WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.140 Welcome to today's deep dive. Now, if you're 00:00:03.140 --> 00:00:05.339 listening to this right now, chances are you 00:00:05.339 --> 00:00:08.500 have at least a passing familiarity with the 00:00:08.500 --> 00:00:12.160 massive culture shifting sounds of icons like 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:14.599 Elvis Presley. Right. Or Johnny Cash. Exactly. 00:00:14.720 --> 00:00:17.079 Johnny Cash, you know, the swagger, you know, 00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:19.339 that rhythm, you know, that really distinct blend 00:00:19.339 --> 00:00:22.179 of soul and gospel and country that basically 00:00:22.179 --> 00:00:25.460 conquered the globe. Really good. But. Have you 00:00:25.460 --> 00:00:28.019 ever paused to wonder how that foundational sound 00:00:28.019 --> 00:00:30.019 actually came to be? Like, where did the DNA 00:00:30.019 --> 00:00:32.259 for that music originate before it ever reached 00:00:32.259 --> 00:00:35.179 a recording studio in Memphis? That's the real 00:00:35.179 --> 00:00:37.600 question. So today we are tracing that lineage 00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:40.799 back way back to a name that might not be immediately 00:00:40.799 --> 00:00:42.899 recognizable to you, but a man who fundamentally 00:00:42.899 --> 00:00:45.659 shaped the soundtrack of American music. His 00:00:45.659 --> 00:00:48.320 name is Charles Davis Tillman. It is quite a 00:00:48.320 --> 00:00:50.759 journey and an unexpected one. I mean, we're 00:00:50.759 --> 00:00:53.119 going to be exploring how one individual essentially 00:00:53.119 --> 00:00:55.670 became a cultural conduit. He was someone who 00:00:55.670 --> 00:00:58.570 took wildly eclectic sources from old poems to 00:00:58.570 --> 00:01:01.250 tent meeting spirituals and just flowed them 00:01:01.250 --> 00:01:04.069 into a unified genre that we now recognize as 00:01:04.069 --> 00:01:06.849 Southern gospel. And in doing so, he completely 00:01:06.849 --> 00:01:09.189 changed the way music was consumed and shared 00:01:09.189 --> 00:01:12.329 and popularized in the late 19th and early 20th 00:01:12.329 --> 00:01:15.049 centuries. Absolutely. We've got a great foundational 00:01:15.049 --> 00:01:17.799 text for our deep dive today. pulling from a 00:01:17.799 --> 00:01:20.560 comprehensive Wikipedia article detailing Tillman's 00:01:20.560 --> 00:01:23.400 life and work. And the mission of this deep dive 00:01:23.400 --> 00:01:25.879 is to figure out how a guy who started out as 00:01:25.879 --> 00:01:28.439 a door -to -door salesman used an incredible 00:01:28.439 --> 00:01:31.780 knack for synthesis, essentially acting like 00:01:31.780 --> 00:01:34.879 an early musical producer or DJ to become the 00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:38.140 architect of Southern gospel. A DJ of the 1890s. 00:01:38.140 --> 00:01:40.359 Exactly. Okay, let's unpack this, starting with 00:01:40.359 --> 00:01:42.319 where he came from. Because if you're picturing 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:45.140 a guy sitting in some pristine conservatory studying 00:01:45.140 --> 00:01:47.640 classical theory, you are in for a surprise. 00:01:47.879 --> 00:01:50.060 That is about as far from his reality as you 00:01:50.060 --> 00:01:53.079 can get. And honestly, his lack of formal, isolated 00:01:53.079 --> 00:01:55.359 training is exactly what gave him the tools to 00:01:55.359 --> 00:01:58.719 do what he did. If we connect this to the bigger 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:01.760 picture, you don't create populous music by separating 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:03.560 yourself from the populace. That makes perfect 00:02:03.560 --> 00:02:06.159 sense. So Charles Davis Tillman, who often went 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:08.740 by Charlie D. Tillman, was born in Tallahassee, 00:02:08.780 --> 00:02:11.800 Alabama in 1861. Right at the onset of the Civil 00:02:11.800 --> 00:02:15.250 War. Yeah, Deep South. He was the youngest son 00:02:15.250 --> 00:02:17.650 of a Baptist preacher, James Lafayette Tillman, 00:02:17.750 --> 00:02:21.789 and his wife Mary, Mary Davis Tillman. Now, given 00:02:21.789 --> 00:02:24.250 that his father was a preacher, you might assume 00:02:24.250 --> 00:02:26.389 he went straight into church music right off 00:02:26.389 --> 00:02:28.830 the bat. You would think so. But he didn't. For 00:02:28.830 --> 00:02:33.050 14 years leading up to 1887, his resume was, 00:02:33.250 --> 00:02:36.469 well, it was incredibly varied. He spent time 00:02:36.469 --> 00:02:39.189 painting houses. He worked selling sheet music 00:02:39.189 --> 00:02:41.110 for a company out of Raleigh, North Carolina. 00:02:41.370 --> 00:02:44.210 And then he spent time peddling something called 00:02:44.210 --> 00:02:47.449 wizard oil. Wizard oil. It paints quite a picture, 00:02:47.530 --> 00:02:49.330 doesn't it? It really does. If you're not familiar 00:02:49.330 --> 00:02:52.169 with the era, wizard oil was a quintessential 00:02:52.169 --> 00:02:55.539 patent medicine. A liniment usually sold out 00:02:55.539 --> 00:02:57.439 of the back of a wagon in traveling medicine 00:02:57.439 --> 00:02:59.819 shows. It's just such a vivid image. You can 00:02:59.819 --> 00:03:01.879 almost see the crowds gathering around listening 00:03:01.879 --> 00:03:04.379 to a pitch. What do you think a job like that 00:03:04.379 --> 00:03:06.639 actually teaches a person, especially someone 00:03:06.639 --> 00:03:09.080 who eventually goes into the music business? 00:03:09.439 --> 00:03:11.360 Well, it teaches you everything about human nature. 00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:13.080 It teaches you how to capture a crowd's attention, 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:16.520 how to hold it, and how to close a sale. You 00:03:16.520 --> 00:03:19.330 have to read the room perfectly. He spent 14 00:03:19.330 --> 00:03:21.689 years on the ground, interacting with everyday 00:03:21.689 --> 00:03:24.250 people, learning what resonated with him emotionally 00:03:24.250 --> 00:03:27.189 and practically. Combine that raw, grassroots 00:03:27.189 --> 00:03:29.930 sales experience with the intrinsic understanding 00:03:29.930 --> 00:03:32.550 of church dynamics he got from his father. That's 00:03:32.550 --> 00:03:35.870 a powerful mix. It is a highly unusual, yet highly 00:03:35.870 --> 00:03:38.969 effective skill set. He wasn't just learning 00:03:38.969 --> 00:03:41.110 to be a musician, he was learning to be a marketer. 00:03:41.169 --> 00:03:44.389 Which brings us to 1887, the year he finally 00:03:44.389 --> 00:03:57.189 decides to pivot. Yeah. But more importantly... 00:03:57.500 --> 00:03:59.800 He takes a massive leap as an entrepreneur. He 00:03:59.800 --> 00:04:02.060 sets up his own church -related music publishing 00:04:02.060 --> 00:04:05.360 company right in Atlanta. And this is the crucial 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:08.159 structural piece of the puzzle. Atlanta was rapidly 00:04:08.159 --> 00:04:10.340 becoming a major hub in the post -war South. 00:04:10.479 --> 00:04:12.879 By establishing his own publishing company, he 00:04:12.879 --> 00:04:14.699 wasn't just an artist waiting for someone else 00:04:14.699 --> 00:04:16.379 to distribute his work. Right, he had the keys. 00:04:16.660 --> 00:04:19.779 He built his own infrastructure. He now had a 00:04:19.779 --> 00:04:22.259 direct pipeline to distribute the music he was 00:04:22.259 --> 00:04:24.819 encountering. Which perfectly sets the stage 00:04:24.819 --> 00:04:27.300 for a moment that changes American music history. 00:04:27.420 --> 00:04:31.259 Which takes us to 1889. Tillman is in Lexington, 00:04:31.399 --> 00:04:34.079 South Carolina. He's assisting his father with 00:04:34.079 --> 00:04:36.759 a tent meeting, those massive outdoor religious 00:04:36.759 --> 00:04:39.639 gatherings that were central to social and spiritual 00:04:39.639 --> 00:04:42.000 life at the time. Very common back then. Right. 00:04:42.329 --> 00:04:45.769 So on a Sunday afternoon, his father actually 00:04:45.769 --> 00:04:47.870 lends the tent to an African -American group 00:04:47.870 --> 00:04:50.750 for a singing meeting. Young Tillman is standing 00:04:50.750 --> 00:04:53.350 there and he hears them singing a spiritual called 00:04:53.350 --> 00:04:56.160 the old time religion. A pivotal moment. He is 00:04:56.160 --> 00:04:58.819 so struck by the power and the rhythm of it that 00:04:58.819 --> 00:05:01.100 he quickly grabs a scrap of paper and scrawls 00:05:01.100 --> 00:05:03.300 down the words and the rudiments of the tune 00:05:03.300 --> 00:05:05.199 right then and there. And this is where that 00:05:05.199 --> 00:05:06.939 publishing infrastructure we just talked about 00:05:06.939 --> 00:05:09.699 comes into play. A great year is one thing, but 00:05:09.699 --> 00:05:12.660 having the means to print and distribute is another 00:05:12.660 --> 00:05:15.519 entirely. Exactly. He took that scrap of paper 00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:19.079 back to Atlanta, worked on it, and in 1891, he 00:05:19.079 --> 00:05:21.319 published the work to his largely white church 00:05:21.319 --> 00:05:24.180 market in a collection he called The Revival 00:05:24.180 --> 00:05:27.529 Songbook. Now, to be historically accurate here, 00:05:27.730 --> 00:05:30.410 Tillman was not the first person to publish this 00:05:30.410 --> 00:05:32.910 song. G .D. Pike actually published a version 00:05:32.910 --> 00:05:36.290 way back in 1873 in a book for the Jubilee Singers. 00:05:36.310 --> 00:05:40.209 Yes. But Tillman's version was distinct. He added 00:05:40.209 --> 00:05:43.490 new verses. Some suspect he pulled from oral 00:05:43.490 --> 00:05:45.509 traditions he'd heard elsewhere, or maybe he 00:05:45.509 --> 00:05:47.790 penned them himself and he tweaked the rhythm. 00:05:47.970 --> 00:05:50.269 He gave it a cadence that just sticks in your 00:05:50.269 --> 00:05:52.750 head, making it incredibly catchy for a congregation 00:05:52.750 --> 00:05:55.689 to sing along to. This is a complex but essential 00:05:55.689 --> 00:05:59.360 piece of American musical history. Tillman did 00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:02.240 was essentially take a spiritual one that originated 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:04.860 within an African -American community and, through 00:06:04.860 --> 00:06:07.699 his publishing company, adapt and market it specifically 00:06:07.699 --> 00:06:11.339 for white Southern congregations. It is a clear 00:06:11.339 --> 00:06:13.879 example of cultural appropriation driven by commercial 00:06:13.879 --> 00:06:16.620 publishing. And the adaptation didn't stop with 00:06:16.620 --> 00:06:19.379 him. Later editors who followed Tillman, like 00:06:19.379 --> 00:06:22.060 Elmer Leon Jorgensen, further formalized the 00:06:22.060 --> 00:06:24.560 song for that white target market. Well, Jorgensen 00:06:24.560 --> 00:06:27.540 went so far as to change the first line to, "'Tis 00:06:27.540 --> 00:06:30.319 the old -time religion," because that phrasing 00:06:30.319 --> 00:06:32.899 better accommodated the specific sensibilities 00:06:32.899 --> 00:06:35.839 and tastes of white Southern churches at the 00:06:35.839 --> 00:06:38.889 time. It's fascinating how a piece of music evolves 00:06:38.889 --> 00:06:41.290 as it moves through different cultural filters 00:06:41.290 --> 00:06:44.389 and the ripple effect of that specific blending, 00:06:44.509 --> 00:06:47.750 that exact style of gospel derived music that 00:06:47.750 --> 00:06:50.730 Tillman helped formalize is staggering. It really 00:06:50.730 --> 00:06:53.449 is. When you listen to the early pioneers of 00:06:53.449 --> 00:06:55.410 rock and roll, people like Buddy Holly and Elvis 00:06:55.410 --> 00:06:58.000 Presley. You are hearing the direct descendants 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:00.879 of that style. You can literally trace a line 00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:04.199 from that tent meeting in South Carolina in 1889 00:07:04.199 --> 00:07:07.699 through Tillman's songbook right into the foundational 00:07:07.699 --> 00:07:10.980 DNA of rock and roll. Because what Tillman helped 00:07:10.980 --> 00:07:13.779 engineer was a synthesis of styles that made 00:07:13.779 --> 00:07:16.519 the music. broadly, almost universally appealing 00:07:16.519 --> 00:07:19.720 across the South. His specific arrangements characterized 00:07:19.720 --> 00:07:22.040 the song for generations of Southerners moving 00:07:22.040 --> 00:07:25.000 forward. It simply became embedded in the cultural 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:27.199 bedrock. And it didn't just stay in the rural 00:07:27.199 --> 00:07:29.279 South either. If you can believe it, this song 00:07:29.279 --> 00:07:32.379 made its way to Hollywood. The specific SATB 00:07:32.379 --> 00:07:35.180 vocal arrangement, so soprano, alto, tenor, bass 00:07:35.180 --> 00:07:37.980 that Tillman used in his songbooks was well known 00:07:37.980 --> 00:07:41.319 to Alvin York, the famous World War I hero. Because 00:07:41.319 --> 00:07:43.339 of that personal connection to York, Tillman's 00:07:43.339 --> 00:07:45.410 arrangement actually became the background song 00:07:45.410 --> 00:07:48.290 for the 1941 Academy Award -winning film Sergeant 00:07:48.290 --> 00:07:51.189 York. Amazing. So you have a song that started 00:07:51.189 --> 00:07:53.629 as an oral spiritual, was jotted down on a scrap 00:07:53.629 --> 00:07:55.949 of paper in a tent, published in a regional songbook, 00:07:56.050 --> 00:07:58.750 and eventually broadcast to millions in movie 00:07:58.750 --> 00:08:00.970 theaters across the globe. It perfectly demonstrates 00:08:00.970 --> 00:08:04.649 the power of media. even early media, like printed 00:08:04.649 --> 00:08:08.230 songbooks, to carry a local, communal tune to 00:08:08.230 --> 00:08:10.470 global prominence. And what's interesting is 00:08:10.470 --> 00:08:13.490 that Tillman wasn't a one -hit wonder. He replicated 00:08:13.490 --> 00:08:16.189 this success shortly after, demonstrating a true 00:08:16.189 --> 00:08:18.750 genius for collaboration and layering. Let's 00:08:18.750 --> 00:08:21.529 talk about that follow -up hit. In 1890, Tillman 00:08:21.529 --> 00:08:23.949 decides to set music to a hymn written by a Baptist 00:08:23.949 --> 00:08:26.670 preacher named M .E. Abbey. The hymn was called 00:08:26.670 --> 00:08:29.430 Life's Railway to Heaven. A classic. But the 00:08:29.430 --> 00:08:31.829 origin goes even deeper than that. Abbey had 00:08:31.829 --> 00:08:34.250 actually drawn his lyrics from an even older 00:08:34.250 --> 00:08:37.210 poem called The Faithful Engineer by William 00:08:37.210 --> 00:08:39.710 Shakespeare Hayes. So if you look at the anatomy 00:08:39.710 --> 00:08:41.809 of this song, you have Hayes' original poem, 00:08:42.230 --> 00:08:45.409 Abbey's lyrical adaptation, and finally Tillman's 00:08:45.409 --> 00:08:47.509 musical composition bringing the whole thing 00:08:47.509 --> 00:08:50.789 to life. It is a profoundly layered creation. 00:08:51.149 --> 00:08:53.950 Yeah. And the resulting song, which is also widely 00:08:53.950 --> 00:08:56.070 known by its first line, Life is like a mountain 00:08:56.070 --> 00:08:58.710 railroad, resonated with people on a massive 00:08:58.710 --> 00:09:00.690 scale. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:09:01.309 --> 00:09:03.590 Just think about the sheer variety of artists 00:09:03.590 --> 00:09:05.350 who have recorded this track over the decades. 00:09:05.529 --> 00:09:07.669 It's a who's who of American music. You have 00:09:07.669 --> 00:09:09.690 traditional acts like Boxcar Willie, the Carter 00:09:09.690 --> 00:09:12.470 family, Bill Monroe, the Chuck Wagon Gang, the 00:09:12.470 --> 00:09:14.669 Oak Ridge Boys. Incredible lineup. But then you 00:09:14.669 --> 00:09:18.070 cross over into huge mainstream success. Tennessee 00:09:18.070 --> 00:09:20.950 Ernie Ford recorded it, Merle Haggard, Johnny 00:09:20.950 --> 00:09:25.159 Cash, even Brad Paisley. It spans entire generations 00:09:25.159 --> 00:09:27.340 and genres. And what is particularly interesting 00:09:27.340 --> 00:09:30.240 about Life's Railway to Heaven is how the song 00:09:30.240 --> 00:09:33.220 itself technically evolved alongside the artists 00:09:33.220 --> 00:09:35.600 who recorded it. Tillman originally wrote his 00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:38.120 tune 34 Time. For those trying to visualize that, 00:09:38.259 --> 00:09:41.259 34 Time has a waltz -like rolling feel to it. 00:09:41.340 --> 00:09:45.299 Think 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. It sways. But fast forward 00:09:45.299 --> 00:09:48.340 to 1959, and Patsy Cline records a solo version. 00:09:48.679 --> 00:09:51.879 she or her producers shifted the song into 44 00:09:51.879 --> 00:09:54.860 time. Oh, wow. That changes the entire emotional 00:09:54.860 --> 00:09:56.980 feel of the track. It gives it a more standard 00:09:56.980 --> 00:10:00.159 driving, marching rhythm. One, two, three, four. 00:10:00.500 --> 00:10:02.740 And it was that 44 version that caught on and 00:10:02.740 --> 00:10:05.659 became incredibly widespread. It totally changes 00:10:05.659 --> 00:10:08.440 the groove. And that 44 groove became the definitive 00:10:08.440 --> 00:10:11.240 version. In fact, Willie Nelson later took that 00:10:11.240 --> 00:10:15.139 exact 1959 Patsy Cline recording and dubbed his 00:10:15.139 --> 00:10:17.399 own voice over it to form a posthumous duet. 00:10:17.440 --> 00:10:19.500 That's right. And when Brad Paisley performed 00:10:19.500 --> 00:10:21.759 it as a guest on Garrison Kyler's Prairie Home 00:10:21.759 --> 00:10:24.559 Companion way back in 2012, he was using that 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:26.980 updated 44 time. The song just kept adapting. 00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:29.159 Which shows how a well -structured song acts 00:10:29.159 --> 00:10:31.620 as a living document. It doesn't stay frozen 00:10:31.620 --> 00:10:34.120 on the page. It's constantly updated by the artists 00:10:34.120 --> 00:10:36.039 who interact with it. But its cultural reach 00:10:36.039 --> 00:10:38.460 went far beyond gospel or country artists. How 00:10:38.460 --> 00:10:40.379 far did it go? Members of the Western Writers 00:10:40.379 --> 00:10:43.139 of America actually chose it as one of the top 00:10:43.139 --> 00:10:46.159 100 Western songs of all time. It was featured 00:10:46.159 --> 00:10:49.720 prominently in the 1979 TV movie Mr. Horn. And 00:10:49.720 --> 00:10:52.440 it even crossed over into labor movements. The 00:10:52.440 --> 00:10:55.220 melody and some elements of the train imagery 00:10:55.220 --> 00:10:58.379 from the lyrics were adapted into a union protest 00:10:58.379 --> 00:11:01.440 song called Miner's Lifeguard. I love that detail. 00:11:01.659 --> 00:11:03.840 Yeah. The coal miners used it to protest mine 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:06.059 operators who were cheating workers out of honest 00:11:06.059 --> 00:11:09.059 weight on the scales. Instead of a train to heaven, 00:11:09.299 --> 00:11:12.360 the refrain became a rallying cry. This raises 00:11:12.360 --> 00:11:15.100 an important question. How does one man working 00:11:15.100 --> 00:11:17.759 in the late 1800s consistently create music that 00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:19.759 appeals across so many drastically different 00:11:19.759 --> 00:11:22.679 demographics? From churchgoers to cowboys to 00:11:22.679 --> 00:11:25.100 striking coal miners. Yeah, how does he do it? 00:11:25.240 --> 00:11:27.799 It comes back to that concept of synthesis. Tillman 00:11:27.799 --> 00:11:29.600 was exceptionally skilled at taking existing 00:11:29.600 --> 00:11:32.559 texts that had deep emotional resonance and pairing 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:34.659 them with tunes that felt both familiar and fresh. 00:11:35.129 --> 00:11:37.029 I really do think of him like a modern music 00:11:37.029 --> 00:11:40.450 producer. If you look at how a lot of pop or 00:11:40.450 --> 00:11:42.990 hip -hop tracks are made today, a producer might 00:11:42.990 --> 00:11:45.769 take a vocal hook from an old soul record, lay 00:11:45.769 --> 00:11:47.750 it over a beat from a different track, add a 00:11:47.750 --> 00:11:50.029 new bass line, and suddenly you have a massive 00:11:50.029 --> 00:11:52.980 new hit. Exactly. Tillman was doing the exact 00:11:52.980 --> 00:11:56.580 same thing in the 1890s. And maybe the best example 00:11:56.580 --> 00:11:59.159 of this is his work on the song I Am a Poor Wayfaring 00:11:59.159 --> 00:12:02.799 Stranger. That track is perhaps his most hauntingly 00:12:02.799 --> 00:12:05.019 beautiful piece of synthesis. If you look at 00:12:05.019 --> 00:12:08.120 how he built it, it's like a recipe. He took 00:12:08.120 --> 00:12:10.940 lyrics from a book called Bever's Christian Songster, 00:12:11.080 --> 00:12:14.009 which was published back in 1858. But he didn't 00:12:14.009 --> 00:12:16.529 stop there. He grabbed two additional stanzas 00:12:16.529 --> 00:12:18.850 from a completely different book, Taylor's Revival 00:12:18.850 --> 00:12:22.009 Hymns and Plantation Melodies from 1882. So he's 00:12:22.009 --> 00:12:23.750 mashing up lyrics from two different decades. 00:12:24.049 --> 00:12:26.769 Right. Finally, he pairs those combined lyrics 00:12:26.769 --> 00:12:29.750 with a haunting minor key tune that featured 00:12:29.750 --> 00:12:32.029 various African -American and Appalachian musical 00:12:32.029 --> 00:12:34.950 nuances. Now, to fully appreciate what he did 00:12:34.950 --> 00:12:37.210 here, we have to look at how that tune was previously 00:12:37.210 --> 00:12:40.029 sung. It existed in the sacred harp shape note 00:12:40.029 --> 00:12:43.059 tradition. Shape note singing, right. Yes, if 00:12:43.059 --> 00:12:44.659 you're not familiar with it, shape note singing 00:12:44.659 --> 00:12:47.240 was a brilliant, highly democratic system used 00:12:47.240 --> 00:12:49.440 in the South where the note heads on the sheet 00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:51.299 music were actually printed in different shapes. 00:12:51.940 --> 00:12:55.320 Triangles, squares, circles. It allowed congregations 00:12:55.320 --> 00:12:57.960 with no formal musical training to learn to sing 00:12:57.960 --> 00:13:01.120 complex harmonies simply by recognizing the shapes. 00:13:01.480 --> 00:13:04.559 It was a beautiful tradition, but somewhat insular. 00:13:05.100 --> 00:13:07.539 Tillman took that melody out of the shape note 00:13:07.539 --> 00:13:10.419 tradition, standardized it, and brought it to 00:13:10.419 --> 00:13:13.940 the broader masses in his 1891 revival songbook. 00:13:14.299 --> 00:13:16.779 The combination of those lyrics and that melody 00:13:16.779 --> 00:13:19.320 was so striking that the tune itself has been 00:13:19.320 --> 00:13:22.600 widely recognized in hymnals simply as poor wayfaring 00:13:22.600 --> 00:13:24.679 stranger ever since. And again, the legacy of 00:13:24.679 --> 00:13:26.500 that specific track is incredible. Think about 00:13:26.500 --> 00:13:28.639 Burl Ives. He loved the song so much he didn't 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:31.000 just record it. He used it as the title for two 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:34.059 of his albums and his own autobiography. You 00:13:34.059 --> 00:13:36.940 also have folk icons like Joan Baez putting their 00:13:36.940 --> 00:13:40.340 spin on it. Dusty Springfield, Emmylou Harris. 00:13:40.419 --> 00:13:43.210 Such a range. Even modern rock artists like Jack 00:13:43.210 --> 00:13:45.129 White, right alongside the Mormon Tabernacle 00:13:45.129 --> 00:13:47.409 Choir, have recorded it. He didn't just write 00:13:47.409 --> 00:13:50.090 a song, he engineered a folk standard that has 00:13:50.090 --> 00:13:53.190 survived for over a century. His output was also 00:13:53.190 --> 00:13:56.830 incredibly prolific. The sources list many other 00:13:56.830 --> 00:13:59.230 works that followed this pattern of rapid synthesis. 00:13:59.809 --> 00:14:03.350 There is My Mother's Bible, which falls into 00:14:03.350 --> 00:14:05.669 a popular genre of the time known as tearjerker 00:14:05.669 --> 00:14:09.129 mother songs. The lyrics were written by an evangelist 00:14:09.129 --> 00:14:11.350 named Milan Williams. And what gets me about 00:14:11.350 --> 00:14:13.450 that one is the speed. The story goes that Williams 00:14:13.450 --> 00:14:15.649 brought the lyrics to Tillman, they sat down 00:14:15.649 --> 00:14:17.769 to collaborate, and just 30 minutes later, they 00:14:17.769 --> 00:14:20.950 had a completed song. Half an hour. That is fast. 00:14:21.269 --> 00:14:23.710 And that song was so structurally sound that 00:14:23.710 --> 00:14:26.169 it eventually made its way into highly respected 00:14:26.169 --> 00:14:29.090 stately hymnals. What's fascinating here is how 00:14:29.090 --> 00:14:31.490 quickly his work traveled, not just across the 00:14:31.490 --> 00:14:34.289 United States, but globally. Take another song 00:14:34.289 --> 00:14:36.309 of his, When I Get to the End of the Way. It 00:14:36.309 --> 00:14:38.889 was included in a major British publication called 00:14:38.889 --> 00:14:41.409 Favorite Hymns of the Church, all the way in 00:14:41.409 --> 00:14:44.549 Britain. Yes, and it wasn't pushed by some massive 00:14:44.549 --> 00:14:47.190 marketing campaign. It was included in that British 00:14:47.190 --> 00:14:49.870 hymnal because of sheer demand from migrating 00:14:49.870 --> 00:14:51.870 churchgoers who had learned the song from... 00:14:52.090 --> 00:14:54.909 Elmer Leon Jorgensen's hymn in the States. Yeah. 00:14:54.970 --> 00:14:56.850 The music was traveling out of the publishers. 00:14:57.070 --> 00:14:59.809 Wow. He also understood the mechanics of what 00:14:59.809 --> 00:15:01.970 makes a song popular, what makes it sticky. He 00:15:01.970 --> 00:15:04.529 did this with a song called Ready. He took lyrics 00:15:04.529 --> 00:15:07.029 written by a British author named Asa C. Palmer. 00:15:07.450 --> 00:15:10.370 Now, Palmer wrote these lyrics with five standard 00:15:10.370 --> 00:15:13.250 quatrains, just blocks of poetry. Standard hymn 00:15:13.250 --> 00:15:16.190 format. Right. Tillman looks at it thinking exactly 00:15:16.190 --> 00:15:19.049 like a pop producer and realizes the song needs 00:15:19.049 --> 00:15:22.379 a hook. So he takes the first quatrain and literally 00:15:22.379 --> 00:15:25.759 moves it to become a repeating refrain. He knew 00:15:25.759 --> 00:15:27.440 that repeating a chorus gives people something 00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:30.460 to anchor to. He wrote a brand new tune to fit 00:15:30.460 --> 00:15:33.600 this new structure and published it in his Revival 00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:36.919 No. 4 songbook in 1903. And that editorial decision 00:15:36.919 --> 00:15:39.419 was so effective that the tune he wrote became 00:15:39.419 --> 00:15:41.799 intrinsically linked to Palmer's lyrics. In the 00:15:41.799 --> 00:15:44.659 United States, that specific melody is invariably 00:15:44.659 --> 00:15:47.100 and exclusively used when singing those words. 00:15:47.279 --> 00:15:49.899 In fact, the tune is now officially named Tillman 00:15:49.899 --> 00:15:52.679 in his honor. So if we look at the scope of his 00:15:52.679 --> 00:15:55.299 career, we have a guy who spent most of his life 00:15:55.299 --> 00:15:57.860 operating out of Georgia and Texas, publishing 00:15:57.860 --> 00:16:01.039 a staggering 22 songbooks. But the thing you 00:16:01.039 --> 00:16:03.000 have to realize is that he wasn't just a print 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:05.919 media guy sitting behind a desk. He was a multi 00:16:05.919 --> 00:16:09.000 -platform media star decades before we even had 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:11.480 a word for it. His personal reach extended well 00:16:11.480 --> 00:16:14.159 beyond his published pages. To give you an idea 00:16:14.159 --> 00:16:17.220 of his status at the time, in 1893 at the World 00:16:17.220 --> 00:16:20.080 Convention of Christian Workers in Boston, Tillman 00:16:20.080 --> 00:16:22.840 actually served as the song leader in place of 00:16:22.840 --> 00:16:25.860 Ira D. Sankey. That's a huge deal. It is. Sankey 00:16:25.860 --> 00:16:28.100 was the musical associate of Dwight L. Moody, 00:16:28.259 --> 00:16:30.899 who was arguably the most famous evangelist of 00:16:30.899 --> 00:16:33.700 the era. Stepping into Sankey's shoes at a world 00:16:33.700 --> 00:16:36.320 convention shows a tremendous level of contemporary 00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:39.000 recognition. He was a genuine celebrity in that 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:41.850 sphere. And his influence became institutionalized. 00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:44.840 In 1927, he published something called the Assembly 00:16:44.840 --> 00:16:47.360 Book. It was so highly regarded that both the 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:49.539 states of Georgia and South Carolina officially 00:16:49.539 --> 00:16:51.860 selected it to be used for the musical scores 00:16:51.860 --> 00:16:54.179 in their public school programs. If you were 00:16:54.179 --> 00:16:56.039 a kid going to school in those states, you were 00:16:56.039 --> 00:16:58.159 learning music through Charlie Tillman's specific 00:16:58.159 --> 00:17:01.620 lens. Plus, because he always understood distribution, 00:17:02.039 --> 00:17:04.799 he was a massive early adopter of new technology. 00:17:05.160 --> 00:17:07.779 He broke into radio almost immediately. Which 00:17:07.779 --> 00:17:11.160 is the logical next step. If your entire career 00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:13.480 is built on finding the best ways to get music 00:17:13.480 --> 00:17:16.440 into people's ears, radio is the ultimate tool. 00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:20.519 Exactly. He performed regularly on WSB 750 AM 00:17:20.519 --> 00:17:23.359 out of Atlanta. He secured recording contracts 00:17:23.359 --> 00:17:26.140 and put out tracks on Columbia Records. And in 00:17:26.140 --> 00:17:30.039 1930, the NBC radio network gave him a full one 00:17:30.039 --> 00:17:32.619 hour national broadcast featuring his singing 00:17:32.619 --> 00:17:34.980 with his daughter accompanying him on the piano. 00:17:35.220 --> 00:17:37.440 Amazing progression. He systematically conquered 00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:40.299 print. the stage, the public school system, vinyl 00:17:40.299 --> 00:17:43.339 records, and finally, broadcast radio. He fundamentally 00:17:43.339 --> 00:17:45.599 understood how to package and deliver content 00:17:45.599 --> 00:17:48.119 to an audience, adapting to whatever medium was 00:17:48.119 --> 00:17:50.670 available to him. So... What does this all mean 00:17:50.670 --> 00:17:52.890 for you listening to this deep dive right now, 00:17:52.970 --> 00:17:55.329 whether you work in music, business or any creative 00:17:55.329 --> 00:17:57.690 field? I think Tillman's life proves something 00:17:57.690 --> 00:17:59.630 really profound about the nature of innovation. 00:17:59.829 --> 00:18:02.029 We so often fall into the trap of thinking that 00:18:02.029 --> 00:18:04.990 true innovation means inventing something entirely 00:18:04.990 --> 00:18:07.589 from scratch, staring at a blank page or a blank 00:18:07.589 --> 00:18:10.589 screen until a completely original, unprecedented 00:18:10.589 --> 00:18:13.890 idea hits you. But Charlie Tillman's entire career 00:18:13.890 --> 00:18:16.670 shows us that innovation is frequently just about 00:18:16.670 --> 00:18:19.230 synthesis. Right. Pulling things together. It's 00:18:19.230 --> 00:18:22.230 the ability to look at diverse existing sources. 00:18:23.279 --> 00:18:26.359 a scrap of paper at a tent meeting, a dense 19th 00:18:26.359 --> 00:18:29.240 century poem, a traditional Appalachian shape 00:18:29.240 --> 00:18:31.779 note tune, and see the hidden value in them. 00:18:31.940 --> 00:18:34.119 It's about combining those disparate elements 00:18:34.119 --> 00:18:37.099 in unexpected ways, refining the rough edges, 00:18:37.319 --> 00:18:39.579 and understanding exactly how to package that 00:18:39.579 --> 00:18:41.900 new creation so it resonates with your audience. 00:18:42.140 --> 00:18:44.519 That is exactly right. He was a curator just 00:18:44.519 --> 00:18:46.359 as much as he was a creator. He listened closely 00:18:46.359 --> 00:18:48.500 to the world around him, collected the pieces 00:18:48.500 --> 00:18:51.019 that moved people, and his curation effectively 00:18:51.019 --> 00:18:53.380 shaped the musical landscape. of the 20th century. 00:18:53.740 --> 00:18:56.799 It really is an incredible journey. Charles Davis 00:18:56.799 --> 00:18:59.220 Tillman started out painting houses and pitching 00:18:59.220 --> 00:19:01.960 wizard oil from the back of a wagon. From there, 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:04.460 he built a publishing empire, became a central 00:19:04.460 --> 00:19:07.380 architect of southern gospel, broke into the 00:19:07.380 --> 00:19:10.019 fledgling radio industry, and assembled songs 00:19:10.019 --> 00:19:12.359 that would go on to influence rock and roll legends 00:19:12.359 --> 00:19:14.880 and reshape hymnals across multiple continents. 00:19:14.980 --> 00:19:17.920 Like a legacy. Truly. He was rightfully inducted 00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:20.559 into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, and his legacy 00:19:20.559 --> 00:19:22.740 is memorialized in the Southern Gospel Museum 00:19:22.740 --> 00:19:25.900 in Hall of Fame. He passed away in 1943, living 00:19:25.900 --> 00:19:28.980 into his early 80s, and he is buried in Westview 00:19:28.980 --> 00:19:31.539 Cemetery in Atlanta. I want to leave you with 00:19:31.539 --> 00:19:33.859 one final image to ponder regarding that resting 00:19:33.859 --> 00:19:37.099 place. Charles Davis Tillman spent his life writing 00:19:37.099 --> 00:19:40.019 music for other people's words and adapting existing 00:19:40.019 --> 00:19:43.119 songs for new audiences. If you go to his grave 00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:45.559 today, the monument bears the lyrics to Life's 00:19:45.559 --> 00:19:47.819 Railway to Heaven. Those are words that were 00:19:47.819 --> 00:19:50.000 originally penned as a poem by William Shakespeare 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:53.400 Hayes, adapted by the preacher Emmy Abbey, and 00:19:53.400 --> 00:19:55.839 only set to music by Tillman. What does it say 00:19:55.839 --> 00:19:58.660 about the nature of art, and the reality of legacy, 00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:01.640 when a musician's eternal monument is etched 00:20:01.640 --> 00:20:04.119 with words he didn't even write, but merely gave 00:20:04.119 --> 00:20:04.920 the wings to fly?