WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.899 I want you to imagine, imagine something for 00:00:02.899 --> 00:00:05.320 a second. Picture a traveling salesman. Okay. 00:00:05.660 --> 00:00:08.439 We're in the late 19th century. He's out there 00:00:08.439 --> 00:00:11.820 on these dusty, unpaved roads in the American 00:00:11.820 --> 00:00:14.339 South, standing on the back of a wagon. Right. 00:00:14.439 --> 00:00:17.920 A classic setup. Yeah. And he's pedaling a literal 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:20.929 snake oil cure. It's called Wizard Oil. Wizard 00:00:20.929 --> 00:00:24.050 Oil. Wizard Oil. And he's pitching to these crowds 00:00:24.050 --> 00:00:27.449 of farmers and townsfolk doing, you know, whatever 00:00:27.449 --> 00:00:29.230 it takes to capture their attention and just 00:00:29.230 --> 00:00:32.170 make a buck. Now, I want you to imagine that 00:00:32.170 --> 00:00:35.310 this exact same salesman with his little glass 00:00:35.310 --> 00:00:38.710 bottles of liniment is inadvertently laying the 00:00:38.710 --> 00:00:40.890 musical groundwork for rock and roll legends. 00:00:41.450 --> 00:00:44.109 People like Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. I 00:00:44.109 --> 00:00:47.250 mean, it sounds like the plot of a bizarre alternate 00:00:47.250 --> 00:00:49.869 history novel, honestly. It really does. You 00:00:49.869 --> 00:00:51.789 have this itinerant medicine man who somehow 00:00:51.789 --> 00:00:54.350 bridges the gap between old world hymns and the 00:00:54.350 --> 00:00:56.490 birth of modern American popular music. But it 00:00:56.490 --> 00:00:59.009 is an absolutely true story. And it's entirely 00:00:59.009 --> 00:01:02.109 rooted in the incredible, messy way that culture 00:01:02.109 --> 00:01:04.650 evolves. Welcome to our deep dive. Today, our 00:01:04.650 --> 00:01:07.549 topic is a man named Charles Davis Tillman. He 00:01:07.549 --> 00:01:10.069 is widely recognized as the popularizer of the 00:01:10.069 --> 00:01:13.060 gospel song. We are pulling our source material 00:01:13.060 --> 00:01:16.099 today from a highly comprehensive Wikipedia article 00:01:16.099 --> 00:01:19.140 that details his fascinating life, his brilliant 00:01:19.140 --> 00:01:21.980 musical adaptations, and a legacy that has lasted 00:01:21.980 --> 00:01:25.439 well over a century. And it's a legacy that you 00:01:25.439 --> 00:01:27.319 have almost certainly heard, even if his name 00:01:27.319 --> 00:01:29.739 doesn't immediately ring a bell. His influence 00:01:29.739 --> 00:01:32.560 is basically baked into the DNA of American roots 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:35.780 music. The mission for this deep dive is to explore 00:01:35.780 --> 00:01:39.620 how this one man's incredible knack for adopting 00:01:39.620 --> 00:01:43.239 and blending eclectic, multicultural sources 00:01:43.239 --> 00:01:46.120 essentially helped create the genre of Southern 00:01:46.120 --> 00:01:49.340 gospel. We get to see how his unique ear for 00:01:49.340 --> 00:01:51.980 a catchy tune just totally changed the landscape 00:01:51.980 --> 00:01:54.319 of American music. Let's unpack this because 00:01:54.319 --> 00:01:57.000 Tillman's origin story is so far removed from 00:01:57.000 --> 00:01:58.819 what you would expect from a musical pioneer. 00:01:59.260 --> 00:02:01.159 Yeah, you usually imagine a legendary composer, 00:02:01.500 --> 00:02:03.900 I don't know, studying in a conservatory or growing 00:02:03.900 --> 00:02:06.379 up solely steeped in high church music. Right. 00:02:06.500 --> 00:02:08.879 But Tillman's path was completely different. 00:02:08.979 --> 00:02:12.060 Let's set the stage for his early years. Charles 00:02:12.060 --> 00:02:15.479 Davis Tillman was born in 1861 in Tallassee, 00:02:15.479 --> 00:02:18.330 Alabama. He was the youngest son of a Baptist 00:02:18.330 --> 00:02:21.169 preacher, James Lafayette Tillman, and his wife 00:02:21.169 --> 00:02:24.189 Mary. Given that religious background, you might 00:02:24.189 --> 00:02:26.469 assume he went straight into the clergy or started 00:02:26.469 --> 00:02:28.250 writing hymns the moment he could hold a pen. 00:02:28.550 --> 00:02:31.139 But from our sources... That wasn't the case 00:02:31.139 --> 00:02:34.360 at all. Not at all. For 14 years leading up to 00:02:34.360 --> 00:02:37.520 about 1887, he was out there hustling in the 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:40.099 secular world. Yeah. He painted houses to make 00:02:40.099 --> 00:02:43.000 ends meet. He sold sheet music for a company 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:45.780 based in Raleigh, North Carolina. And as you 00:02:45.780 --> 00:02:47.680 mentioned in the intro, he peddled wizard oil. 00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:51.060 What exactly did peddling wizard oil entail back 00:02:51.060 --> 00:02:53.400 then? Because it sounds incredibly theatrical. 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:55.319 Oh, it's the definition of theatrical. Patent 00:02:55.319 --> 00:02:57.379 medicine salesmen in the 1880s didn't just knock 00:02:57.379 --> 00:02:59.939 on doors. They put on entire shows. Wow. They 00:02:59.939 --> 00:03:02.219 would roll into a town square, draw a crowd with 00:03:02.219 --> 00:03:04.639 a song, maybe a joke or a banjo tune, and then 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:07.460 launch into a highly persuasive pitch for their 00:03:07.460 --> 00:03:10.680 liniment. That 14 -year period of hustling is 00:03:10.680 --> 00:03:13.300 so crucial to understanding Tillman's later success. 00:03:14.060 --> 00:03:16.319 He wasn't just learning how to sell a product. 00:03:16.500 --> 00:03:19.560 He was learning how to read a crowd. He had to 00:03:19.560 --> 00:03:22.439 figure out in real time what captured an audience's 00:03:22.439 --> 00:03:24.539 attention and what kept them from just walking 00:03:24.539 --> 00:03:26.539 away. So he was learning the psychology of the 00:03:26.539 --> 00:03:29.680 masses. He was. When he finally pivoted to a 00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:32.479 career in music, he didn't approach it purely 00:03:32.479 --> 00:03:35.479 as a devout churchgoer. He approached it as a 00:03:35.479 --> 00:03:38.759 master marketer of melodies. He knew how to package 00:03:38.759 --> 00:03:40.599 an idea so that it would stick in a person's 00:03:40.599 --> 00:03:42.840 head long after the wagon rolled out of town. 00:03:43.139 --> 00:03:46.900 That pivot you mentioned happened in 1887. He 00:03:46.900 --> 00:03:49.080 decided to focus his career much more closely 00:03:49.080 --> 00:03:51.879 on his church and his undeniable musical talents. 00:03:52.099 --> 00:03:54.500 He started singing first tenor in a church male 00:03:54.500 --> 00:03:57.620 quartet. But he didn't stop at performance. He 00:03:57.620 --> 00:03:59.800 established his own church -related music publishing 00:03:59.800 --> 00:04:02.330 company right in Atlanta. That entrepreneurial 00:04:02.330 --> 00:04:05.409 spirit from his salesman days really shines through 00:04:05.409 --> 00:04:07.629 there. He realized that the real influence and 00:04:07.629 --> 00:04:10.490 frankly, the real living wasn't just in singing 00:04:10.490 --> 00:04:12.849 the songs, but in owning and distributing the 00:04:12.849 --> 00:04:15.409 material. He wanted to get his music into as 00:04:15.409 --> 00:04:18.209 many hands as possible. He ended up publishing 00:04:18.209 --> 00:04:22.350 22 songbooks over his lifetime. But to truly 00:04:22.350 --> 00:04:24.610 understand how he built this massive musical 00:04:24.610 --> 00:04:27.790 empire, we need to look at one specific afternoon 00:04:27.790 --> 00:04:31.060 in South Carolina. Let me pick a scene for you 00:04:31.060 --> 00:04:34.019 based on the source material. The year is 1889. 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:37.759 Tillman is in Lexington, South Carolina, helping 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:40.379 his father run a tent meeting. And for some context, 00:04:40.680 --> 00:04:43.180 tent meetings were massive social and spiritual 00:04:43.180 --> 00:04:46.060 events at the time. Entire communities, sometimes 00:04:46.060 --> 00:04:48.980 thousands of people, would gather under a huge 00:04:48.980 --> 00:04:51.800 canvas tent for days of preaching, socializing, 00:04:51.860 --> 00:04:55.160 and importantly, singing. It was the major entertainment 00:04:55.160 --> 00:04:57.759 and community event of the season. On this particular 00:04:57.759 --> 00:05:00.459 Sunday afternoon, Tillman's father lends their 00:05:00.459 --> 00:05:02.560 big meeting tent to an African -American group 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:05.120 so they can hold their own singing meeting. Young 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:06.959 Charles Tillman is hanging around the edges of 00:05:06.959 --> 00:05:09.399 the tent just listening. And he hears them singing 00:05:09.399 --> 00:05:12.800 a song called The Old Time Religion. According 00:05:12.800 --> 00:05:15.759 to the history, he is so struck by it that he 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:18.860 frantically grabs a scrap of paper and scrawls 00:05:18.860 --> 00:05:20.800 down the words and the rudiments of the tune 00:05:20.800 --> 00:05:23.420 right there on the spot. What's fascinating here 00:05:23.420 --> 00:05:26.220 is the nuanced reality of this moment in musical 00:05:26.220 --> 00:05:28.899 history. The romanticized narrative could easily 00:05:28.899 --> 00:05:31.259 be that Tillman sort of... discovered this hidden 00:05:31.259 --> 00:05:33.939 song and graciously gave it to the world. But 00:05:33.939 --> 00:05:35.839 the historical record shows that Tillman didn't 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:37.939 actually publish it first. I noticed that in 00:05:37.939 --> 00:05:40.579 the source. That honor goes to a man named G 00:05:40.579 --> 00:05:43.199 .D. Pike. Right. G .D. Pike had actually published 00:05:43.199 --> 00:05:46.000 a version of it back in 1873 in a book about 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:48.819 the Jubilee Singers. So Tillman's real contribution 00:05:48.819 --> 00:05:51.740 wasn't pulling the song out of thin air. His 00:05:51.740 --> 00:05:53.939 contribution was an act of cultural adaptation 00:05:53.939 --> 00:05:57.319 and. Objectively speaking, cultural appropriation. 00:05:57.319 --> 00:06:00.779 He took this African -American spiritual, which 00:06:00.779 --> 00:06:03.800 had its own distinct rhythmic and cultural life, 00:06:03.879 --> 00:06:06.839 and adapted it specifically for the repertoire 00:06:06.839 --> 00:06:10.019 of white Southern churchgoers. How did he change 00:06:10.019 --> 00:06:12.660 it? Because it wasn't just a simple. copy -paste 00:06:12.660 --> 00:06:15.060 job from that scrap of paper to the hymnal, right? 00:06:15.240 --> 00:06:17.839 No. The source notes that the version Tillman 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:20.540 published contained verses that weren't in Pike's 00:06:20.540 --> 00:06:24.199 earlier 1873 version. These extra lyrics might 00:06:24.199 --> 00:06:26.579 have accumulated over time through oral tradition 00:06:26.579 --> 00:06:29.339 in the African -American community, or Tillman 00:06:29.339 --> 00:06:31.860 might have augmented them himself. Right. But 00:06:31.860 --> 00:06:34.339 the most critical change was to the music itself. 00:06:34.620 --> 00:06:38.459 He gave the published tune a more mnemonic A 00:06:38.459 --> 00:06:40.759 mnemonic cadence. Break that down for us. It 00:06:40.759 --> 00:06:43.360 means he optimized the melody to make it stickier. 00:06:43.480 --> 00:06:46.360 He altered the rhythm and the melodic jumps to 00:06:46.360 --> 00:06:48.600 make it easier to remember and easier to sing 00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:51.100 along to on the very first try, even if you weren't 00:06:51.100 --> 00:06:53.480 a trained singer. He also arranged it into a 00:06:53.480 --> 00:06:57.180 standard SATB format. And SATB stands for soprano, 00:06:57.180 --> 00:06:59.860 alto, tenor, and bass. Correct. That's it. It's 00:06:59.860 --> 00:07:01.920 the standard four part harmony structure used 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:04.620 in choirs and church congregations. By arranging 00:07:04.620 --> 00:07:06.860 it that way, he made it incredibly accessible 00:07:06.860 --> 00:07:09.699 for a standard church choir or just a family 00:07:09.699 --> 00:07:12.379 singing in their parlor. He tailored the product 00:07:12.379 --> 00:07:15.300 perfectly for his target market and his specific 00:07:15.300 --> 00:07:17.360 tweaks have characterized the song ever since. 00:07:17.899 --> 00:07:21.300 Later editors like Elmer Leon Jorgensen even 00:07:21.300 --> 00:07:24.560 formalized the first line to. Tis the old time 00:07:24.560 --> 00:07:27.279 religion to make it flow even better for that 00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:29.879 congregational singing culture. The ripple effect 00:07:29.879 --> 00:07:32.100 of that single scrap of paper is staggering. 00:07:32.379 --> 00:07:35.160 After Tillman published it to his market in 1891, 00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:38.379 the song exploded. It became so ingrained in 00:07:38.379 --> 00:07:40.579 Southern culture that it was known to Alvin York, 00:07:40.819 --> 00:07:43.199 the famous World War One hero from Tennessee. 00:07:43.439 --> 00:07:45.720 And that connection to Alvin York is what pushed 00:07:45.720 --> 00:07:48.480 the song onto a global stage. It ended up being 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:50.839 featured prominently as the background song in 00:07:50.839 --> 00:07:53.480 the 1941 Academy Award winning. film Sergeant 00:07:53.480 --> 00:07:56.439 York. Oh, wow. Yeah. Suddenly, millions of people 00:07:56.439 --> 00:07:58.079 sitting in movie theaters across the country 00:07:58.079 --> 00:08:00.319 are listening to a tune that Tillman jotted down 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:03.060 on a scrap of paper decades earlier. It goes 00:08:03.060 --> 00:08:06.360 even further than Hollywood. The driving, emotive 00:08:06.360 --> 00:08:09.279 gospel style that Tillman helped forge with songs 00:08:09.279 --> 00:08:12.079 like this became a direct influence on the pioneers 00:08:12.079 --> 00:08:14.959 of early rock and roll. Buddy Holly and Elvis 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:17.759 Presley grew up immersed in the exact musical 00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:20.199 culture and church environments that Tillman 00:08:20.199 --> 00:08:22.759 synthesized and popularized. It is a perfect 00:08:22.759 --> 00:08:25.459 illustration of how a melody evolves. It passes 00:08:25.459 --> 00:08:27.620 from an African -American singing group to a 00:08:27.620 --> 00:08:30.040 salesman's scrap of paper to an Atlanta publishing 00:08:30.040 --> 00:08:32.639 house to a Hollywood blockbuster and eventually 00:08:32.639 --> 00:08:34.799 bleeds into the foundational rhythms of rock 00:08:34.799 --> 00:08:37.000 and roll. Which brings us to another massive 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:40.440 hit of his from 1890 called Life's Railway to 00:08:40.440 --> 00:08:42.960 Heaven. It's also known by its first line, life 00:08:42.960 --> 00:08:45.940 is like a mountain railroad. This is such a fascinating 00:08:45.940 --> 00:08:48.940 example of a musical mashup before mashups were 00:08:48.940 --> 00:08:51.679 even a concept. Tillman was a master compiler. 00:08:52.019 --> 00:08:54.580 For this one, he took a hymn written by a Baptist 00:08:54.580 --> 00:08:56.779 preacher named M .E. Abbey, and he set it to 00:08:56.779 --> 00:08:59.080 music. But even Abbey's hymn was an adaptation. 00:08:59.460 --> 00:09:01.860 Right. Abbey had drawn his lyrics from an earlier 00:09:01.860 --> 00:09:04.360 poem called The Faithful Engineer, which was 00:09:04.360 --> 00:09:06.480 written by a man named William Shakespeare Hayes. 00:09:06.519 --> 00:09:09.200 So we have a secular poem adapted into a preacher's 00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:11.279 hymn, and then Tillman comes along and gives 00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:14.340 it the magic musical touch. And the list of artists 00:09:14.340 --> 00:09:16.320 who recorded this is a who's who of American 00:09:16.320 --> 00:09:19.690 roots music. Johnny Cash, the Carter family, 00:09:20.110 --> 00:09:23.090 Bill Monroe, the Oak Ridge Boys, Merle Haggard, 00:09:23.169 --> 00:09:26.230 Boxcar Willie, Tennessee, Ernie Ford. Yeah. The 00:09:26.230 --> 00:09:29.350 song is an. absolute standard. But musically, 00:09:29.450 --> 00:09:31.269 there is a technical detail here that I have 00:09:31.269 --> 00:09:33.330 to geek out about because it completely changes 00:09:33.330 --> 00:09:35.970 how you experience the song. When Tillman originally 00:09:35.970 --> 00:09:39.110 wrote the tune in 1890, he composed it in 34 00:09:39.110 --> 00:09:41.129 time. What does that mean for the listener? It 00:09:41.129 --> 00:09:43.590 means it was a waltz. It had a rhythmic pulse 00:09:43.590 --> 00:09:46.389 of one, two, three, one, two, three. It gives 00:09:46.389 --> 00:09:49.889 the song a lilting, almost swaying feel. But 00:09:49.889 --> 00:09:52.110 as the song traveled through the decades, it 00:09:52.110 --> 00:09:55.299 underwent a massive rhythmic shift. In 1959, 00:09:55.820 --> 00:09:58.740 Patsy Cline recorded a solo version of it, but 00:09:58.740 --> 00:10:01.919 she recorded it in 44 time. That changes it from 00:10:01.919 --> 00:10:05.039 a waltz to a march. One, two, three, four. You 00:10:05.039 --> 00:10:07.100 nailed it. It completely changes the driving 00:10:07.100 --> 00:10:09.519 feel of the song. Instead of a sway, it becomes 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:12.120 a steady locomotive chug, which makes perfect 00:10:12.120 --> 00:10:14.759 sense for a song about a railroad. Her 44 version 00:10:14.759 --> 00:10:17.360 became incredibly widespread. It essentially 00:10:17.360 --> 00:10:19.879 overwrote the original sheet music and the public 00:10:19.879 --> 00:10:22.789 consciousness and became the new standard. The 00:10:22.789 --> 00:10:24.970 source mentions Willie Nelson got involved with 00:10:24.970 --> 00:10:27.370 that specific Patsy Cline recording later on. 00:10:27.450 --> 00:10:30.870 He did. Years later, Willie Nelson dubbed his 00:10:30.870 --> 00:10:33.850 own voice over Patsy Cline's 1959 recording to 00:10:33.850 --> 00:10:37.049 create a posthumous duet. And the 44 timing has 00:10:37.049 --> 00:10:39.950 stuck so firmly that when Brad Paisley performed 00:10:39.950 --> 00:10:42.750 the song as a guest on Garrison Kyler's A Prairie 00:10:42.750 --> 00:10:46.570 Home Companion in 2012, he used that exact 44 00:10:46.570 --> 00:10:49.110 rendition. Almost no one plays it as a waltz 00:10:49.110 --> 00:10:51.169 anymore. Here's where it gets really interesting, 00:10:51.230 --> 00:10:53.820 though, because... Life's Railway to Heaven is 00:10:53.820 --> 00:10:56.580 fundamentally a religious song. It's an allegory 00:10:56.580 --> 00:10:58.820 about staying on the righteous path, avoiding 00:10:58.820 --> 00:11:01.279 the curves and tunnels of sin to get to the afterlife. 00:11:01.720 --> 00:11:04.139 But that melody was just too infectious to stay 00:11:04.139 --> 00:11:06.899 confined to the church. The melody and the overarching 00:11:06.899 --> 00:11:09.000 theme of working class struggle jumped tracks 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:11.919 entirely. It was adapted into a secular union 00:11:11.919 --> 00:11:15.460 anthem called Miner's Lifeguard. Labor organizers 00:11:15.460 --> 00:11:18.779 took a song about spiritual salvation and transformed 00:11:18.779 --> 00:11:21.799 it into a stark, urgent warning for coal miners 00:11:21.799 --> 00:11:24.860 about mine operators cheating them on the weighing 00:11:24.860 --> 00:11:27.980 scales. The refrain shifted from reaching the 00:11:27.980 --> 00:11:30.940 heavenly station to, union miners, work together, 00:11:31.179 --> 00:11:33.720 heed no operator's tale, keep your hand upon 00:11:33.720 --> 00:11:36.440 the dollar and your eye upon the scale. That 00:11:36.440 --> 00:11:39.399 adaptation highlights the sheer utility of a 00:11:39.399 --> 00:11:42.590 well -crafted melody. A great tune is just a 00:11:42.590 --> 00:11:44.830 vessel. It can carry a message of eternal salvation 00:11:44.830 --> 00:11:47.309 just as effectively as it can carry a message 00:11:47.309 --> 00:11:50.409 of organized labor solidarity. Tillman's musical 00:11:50.409 --> 00:11:52.950 architecture was structurally robust enough to 00:11:52.950 --> 00:11:55.289 survive these massive contextual and cultural 00:11:55.289 --> 00:11:58.090 shifts. He really was the ultimate musical curator 00:11:58.090 --> 00:12:00.509 of his time. He was constantly finding pieces 00:12:00.509 --> 00:12:02.289 of culture and putting them together in ways 00:12:02.289 --> 00:12:04.350 that just clicked. I want to look at another 00:12:04.350 --> 00:12:06.649 perfect example from our sources, the song I 00:12:06.649 --> 00:12:09.100 Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger. One of the most 00:12:09.100 --> 00:12:11.840 haunting, enduring songs in the entire American 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:14.580 catalog. Completely haunting. And again, Tillman 00:12:14.580 --> 00:12:16.320 didn't invent it out of thin air. How did he 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:18.440 put this one together? He pulled lyrics from 00:12:18.440 --> 00:12:21.480 an 1858 publication called Bever's Christian 00:12:21.480 --> 00:12:24.669 Songster. Then he found additional stanzas from 00:12:24.669 --> 00:12:27.789 an 1882 book called Taylor's Revival Hymns and 00:12:27.789 --> 00:12:30.649 Plantation Melodies. He took all those lyrical 00:12:30.649 --> 00:12:32.710 elements and paired them with a minor key tune 00:12:32.710 --> 00:12:35.809 that had various African -American and Appalachian 00:12:35.809 --> 00:12:38.269 nuances. The source mentions that before Tillman 00:12:38.269 --> 00:12:40.830 got his hands on it, the tune was mostly known 00:12:40.830 --> 00:12:43.570 within the sacred harp shape note singing tradition. 00:12:44.309 --> 00:12:47.529 What exactly is shape note singing? That is a 00:12:47.529 --> 00:12:50.190 brilliant piece of musical history. Shape note 00:12:50.190 --> 00:12:52.169 singing was a system developed to help everyday 00:12:52.169 --> 00:12:54.830 people read music without needing formal musical 00:12:54.830 --> 00:12:58.029 training. Instead of standard round notes on 00:12:58.029 --> 00:13:00.490 a staff, the note heads were printed in literal 00:13:00.490 --> 00:13:03.350 shapes, triangles, squares, circles, and diamonds. 00:13:03.629 --> 00:13:06.149 Each shape corresponded to a specific syllable, 00:13:06.250 --> 00:13:09.690 like fa, sol, la, mi. So a farmer or a blacksmith 00:13:09.690 --> 00:13:12.070 who couldn't read standard sheet music could 00:13:12.070 --> 00:13:14.549 open a hymnal, see a triangle, and immediately 00:13:14.549 --> 00:13:17.440 know what note to sing. Exactly. It completely 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:21.159 democratized complex choral singing. So Wayfaring 00:13:21.159 --> 00:13:23.259 Stranger was floating around in that specific 00:13:23.259 --> 00:13:26.419 rural tradition. But Tillman recognized that 00:13:26.419 --> 00:13:29.039 the combination of those melancholy lyrics with 00:13:29.039 --> 00:13:32.279 that specific minor key melody was incredibly 00:13:32.279 --> 00:13:34.879 powerful. He put it in his revival songbook in 00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:38.320 1891 and standardizing it. And it spread like 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:40.539 wildfire far beyond the shape note communities. 00:13:40.899 --> 00:13:43.519 The recorded history of this song proves his 00:13:43.519 --> 00:13:46.250 instincts were spot on. It has been recorded 00:13:46.250 --> 00:13:48.450 by Burl Ives, who loved it so much he used it 00:13:48.450 --> 00:13:51.269 as the title of his autobiography. Joan Baez, 00:13:51.450 --> 00:13:53.830 Dusty Springfield, Emmalou Harris, Peter, Paul, 00:13:53.990 --> 00:13:56.730 and Mary, even Jack White and the Mormon Tabernacle 00:13:56.730 --> 00:13:58.669 Choir have recorded it. That is an astonishing 00:13:58.669 --> 00:14:01.289 spectrum of musical acts for one song to support, 00:14:01.470 --> 00:14:04.129 from alternative rock to massive choral arrangements. 00:14:04.450 --> 00:14:06.169 The source material has a whole list of these 00:14:06.169 --> 00:14:08.110 fascinating song stories, and I want to make 00:14:08.110 --> 00:14:09.870 sure we give them their due because the sheer 00:14:09.870 --> 00:14:12.250 volume and variety of his work is impressive. 00:14:12.950 --> 00:14:14.950 Let's look at a song called My Mother's Bible. 00:14:15.370 --> 00:14:18.250 Ah, this one falls firmly into the category of 00:14:18.250 --> 00:14:21.730 a mother song. It's a highly sentimental, emotionally 00:14:21.730 --> 00:14:25.309 charged genre that was incredibly popular in 00:14:25.309 --> 00:14:27.580 the late 19th century. I was reading about how 00:14:27.580 --> 00:14:30.659 this one came together. It wasn't a long, arduous 00:14:30.659 --> 00:14:33.779 writing process. Tillman collaborated with an 00:14:33.779 --> 00:14:37.240 evangelist named Milan Williams. Williams had 00:14:37.240 --> 00:14:39.940 written the lyrics and wanted a melody. Apparently, 00:14:40.059 --> 00:14:42.860 the two of them sat down, and the entire song 00:14:42.860 --> 00:14:45.330 was completed in just a half hour. Which really 00:14:45.330 --> 00:14:48.009 speaks to Tillman's fluency in that musical language. 00:14:48.169 --> 00:14:50.850 He knew exactly what chords and melodic turns 00:14:50.850 --> 00:14:53.350 would evoke the nostalgia and tears that Williams 00:14:53.350 --> 00:14:55.710 was looking for. And despite being written so 00:14:55.710 --> 00:14:58.049 quickly and being highly sentimental, it was 00:14:58.049 --> 00:15:00.269 respected enough to end up in some very stately 00:15:00.269 --> 00:15:03.830 official hymnals, like the Broadman hymnal. Then 00:15:03.830 --> 00:15:06.860 there's a song called Ready. This one has a really 00:15:06.860 --> 00:15:08.720 interesting origin story involving a British 00:15:08.720 --> 00:15:10.940 movement. Yeah, Tillman found some British lyrics, 00:15:11.019 --> 00:15:13.360 five quatrains that were written in the Keswick 00:15:13.360 --> 00:15:15.480 hymn book tradition. For those of us not well 00:15:15.480 --> 00:15:18.139 versed in 19th century British theology, what 00:15:18.139 --> 00:15:20.320 is the Keswick tradition? The Keswick movement 00:15:20.320 --> 00:15:22.820 was a series of Christian gatherings in England 00:15:22.820 --> 00:15:25.720 that focused on the higher life. Essentially, 00:15:25.720 --> 00:15:28.759 a deep, intense focus on personal holiness and 00:15:28.759 --> 00:15:31.740 total spiritual dedication. The lyrics that came 00:15:31.740 --> 00:15:35.039 out of that movement were very solemn and introspective. 00:15:35.139 --> 00:15:37.759 So Tillman finds these solemn British lyrics. 00:15:38.039 --> 00:15:40.159 What does he do with them? Doing what he does 00:15:40.159 --> 00:15:42.799 best, he altered the words slightly to fit a 00:15:42.799 --> 00:15:44.779 more repetitive refrain structure, making them 00:15:44.779 --> 00:15:47.779 catchier. Then he wedded them to his own original 00:15:47.779 --> 00:15:51.279 tune. And his melody was so definitive, so perfectly 00:15:51.279 --> 00:15:53.419 suited to the message, that when the Southern 00:15:53.419 --> 00:15:55.320 Baptist Hymnal Committee eventually published 00:15:55.320 --> 00:15:57.580 it, they officially named the musical tune itself 00:15:57.580 --> 00:16:00.519 Tillman. Having a tune officially named after 00:16:00.519 --> 00:16:03.500 you in a major denominational hymnal is quite 00:16:03.500 --> 00:16:06.409 the legacy. But his influence wasn't just limited 00:16:06.409 --> 00:16:09.950 to the American South or even just America. I'm 00:16:09.950 --> 00:16:11.809 looking at the song when I get to the end of 00:16:11.809 --> 00:16:14.450 the way. Also known by its first line, the sands 00:16:14.450 --> 00:16:16.909 have been washed. This is the song that proved 00:16:16.909 --> 00:16:19.309 Tillman's music had massive international appeal. 00:16:19.549 --> 00:16:22.029 How did it make the jump overseas? It was heavily 00:16:22.029 --> 00:16:24.789 popularized by the Restoration Movement. The 00:16:24.789 --> 00:16:27.230 Restoration Movement was a push in the 19th century 00:16:27.230 --> 00:16:30.370 to unify all Christians by returning to what 00:16:30.370 --> 00:16:32.629 they viewed as the original, simple practices 00:16:32.629 --> 00:16:35.409 of the New Testament church. They used a very 00:16:35.409 --> 00:16:38.409 famous hymnal compiled by Elmer Leon Jorgensen 00:16:38.409 --> 00:16:41.789 called Great Songs of the Church. Tillman's song 00:16:41.789 --> 00:16:43.809 was included there, and because that movement 00:16:43.809 --> 00:16:46.429 spread internationally, the song crossed the 00:16:46.429 --> 00:16:49.190 ocean. It appeared in British hymnals and became 00:16:49.190 --> 00:16:52.269 a global staple, sung by legendary gospel figures 00:16:52.269 --> 00:16:55.889 like George Beverly Shea and Bill Gaither. We 00:16:55.889 --> 00:16:58.129 have this guy who started out selling snake oil 00:16:58.129 --> 00:17:00.669 off the back of a wagon, and now his songs are 00:17:00.669 --> 00:17:03.830 crossing oceans, defining genres, and being sung 00:17:03.830 --> 00:17:06.769 by global superstars. But what's really striking 00:17:06.769 --> 00:17:08.630 is that Tillman wasn't just a behind -the -scenes 00:17:08.630 --> 00:17:10.490 publisher sitting in a dusty office in Atlanta. 00:17:10.730 --> 00:17:13.130 He was a massive public figure in his own right. 00:17:13.470 --> 00:17:15.470 You could strongly argue he was one of the very 00:17:15.470 --> 00:17:18.349 first multimedia stars of gospel music. He was 00:17:18.349 --> 00:17:20.730 highly visible and highly sought after. The source 00:17:20.730 --> 00:17:23.769 points out a major event in 1893. At the World 00:17:23.769 --> 00:17:26.430 Convention of Christian Workers in Boston, Tillman 00:17:26.430 --> 00:17:28.849 actually served as the song leader. He replaced 00:17:28.849 --> 00:17:31.829 a man named Ira D. Sankey for that role. If you 00:17:31.829 --> 00:17:34.109 aren't familiar with 19th century church history, 00:17:34.349 --> 00:17:37.049 stepping in for Ira D. Sankey is monumental. 00:17:37.769 --> 00:17:40.069 Sankey was the musical associate for Dwight L. 00:17:40.170 --> 00:17:42.579 Moody. Right. To put that in perspective, Dwight 00:17:42.579 --> 00:17:44.599 L. Moody was essentially the Billy Graham of 00:17:44.599 --> 00:17:46.920 his era, the most famous evangelist in the world. 00:17:47.220 --> 00:17:49.640 That made Sankey one of the most famous musicians 00:17:49.640 --> 00:17:52.779 in the country. For Tillman to take the stage 00:17:52.779 --> 00:17:55.700 in Sankey's place meant he had reached the absolute 00:17:55.700 --> 00:17:58.339 pinnacle of that world. His influence reached 00:17:58.339 --> 00:18:01.859 directly into secular education as well. In 1927, 00:18:01.980 --> 00:18:03.880 he published something called the Assembly Book. 00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:06.500 The states of Georgia and South Carolina actually 00:18:06.500 --> 00:18:08.740 selected it to be the official musical score. 00:18:09.200 --> 00:18:11.799 used in their public school programs. Entire 00:18:11.799 --> 00:18:13.660 generations of children were learning to sing 00:18:13.660 --> 00:18:15.539 through Tillman's arrangements. And he didn't 00:18:15.539 --> 00:18:17.839 stop with print media or live tent meetings. 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:21.039 As technology advanced in the 20th century, Tillman 00:18:21.039 --> 00:18:22.880 was right there on the cutting edge, adapting 00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:25.380 to the new mediums. He broke into radio incredibly 00:18:25.380 --> 00:18:29.380 early. He performed regularly on WSB 750 AM in 00:18:29.380 --> 00:18:31.859 Atlanta, which was a major broadcasting powerhouse 00:18:31.859 --> 00:18:34.319 at the time. He understood that radio was just 00:18:34.319 --> 00:18:36.900 a much larger version of the town square where 00:18:36.900 --> 00:18:39.579 he used to sell wizard oil. It was a way to reach 00:18:39.579 --> 00:18:42.319 thousands of people at once. In 1930, he went 00:18:42.319 --> 00:18:44.980 completely national. The NBC radio network gave 00:18:44.980 --> 00:18:47.579 him an hour -long broadcast. It was just him 00:18:47.579 --> 00:18:49.640 singing with his daughter accompanying him on 00:18:49.640 --> 00:18:52.319 the piano, beamed into living rooms across the 00:18:52.319 --> 00:18:55.079 country. He even went on to record music physically 00:18:55.079 --> 00:18:58.200 on Columbia Records. He fully embraced the new 00:18:58.200 --> 00:19:01.700 media landscape until he died in 1943. He spent 00:19:01.700 --> 00:19:04.200 most of his life in Georgia and Texas and is 00:19:04.200 --> 00:19:07.099 buried in Atlanta. But as we've discussed, his 00:19:07.099 --> 00:19:10.420 music just kept going. The monument at his grave 00:19:10.420 --> 00:19:13.220 actually bears selected lyrics from Life's Railway 00:19:13.220 --> 00:19:15.680 to Heaven, which is a profoundly fitting tribute 00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:17.960 to a man who spent his life mapping out these 00:19:17.960 --> 00:19:19.960 musical pathways for everyone else to follow. 00:19:20.140 --> 00:19:22.319 So what does this all mean? When we look back 00:19:22.319 --> 00:19:24.440 at the life of Charles Davis Tillman, what is 00:19:24.440 --> 00:19:26.880 the core lesson here for you, the listener? I 00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:28.680 think the big takeaway is that true innovation 00:19:28.680 --> 00:19:31.119 doesn't necessarily require inventing something 00:19:31.119 --> 00:19:33.920 entirely new out of thin air. Rarely does major 00:19:33.920 --> 00:19:36.500 cultural innovation happen in a vacuum. It's 00:19:36.500 --> 00:19:38.680 almost always a combination of existing elements. 00:19:39.099 --> 00:19:41.660 Tillman's absolute genius was the power of synthesis. 00:19:42.359 --> 00:19:45.140 It was his ability to keep his ears wide open 00:19:45.140 --> 00:19:47.839 to diverse perspectives. He could listen to an 00:19:47.839 --> 00:19:50.220 African -American spiritual at a South Carolina 00:19:50.220 --> 00:19:52.920 tent meeting, read a secular poem about a train 00:19:52.920 --> 00:19:56.160 engineer, or study a solemn British hymn and 00:19:56.160 --> 00:19:59.029 see the potential in all of them. He took those 00:19:59.029 --> 00:20:01.009 disparate pieces and combined them with the sheer 00:20:01.009 --> 00:20:03.329 marketing hustle he learned selling patent medicine 00:20:03.329 --> 00:20:06.170 on the dusty roads, all to share a good melody 00:20:06.170 --> 00:20:08.450 with the world. If we connect this to the bigger 00:20:08.450 --> 00:20:10.930 picture, it is a timeless principle. Whether 00:20:10.930 --> 00:20:12.990 we are talking about creating gospel music in 00:20:12.990 --> 00:20:15.990 the 1890s, launching a tech startup today, or 00:20:15.990 --> 00:20:19.029 producing modern pop music, the best innovators 00:20:19.029 --> 00:20:21.769 are almost always the best listeners. They're 00:20:21.769 --> 00:20:23.329 the ones paying attention to what is happening 00:20:23.329 --> 00:20:25.910 at the margins, recognizing the inherent value 00:20:25.910 --> 00:20:28.309 in it, and finding a structural way to translate 00:20:28.309 --> 00:20:30.849 it for a broader audience. Tillman didn't just 00:20:30.849 --> 00:20:33.569 write songs. He curated and packaged an entire 00:20:33.569 --> 00:20:36.970 cultural sound. He absolutely did. And that leaves 00:20:36.970 --> 00:20:38.730 us with a pretty fascinating thought to close 00:20:38.730 --> 00:20:41.559 on today. If a 19th century traveling salesman 00:20:41.559 --> 00:20:44.079 could inadvertently lay the groundwork for rock 00:20:44.079 --> 00:20:46.799 and roll simply by stopping to listen to a diverse 00:20:46.799 --> 00:20:49.859 group singing in a borrowed tent, what quiet, 00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:52.579 culturally blended scrap paper moments are happening 00:20:52.579 --> 00:20:54.799 right now out in the world that will define the 00:20:54.799 --> 00:20:57.339 music and the culture of the next hundred years? 00:20:57.599 --> 00:21:00.000 Keep your ears open. Thanks for joining us on 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:00.519 this deep dive.