tillman (March 20, 1861,Tallassee, Alabama – September 2, 1943,Atlanta, Georgia)[citation needed] —also known as Charlie D. Tillman, Charles Tillman, Charlie Tillman, and C. D. Tillman—was a popularizer of thegospel song. He had a knack for adopting material from eclectic sources and flowing it into the mix now known assouthern gospel, becoming one of the formative influences on that genre.[1]
The youngest son ofBaptist preacher James Lafayette Tillman and Mary (Davis) Tillman, for 14 years prior to 1887 he painted houses, sold sheet music for a company inRaleigh, North Carolina, and peddledWizard Oil.[2] In 1887 he focused his career more on his church and musical talents, singing firsttenor in a churchmale quartet and establishing his own church-related music publishing company in Atlanta.[3]
In 1889 Tillman was assisting his father with a tent meeting inLexington, South Carolina. The elder Tillman lent the tent to anAfrican American group for a singing meeting on a Sunday afternoon. It was then that young Tillman first heard thespiritual "The Old Time Religion" and then quickly scrawled the words and the rudiments of the tune on a scrap of paper. Tillman published the work to his largely white church market in 1891.[4] Tillman was not first in publishing the song, an honor which goes to G. D. Pike in his 1873Jubilee Singers and Their Campaign for Twenty Thousand Dollars.[5] Rather, Tillman's contribution was that heculturally appropriated the song into the repertoire ofwhite southerners, whose music was derived fromgospel, a style that was a distinct influence onBuddy Holly andElvis Presley. As published by Tillman, the song contains verses not found in Pike's 1873 version. These possibly had accumulated in oral tradition or/and were augmented by lyrics crafted by Tillman. More critically, perhaps, Tillman's published version of the tune has a more-mnemonic cadence which may have helped it gain wider currency. Tillman's emendations have characterized the song ever since, in the culture of allsoutherners irrespective of race.[6] TheSATB arrangement in Tillman's songbooks became known toAlvin York and is thus the background song for the 1941Academy Award filmSergeant York, which spread "The Old-Time Religion" to audiences far beyond theSouth.[7] Following Tillman's nuanced example, editors with a largelywhitetarget market such as Elmer Leon Jorgenson[8] formalized the first line as "'Tis the old-time religion" (likewise the repeated first line of the refrain) to accommodate the song more to the tastes ofwhite southern church congregations and their singing culture.[9]
In 1890, Tillman set to music a hymn by Baptist preacher M.E. Abbey, "Life's Railway to Heaven."[10] (Abbey had drawn from an earlier poem, "The Faithful Engineer," by William Shakespeare Hays.[11][12])
Also known by its first line "Life is like a mountain railroad", the song has been recorded byBoxcar Willie,Carter Family,Bill Monroe,Chuck Wagon Gang,The Oak Ridge Boys,Tennessee Ernie Ford,Merle Haggard,Johnny Cash,Brad Paisley,Russ Taff,Amazing Rhythm Aces, and many others. Tillman's tune is in 3/4time, but a 4/4 version became also widespread afterPatsy Cline recorded it that way in 1959 as a solo;Willie Nelson later dubbed his voice into that version to form a duet.[13] On January 14, 2012,Brad Paisley performed a 4/4 rendition as guest onGarrison Keillor'sPrairie Home Companion.[14]
Members of theWestern Writers of America chose the song as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.[15]
The song features prominently in the 1979 TV movieMr. Horn, sung first byDavid Carradine, and byRichard Widmark andKaren Black towards its ending.
The melody and some elements of the lyrics were adapted for the union song, "Miner's Lifeguard," with a refrain about mine operators who cheated workers out of honest weight, "Union miners, work together; Heed no operator's tale; Keep your hand upon the dollar, and your eye upon the scale."[16]
Besides "The Old Time Religion" and "Life’s Railway to Heaven" the Cyber Hymnal lists other Tillman works, including "My Mother's Bible" as well as "Ready" and "When I Get to the End of the Way" ("The sands have been washed").
The Cyberhymnal lists also the following:
"My Mother's Bible"[18] is among the'Mother Songs' of the tear-jerker varietyArchived 2011-05-22 at theWayback Machine as selected byMudcat Cafe. Notwithstanding the sentimentality, "My Mother's Bible" emerged in a number of generally stately hymnals, including theBroadman Hymnal edited byBaylus Benjamin McKinney[19] andChristian Hymns.[20] The lyrics were written by a man by the name of Milan Williams, who was an evangelist in the late 1800s. He collaborated with Tillman and reflected his desire to write a song with these lyrics, and apparently the song was completed within a half hour.
"Ready to suffer grief or pain" had a British author in the tradition of theKeswick Hymn-Book, but Tillman wrote the tune which is invariably and exclusively used in the United States. Tillman first published the British lyrics with his tune in Tillman'sRevival No. 4 in Atlanta in 1903. The British lyrics are in fivequatrains. Tillman moved the original first quatrain into the refrain of his version and altered the words to wed better to the repeated nature of a refrain. He printed the song with a reference to 2 Samuel 15:15 ("Behold, thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall appoint"). In conveying this background, William Jensen Reynolds[21] observes that theSouthern Baptist Hymnal Committee decided to name the tune TILLMAN. Reynolds disputed the author's identity as A. C. Palmer, but other researchers have accepted the author's identity as Asa C. Palmer (1845–1882).[22]
Forrest Mason McCann describes "When I Get to the End of the Way" as "A popular song with older folk"[23] (like some hymnals which carry it, McCann indicates the song by its first line, "The sands have been washed"). The ability of Tillman's work to appeal outside the time and context ofsouthern gospel is evident in the inclusion of "The Sands Have Been Washed" in the BritishFavourite Hymns of the Church[24] where the tune name is indicated as THE END OF THE WAY; in the "Preface" (pp. iii-viii) editors Albert E. Winstanley & Graham A. Fisher emphasize that requests from churches which had previously used Elmer Leon Jorgenson'sGreat Songs of the Church[25] (where the song appears) were a major consideration in which works to include. Jorgenson's hymnal, which offered traditional hymns and gospel songs, had spread "The Sands Have Been Washed" internationally throughout theRestoration Movement with which Jorgenson's hymnal was associated. "When I Get to the End of the Way" ("The sands have been washed") has also been popularized internationally byGeorge Beverly Shea,Bill Gaither, andLynda Randle.[26]
Additionally, Tillman was responsible for publicizing the lyrics of"I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger" from Bever'sChristian Songster (1858)[27] together with two additional stanzas from Taylor'sRevival Hymns & Plantation Melodies (1882) and popularizing the combination with theminor key tune of variousAfrican American andAppalachian nuance. The combination is so hauntingly striking and memorable that the tune itself has been widely recognized as POOR WAYFARING STRANGER or just WAYFARING STRANGER ever since Tillman spread it beyond theSacred Harp tradition in hisRevival songbook of 1891.[28] It has been frequently analyzed,[29] arranged,[30] and recorded, its artists includingBurl Ives,[31]Joan Baez,Tennessee Ernie Ford,Johnny Cash,Dusty Springfield,Emmylou Harris,Bill Monroe,Jack White,Annah Graefe,Selah,andPeter, Paul and Mary, and theMormon Tabernacle Choir.[32]
Tillman was so recognized in his own time that, at the 1893 World Convention of Christian Workers inBoston, he served as songleader in place ofDwight L. Moody's associateIra D. Sankey. Tillman'sAssembly Book (1927) was selected by bothGeorgia andSouth Carolina for the musical scores used in public school programs. Tillman broke into radio early and performed regularly on Atlanta's radio stationWSB 750 AM. Once in 1930 theNBC radio network put him on the air for an hour featuring his singing while his daughter accompanied on the piano. He also recorded onColumbia Records.[33]
Tillman, who spent most of his life inGeorgia andTexas, published 22 songbooks.[34] He is memorialized in theSouthern Gospel Museum and Hall of Fame and was among the first individuals to be inducted into theGospel Music Hall of Fame.[35]
Charlie D. Tillman is buried in Atlanta'sWestview Cemetery.[36] The monument at his grave bears selected "Life's Railway to Heaven" lyrics.[37]
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