Song Book

I was listening to this radio show while wrapping Christmas presents tonight and it made me homesick for singing "old" Protestant hymns. From the 1980s through today, Protestant churches in America have largely moved away from those "old" hymns in favor of what they call worship music. I think that is a loss.

I'm not talking about the theological content of the lyrics, though I do think that Martin Luther's "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" is dogmatically richer than Elevation Worship's "Trust in God". No, I'm not talking about the doctrinal ideas in the songs. What I have I mind is the loss of a common song book.

On a couple of occasions when I was a boy in Tampa I attended something called a "sing". People just gathered together and sang. Many of the songs, most of them, probably, were church songs such as Fanny Crosby's "Blessed Assurance", Albert Brumley's "I'll Fly Away", and Isaac Watts' "O God, Our Help in Ages Past". But there were always the patriotic songs such as George Cohan's "It's a Grand Old Flag", and Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic", and the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force Songs (The members and veterans of those services were invited to stand during their songs). But it was not only church songs and patriotic songs. There were also American folk classis such as "Shenendoah", "Down in the Valley", and "Deep River".

And the amazing thing, as you will see in this radio show, is that hundreds of people just knew the words and music, and naturally fell into four part harmony and made music of such comfortable and easy beauty. Maybe it was because it was the South. I was in Tampa when I attended those sings, and this radio show was recorded in Atlanta, but, I have a feeling, it could happen in Tulsa, Texarkana, Murfreesboro, Joplin, or Charleston. Sadly, I can't even imagine it happening in Silicon Valley.