Meeting In The Air Southern Gospel on Piano

  

Click to download:
Meeting In The Air Sheet Music

Meeting In The Air MIDI File

     This marks the 2nd new Southern Gospel song posted since re-starting this blog.  Meeting In The Air is an old old favorite.  I loved to sing this in church when I was a kid.  It's one of the songs I can clearly remember from church, from Uncle Freil playing, and from playing it myself.

    The song's original copyright was in 1925, and is currently under the Public Domain.  It was written by Mae Taylor Roberts.  According to Hymnary, the copyright notice originally contained this offer:  "This song may be had in sheet music at 25 cents a copy. Order from Mrs. Mae T. Roberts, 1554, East Washington, Pasadena, California."  Since that was nearly a century ago, I sincerely doubt she's still honoring her offer.
    I've looked for more information or songs from Mae Taylor Roberts, but couldn't find anything beyond the small amount Hymnary has.  If you'd like the lyrics, Hymnary offers 3 verses plus chorus.  I've seen it in the past with 4 verses, but usually consider Hymnary to be the most reliable source of hymn information.

    Speaking of verses, I took the road less traveled this time.  Most of the time, I'll do two or three verses with a chorus between each. This time around, I had an example to follow.  I recently found several decades-old videos of my uncle Freil playing.  This was one of the songs, so I had the rare opportunity to compare my version to his.  For his version of the song, he simply played the verses three times.  Didn't play the chorus at all.  It never occurred to me that could be an option; plus, I liked that a lot, so I'm following his lead and just playing three verses.  

    Also, not surprising at all... his way of playing Meeting in the Air is much better than mine.  I tend to play a very direct melody line.  Freil had a subtler approach.  He wound in and around the melody line, in ways that would never have occurred to me, lending his variations a much more sophisticated feel.

    With some effort (okay, a lot of effort), I listened to his version of Meeting in the Air over and over, working on learning how he did it.  Unless you're very familiar with Friel's style, you probably won't hear the difference.  But for those of us who knew him, it's there.  The first and last verses are my style.  The middle verse is as close to how he played the song as I can get.  The difference blurs a bit, because over time, fiddling with the arrangement, some of  his style blended with mine.  That's fabulous, because I'd love to be able to play more like Freil.

    Regardless, I'm happy with the arrangement.  I can tell what's mine and what's Freil's, and love the fact that even after all these years, I'm still learning from him.  

    The video itself is a whole other story.  I have a new (outdated, but new to me) cell phone, and struggled with the settings.  It has problems with the audio.  It sounds like it's playing underwater, with strangely distorted sounds, and halfway through the video the audio stops entirely.  My final attempt was with the lower resolution setting turned on.  It was the best version I'd played, out of several hours of trying to fix the video.  By that point my hands ached, and I was getting tired to the point of starting to play worse, rather than better.  So I took that final effort as 'best effort' and called it done.  The playing is fair enough, but the lower resolution makes the video itself disappointing.
    I'd like to fix the audio issue, or at least figure out what's going on.  But... the video plays with perfect timing, and I never use the original audio anyway.  I always use Ableton to record while playing, export it as a Wav file, and overlay the Wav on top of the original video's audio track.  It's cleaner than the original audio, with none of the ambient noise, barking dogs, etc.  So, the odd audio isn't an issue in this particular situation.  At least, not for making these piano videos.

        I've been working on this for a couple of months (or longer).  It would have been easy enough to do a simple arrangement in the key of C.  That's always been my wheelhouse.  But for these videos, I try to change up the keys a little, and offer greater variation in each verse.  With age and covid affecting my memory, it takes longer to get comfortable with an arrangement I like, and my ability to play it perfectly is based more on good luck, no matter how much I practice.  So, please pardon any errors.  The style is there, clearly enough that other pianists can take inspiration from the style and arrangement.  Aside from the actual video of me playing the piano... there's also a "how-to" video using Midiano (see sidebar link to Midiano) to play the song at normal speed, and half speed.  

    In addition to the how-to, the Midi file for Meeting In The Air is available on this page for download.  You can download the file, go to Midiano and play it, which comes with a variety of options that will help in learning to play the song.  You don't have to use Midiano, any Midi player is fine, but I don't know of any free player that can do everything that Midiano does.  Actually, I don't know of any better midi player at all, paid or free. 

     If you read sheet music, a pdf file is also available for download.  All the downloads are available for free, on this page.  (At some point I'll consider adding appropriate affiliate ads, maybe a "buy me a coffee" link, but as of this moment, haven't looked into them yet.)    But even then, there's no obligation, no charge to download.   Get the files, enjoy them, but if you share them, please credit me for the arrangement.  :^)

    

Introducing The Singing Chapmans: Just Over In The Glory Land

 

    Some time ago I digitized all the audio from the record album "Introducing The Singing Chapmans."  The album has 12 songs.  It's one of two albums I know of that has my Uncle Freil playing the piano.  (He also did a couple of CDs solo, but those are easier to find.)  I chose to feature "Just Over In The Glory Land" because it's one of my childhood favorites.  Even better, there's a fair amount of interesting history involved with the song.

    According to TraditionalMusic.com, the words were written by James W. Acuff (1864 – 1937), and the music by Emmett S. Dean (1876 – 1951)

    Per Pixabay, James Acuff wrote it in 1906, so the song is considered Public Domain.

 As always, their midi is clear and pure. Nothing fancy or complicated which makes learning the melody much easier if you’re a ‘play by ear’ pianist.

    I can remember Freil Playing and Aunt Elsie Mae singing this song in church.  And through the years, heard Freil play it just about anywhere there was a piano available.  Eventually it became one of my favorites to play myself, not as nuanced as Freil's playing but brash and bold, and full of joy.  (The result of not knowing as many non-major chords as Freil.)  

    Going back to digitizing the record... it was a loan from my sister, so I had to get the songs to computer quickly and return the album.  It was convenient to do that work immediately, with the intention of going back later and getting them onto Youtube.  So of course they languished forgotten on the computer for a couple of months.  Now they're online.  You can play the video above, and click on "play on YouTube" to see the rest of them.  I may feature a few more from the album, but it will be over time, no rush.

    So far, the songs done by "The Singing Chapmans" have not been easy to research.  It's been difficult to find much about each individual song, and discouraged me from doing each and every one.  In this case, "Glory Land" is well-known, with a bit of history, a bit of lore and some confusion about the song's provenance scattered thoughout the internet.  Here are a few of the links and claims:

    Timeless Truths has a nice looking page, and is one of my favorite resources for information about gospel music. But in this case, they’re a bit sparse on information.  They agree it was writtten by James W. Acuff, and specify that it was PUBLISHED in 1906.  They also state that the copyright is Public Domain. They have the words, sheet music, and a midi file to listen to.

    But the end-all and be-all is an extremely-well researched article by Henrik Smith-Sivertsen. I found out much more than anticipated, and far beyond the scope of southern gospel I usually stick to. Smith-Sivertsen writes that “Just Over In The Glory-Land” was first published in the hymn book “Glad Hosannas: A Winnowed Collection of New and Old Songs for Christian Work and Worship”, in 1906. He gives credit for the lyrics to Acuff, the music to Emmett S. Dean, but goes on to name Dean as the editor of the hymn book, and part owner of the publishing company. The fascinating part, and this explains why some websites seem confused about the copyright, is that another publisher, R. E. Winsett, obtained “renewed copyrights” to the song.

    The article in full is worth digging into, and with an extensive bibliography, seems likely the most authoritative and trustworthy document of the song's history.  

    I personally agree with the articles and websites that list "Glory Land" as a public domain.  Especially after this year, because January 1st, 2023 marks the date for everything published up to the year 1927 (U.S. only; other countries have different laws.) There's a wonderfully detailed article by Jennifer Jenkins regarding copyright.  It's a fantastic read and very worth the time if you're interested in the Public Domain.

    As a matter of fact, she mentions that on January 1, 2024, the first ever appearance of Mickey and Minnie Mouse will enter the public domain!  Imagine that... I bet Disney is having fits about it.  Even Sherlock Holmes no longer has copyright protection.  Until 2023, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's last two Sherlock Holmes stories have been under copyright protection.  As of this year, everything Doyle wrote about Holmes is in the Public Domain. If even the Doyle Estate, and even more so, The Mouse, can't keep their characters out of the public domain, there's no reason a song published in 1906 would still be copyrighted.

It's safe to say, out of all the posts I published in the original Grace Notes, this was by far the easiest yet most overwhelming song to research.  Some day I'll post another blog about "Just Over In The Glory Land", but next time... it'll be with my rendition on piano.  I do believe I mentioned it being one of my favorite songs to play.  :^)

Southern Gospel on Piano is finally back: Stepping On The Clouds!!

 

Click Here to download Midi File Click Here to download the Sheet Music

If you want to learn to play the song using the Midi file, I recommened using Midiano. It has a ton of customizing and control options to make learning songs easier.

This was a long time in the making. My memory isn't what it used to be, and the hands aren't as steady. After Covid my focus drifts and I wind up forgetting what I'm doing right in the middle of a song. Took 3 months of practicing before even trying to record it... and 3 days to finally get one good enough to keep! Hours the first two days. On the third day lightning struck and it only took two tries.

    This is a song Uncle Freil used to play as a special for Aunt Elsie Mae to sing. Not sure how many friends and family will remember this one. The only place I ever heard it was when we were going to Grace Baptist Church in Nahunta. I'd completely forgotten this song until a few months ago when some random playing one evening resulted in this song. Had to mull it over for a bit to remember the song title.

    Stepping On The Clouds was written by Linda Stalls. I didn't have much luck learning anything about her or her music until, sadly, disovering her obituary from May, 2021. In 1975 she was nominated for a Dove award for her song, Stepping On The Clouds. It's sad that this, so far, is the most I've been able to find out about her.

    It's easier to find information on The Hoppers, the first gospel family to sing the song. I found that on the blog, TheScottSpot. You can search the Hoppers on Youtube and find a lot of videos featuring them. I appreciate their style. Southern Gospel family groups comprise the majority of my favorite music. Mostly for the happy, toe-tapping gospel music, but catch me in the right mood you'll find me playing slow, soulful songs of yearning and hope.

    This is also something of a personal revival for me. Grace Notes was my blog for about ten years. Life in general got in the way, and I gave it up a couple of years ago. When I decided to recreate it, all my blog posts were lost. Still had all the Youtube videos, so as time passes I'll re-write posts for the songs. I've also been documenting the entire recreation process.

    All along it's been in my mind to record new songs, old favorites, especially ones that Uncle Freil used to play. This inspired a hunt through our two-floor shed, for any audiotapes, video, or CD's of Freil that may have been left in storage over the years. It's been a mostly successful search. Found a lot of his music I'd forgotten, things I haven't heard in decades. One specific video is still missing. Running out of places to look, but still hoping.

    And, in these last few months, I've been working on this arrangement. It's all by ear. Not very good at reading sheet music. It's been a struggle to build enough muscle memory to get through the whole song when my focus wavers. And it's been tough getting to the point where it was good enough to record. The result isn't perfect, but it's close and I'm very happy with it. (And very ready to move on to a new song...)

I truly hope you like it!

Goodbye World Goodbye: Getting VHS Video Transferred to the Computer

    Last night's post was all about the end result.  Getting to play a duet with my uncle, and sharing it with the world.  Today's going to be the "prequel."  The story of how it got from a 2-decade-old videotape, to the state it's in now, and how I hope to get the real video uploaded eventually.

    To begin with... that photo was taken in 1962.  Freil was the youngest of my aunts and uncles, the baby of the family.  I was two at the time.  Mom's always said Nanny (her Mom) didn't get to see me until I was two, because of Dad's Navy career.  Nanny said I was walking already the first time she saw me.  So, just guessing, this photo might have been during that first visit.

    Fast forward to 1996, there was a family reunion.  We have a huge family, reunions were a big thing.  Freil was there, and of course everybody begged him to play.  I got a pretty long video of him playing.  At one point, he tried to 'escape', and asked me to play.  I've never been as good, but what I know, I learned by watching and listening to him.  Instead of letting us switch, someone asked us to play a song together, and Goodbye World Goodbye was the result.  It was one of those perfect moments, where everything goes absolutely right.  

    The rest of the video was mainly reunion events.  Later, I edited the raw footage, using his music as background track for the scenes.  By the early 2000's I'd sold or worn out most of my equipment, including the Hi-8 Camera.  The original tape is (I hope) somewhere in a box in our shed.  About 2016, Mom brought out one of the edited vhs reunion tapes.  It would have been a third-generation copy- raw Hi-8 to SVHS Master Edit, to regular VHS done using a 6-deck setup for small production duplication.  Better than home quality, way below broadcast quality.  And regardless, it's not optimal to have a final product at 3 generations. Back in the days of analog video, each generation lost significant quality.  

EZCap Video Grabber... not as good as it used to be 

  I bought a cheap transfer device from Amazon - EZCap Video Grabber.  It wasn't great, but it got the job done.  I borrowed Mom's VHS tape, and used an old VCR we still had.  It didn't come with software, but provided a link to free software.  It was already old when I ordered it, but with some tinkering and some online guides, I got it to work on Windows 10, on a computer I no longer have.     
    Now, that one video is on a file on my computer.  It's a poor scan, made from a 3rd-generation copied vhs tape. The video quality is not good enough to rescue, and the footage of Freil was mostly edited out anyway.  All I could save was audio of some of his playing, and that was muddied by background crowd noises.  That was the intent way back then... to use his piano playing as background audio for the reunion.  The conversations, the meal, the prayers, the announcements... I never thought it would be used to rescue Freil's music from.

    I'd forgotten the file existed.  Even that computer is gone, but I always save the internal hard drives from my old computers and add them to the new one.  Recently I was trying to make the EZCap work again.  Some programs acknowledged it's existence (VLC), but none of the ones I tried were compatible with it, including the original software.  It was while trying to run the old software, I found that old family reunion video.  Pure luck and coincidence, but I'll take it.  Sometimes you have to work with what you've got.

Serendipity plus hard work

    Even though the quality was bad, the audio was recognizable.  Hoping for an easy solution, I tried loading the file on Audacity, but Audacity can't load video files.  I tried using HitFilm Express (a free video editor) to separate the audio, but couldn't find an option to save the audio without the video.  There's a lot of results when you google the question, but I wound up using VLC, a free video player with a lot of options.  THIS SITE has a slightly outdated guide, but it was close enough to get me there.
    By the way, Audacity is free too... and a fantastic audio editor.

    With a 33-minute mp3 audio file, I used Audacity to convert it to a WAV file.  WAV is uncompressed, and will always play the audio at a consistent bitrate.  Mp3 is compressed, making it hard to match video clips with perfect timing.  When the whole video is just a single photo it doesn't really matter, but old habits die hard.
    From the Wav file, I edited it down to "Goodbye World Goodbye", equalized the audio trying to highlight the piano and de-emphasize the crowd noises, and exported it as a 32-bit Wav.

    Then back to HitFilm.  Create a project, import the Wav file, drag it into the timeline.  Import the photo, drag into the timeline, stretch the photo duration until it's equal to the audio track.  (It will snap in place when it gets close enough to the audio duration.)  Export the video to hard drive, upload to Youtube, and done.

    I'm still searching for the original raw footage of Freil playing on Hi-8 tape.  Once it's found, I'll have to obtain a Hi-8 player.  My plan is to buy an old one for $200-$250 from eBay, use it for any Hi-8 tapes I have (Not just Freil's, but any I may still find in all those old boxes.)  Then re-sell it on eBay.  It may not break even but at least I won't be out a couple of hundred dollars!

EZCap is outdated, but there's a better way to transfer video to computer

    Though I was able to transfer video using EZCap in the past, I can't recommend it.  It was a pain to get working all those years ago, and now it's not working for me at all.
    The best way I've found to transfer that footage into computer (meaning "effective, yet cheap") costs about $50 from things easily found on Amazon, plus some free software, all of it compatible with an ordinary computer running current Windows.  You'll notice I'm fond of free.  In this case, the list of items, along with a video explaining how to do it, was created by a YouTuber named "JUMBLE."

    There's not much sense in me duplicating his work.  And I don't want to divert his Amazon links for the items you'll need, that's very likely a source of income for him.  So, go watch his short, interesting, and truly informative video, "VCR to Computer - How to connect, watch and record old VHS tapes."  It's well worth the few minutes.  He doesn't add "fluff" to his videos.  It's all solid info.  He provides links to all the hardware, making it very easy to follow his instructions.

    

Goodbye World Goodbye: A gospel music duet with Freil Thrift

 

    This was a long time in the making.  The photo in the video is of Freil and myself playing, when I was 2 years old... in 1962!  The music is from a 1996 family reunion.  Freil had already played several songs.  It was a recurring theme for him.  Every time he went to any church, or anywhere with a piano, people knew him.  They'd keep asking him to play, and when he did, it was rarely one song.  So many people had favorites that they'd ask for.  No matter how long he played, people always wanted more.

    We all loved to hear him play, but looking back, it must have been difficult.  He never just "went to church."  No matter how far afield he went, someone knew him, word spread, and he'd wind up playing for the church that day.  I've heard that he went to the library in Nahunta to check out a book and had to sign up.  When the librarian asked him for his photo ID, he said "I'm Freil Thrift."  She replied "I KNOW who you are, but you still have to have an ID to sign up!!!"

    That was Freil.  Everybody knew him.  So at this particular reunion, he tried to take a break and asked me to play.  Someone asked for a duet.  Goodbye World Goodbye was my all-time favorite Freil Thrift song, and I'd spent a long time trying to learn it in his style.  A really long time...

    We sat down, and it was magic.  One of the most joyous moments in my life.  Everything went perfectly.  Every singer, every musician, who ever worked with Freil will tell you he made them sound better.  It's the gospel truth.  No matter how good they were, Freil knew how to bring out their best, and raise them to a level they couldn't reach alone.

    It was the same for me.  I've never sounded better, before or after that day.  When you're listening to the video, pay attention to the high notes.  That's him.  I had the mid-range.  We never practiced this song, and I know he preferred to play in the key of 'G'.  But I'm best in 'C', and pretty weak in other keys.  So I played in C, and he matched me on the spot.  Without a single missed note, he played in my key, at my pace, and every note he played enhanced my own.  

    Finding this footage, even an edited copy of a copy, being able to hear us play together after all these years, is beyond amazing.  It means more to me than I can express.  Like Camelot.  For one brief shining moment the world was clear and perfect.  Hearing this again brought that moment back for me.

    Still searching for the original Hi8 footage, but in the meantime, this will do most excellently. :^)

The Singing Chapmans: Something I Can Feel, & One Day I Will

    "Something I Can Feel" is the fourth song on side one of The Singing Chapmans "Redeemed By The Crucified One" album.  The song was written by Elmer Cole. For lyrics, click HERE.

    I've tried learning about Elmer Cole's life, and what else he wrote, but nearly every mention I can find is in reference to an article about someone else.  If you can point me to any website or article that has authoritative information, please leave the link in a comment.  It's hard to believe how little there is, when he's written songs like "I Found The Answer", I'm Looking for Jesus, and the fantastic "Ten Thousand Years." (This info, and a little bit more, were on the blog Southern Gospel Tidbits.)

    I found multiple mentions of him being with Willie Wynn and the Tennesseans, but again, his name was included, but no further information.  I'm not so familiar the most of the songs I can find for him, but have heard "Ten Thousand Years" all my life.  It was one of the songs Aunt Elsie Mae sang (and Uncle Freil played) as a special in church.

    "One Day I Will" is the fifth song on "Redeemed By The Crucified One."  It was composed by Walt Mills and John Stallings, or perhaps written by John Stallings, and performed by Walt Mills.  What little I could find seemed unclear, none of it from an authoritative source.  The lyrics can be found on Bluegrass Lyrics.com.

    Again, there's not much available other than their names being included/listed on a large number of websites.  Certainly no life stories, inspirations, or quotes.  There are some Youtube videos if you search, but again, nothing I'd consider a reliable source.  This is starting to look like a trend.  I'm not sure if it's more modern gospel, less-known gospel, or if the nature of online information has changed.  

    Over ten years ago, it seemed there was never a shortage of information about gospel composers and musicians.  This blog, "Grace Notes", is a recreation of a blog I kept from around 2012-2022.  Actual life got in the way, the site languished, and eventually I let it go.  This is a recreation of the spirit of that blog.  Years ago, there were Wikis, active forums, personal accounts, historical sites, all kinds of sources to help paint a picture of the songwriters that influenced my childhood.  Now, it's a desert.  Maybe I'm just not using the best search terms.  

    Whatever the case is, I'll leave you with these two songs for now.  For future posts, if I can't find enough information about the writers, or the song, I'll just give whatever brief details there are, and include multiple songs per blog.  No sense filling up all my pages with "I don't know, and can't find out."

It's been a busy week at work, to the point several friends from other offices are chipping in and helping to get the work done.  Tomorrow's Friday.  I'm off to see my parents on Saturday.  Something to look forward to.  I can't wait!

Off Topic - Roger Zelazny's Unicorn Variation As Read By Rene Auberjonois

     I'm going off the beaten path today.  Usually I'm all about Southern Gospel Music, or things that have some bearing on getting this blog where I want it to be.  Today, it's still about audio, but not about music.  It's about searching for one thing, and finding another.  It's about synchronicity.  It's about searching the shed for a 35 year old audio tape of my Uncle playing the family piano, and in the process, finding a 28-year old audio tape that I wasn't even thinking about.

    One of my favorite writers, Roger Zelazny, wrote several of my favorite stories.  That includes "Unicorn Variation", and to a lesser extent, "Angel Dark Angel."  Both of these stories are on an audiocassette, and read by Rene Auberjonois.  The tape was produced by Durkin-Hayes in 1995.  If you don't know who Auberjonois was, you'd probably recognize him as Odo, in Star Trek: Deep Space 9.  If you like niche sci-fi (syfy), you may recognize him as Hugo Miller, from Warehouse 13.  Numerous other things, but what you may not know is that he "read" for a large number of audio book productions.  And that he could breathe life into his readings with majestic ease.  When you listen to him, the characters came to life.  Each had their own voices, and mannerisms.  I've always loved to read, but listening to Rene read the stories out loud, added another layer to my enjoyment.  

    I've intended for years to find that tape, and transfer it to an MP3 file.  Because tapes wear out.  They degrade, the audio fades, the tapes stretch.  28 years later is stretching my luck.  Recently, I've been on a related quest to upload old audio recordings of my Uncle Freil on piano.  In the process, I've had to buy a new tape player, and re-learn how to use Audacity, something I haven't worked with in over a decade.  So finding "Unicorn Variation" might have been unintended at this exact moment, but it's been in the back of my mind for years.  And this was the perfect time to find it again.  For the most part, the audio quality is still nice and clear.  There was one section that had some trouble, but the words were still clear, so I'm okay with a bit of hiss and clicking.

For anybody not familiar with Zelazny, I usually think of him as a fantasy/sci-fi writer.  But that's like saying the sun's hot.  Zelazny wrote concerts with words.  He's not for everybody, and I'm not thrilled with everything he wrote.  But he used words like Leonardo da Vinci used paints.  Like Michelangelo used a chisel.  Everything he wrote was a work of art.  In Unicorn Variations, a lone traveler meets a chess-playing unicorn at an abandoned bar in a ghost town, with the fate of the world hanging on a single game.

    It's the kind of story I love;   nobody is 'the bad guy.'  The story is full of charm, wonder, and wit.  I've read it many times, and listened to this tape off and on since the mid-1990's.  Angel Dark Angel is also a "read many times" story, but it lacks the wonderful whimsy of "Unicorn."  

    So now I have both stories, read by the remarkable Rene Auberjonois, as mp3 files.  I'll back them up on a few hard drives, download them to my cell phone, and never lose it again.  PLUS, at the end of the tape, Rene mentions he's also recorded Zelazny's "Last Defender of Camelot."  Now that one... that one is arguably my most favorite short story in my entire life.  

    Monique and I both spent some time today trying to track down a copy.  Not on eBay, not on Amazon, nor AbeBooks.  Not on any niche sites I ran across.  Not on Youtube (I searched, in case another fan felt like sharing).  Youtube did have an old Twilight Zone episode base on it, but it didn't live up to the book.  Not even close.

    So, still hunting for an audiobook of "Last Defender of Camelot."  If you know how I can get hold of one, I'd appreciate a comment or email.  :^)

Transferring Audiotape Cassettes to WAV and MP3

    It's been a while since my last post.  Lot going on in real life, but also making progress on the music.  I went to see my folks a couple of weeks back, and Mom gave me some old tapes and discs that potentially had Uncle Freil's playing on them.  Got home, and hunted all over, but none of the tape players in the house were able to play the cassettes.  Monique and I both sell on eBay... you'd think with 20+ years each selling on eBay, we'd have at least one fully functional audiocassette player in the house, but nope.  None that could transfer the music into my computer.  Going to have to buy one.

DISTRACTIONS

    Then we had distractions.  A very cute, tiny dog that decided we were going to be his new home.  With three dogs already, we can't afford a fourth.  Thankfully someone volunteered to adopt him. Also, Monique and her sister spent all last week reorganizing our clutter.  eBay had taken over.  There's still work to be done, but it makes more sense now.  It feels like we have breathing room again.

    During the same week, my computer kicked the bucket.  It started by only booting in low-res and 32-bit.  Then it wouldn't boot at all.  The next morning, still not booting, but it did attempt to do a repair on the drive.  Later that day, it booted up.  Over the next few days, it would start up, but with various hiccups.  For now it's booting up and working right.  It won't last forever, but at least it's working right now.

    In that same time frame, we were told our taxes were going to be... a lot. Much more than ever before.  Last year I half-way retired.  Still working part time, and still selling on eBay.  Near the end of the year property taxes were nearly double compared to the previous year.  So we sold on eBay like never before to be able to pay it.  Now we're having to pay taxes on all the extra income we made in order to pay the other taxes.  
    As it turned out, it wasn't so bad.  Not great, but not "end of life as we know it" bad.

STILL SEARCHING FOR A CASSETTE PLAYER

    While all that was going on, the hunt was still on for a tape player.  Apparently, there are no "good but affordable" cassette players being made.  You can either go cheap/mid-range, none of which had... pristine... reviews.  Or you can go eBay with classic, expensive, decks from the 80's.  Tough call... you want the final audio to sound good, but the bank is already broke.  Cheap was the only option.
    There were three models on Amazon that seemed appropriate, in a price range from $25 to $60.  All three had a standard headphone audio out jack.  With the correct cable, you can go from headphone out, to the computer's Mic In, and digitize the audio with Audacity.

    The winner was the Semier AM/FM Radio Cassette Recorder, model number SM-138.  It could play and record audiotapes, has a 3.5mm earphone jack, can run on 4 C size batteries, or AC (power cord comes in the box, thankfully).  As you can see in the photo, the box had some corner damage, but the machine was in perfect condition.

TESTING THE AUDIO

    Did a test run, and it works!  Not perfect, but I'm playing tapes recorded 30 to 40 years ago... and they were recorded with one of those old Radio Shack shoe-box recorders.  I'm thrilled they still worked at all.  A little audio wobble under the circumstances is completely acceptable.
    One of the reviewers (don't remember which unit it was reviewing) warned of a 'hum' when you used a power cord, and gave advice on how to avoid it.  (Use batteries, or buy a $10 Noise Isolator.)  It was a well-written review with a lot of helpful info, but he made it sound like not following his advice would result in horrible audio.  I disagree.  

    When the player audio is set to the lowest possible level at which recognizable sounds are playing, and Audacity recording levels adjusted appropriately, the audio was acceptable for the circumstances.  Hum wasn't an issue.  Bad tape quality, years of tape degradation, and highly variable volumes within the same recording, those were issues.  The quality sure wasn't up to sound studio standards.  But with all the technical challenges, it was as good as could be asked for.

GOT THE WRONG TAPES

    One last issue... now that I can play the tapes, and digitize them, those first two turned out to be recordings of professionally made CDs, which I already owned.  Very disappointing.  Not the end of the story, though.  Last night, going through old boxes, I found two audio tapes that I had personally recorded of Freil playing the piano.  Only had time to check one side out.  There are 14 minutes of good enough audio, with songs I haven't heard him play since the late 1980's.  That made it all worthwhile.

    Can't wait to listen to the rest.  Hope to find more gems from the past, but it's been too long since writing a new blog.  Now you know what's up, and that I'm still making progress!

Update - More Music by Freil Thrift

     It's been a few days.  Real life has been pretty time-consuming.  I wanted to pop in with a bit of news.  A few posts ago, I mentioned a Hi-8 video, and an audio cassette tape, that might be out in the shed, and that might have Freil playing music on them.  That's an exciting possibility.  Today I went to see my folks, and Mom found TWO audio tapes that have Freil recorded on them.  Plus ONE cd that definitely has him playing, one that MIGHT have him, and another one that probably doesn't, but going to check out just in case.  These are all home recordings/burnt CDs.  Nothing professionally generated.  But still, there's a potential treasure trove of music I've never heard him play, or music I haven't heard in many years.

    So, tomorrow I'll root around the house for a tape player with headphone out (or RCA jack, either is fine).  Don't know offhand where one is, but we have a LOT of old stuff.  There ought to be at least one player around here that will work.  I don't know what kind of quality to expect from the CDs, but the tapes were probably recorded on the ubiquitous radio-shack type of player/recorder that we used in the 70's.  It won't be high-quality, so my goal is to rescue the song as best as possible.  As long as it's recognizable as his piano playing, that'll have to be good enough.  Really excited to hear them!! 

    On a side note, I've been getting a lot of use out of Audacity recently.  Maybe it'll have some feature that will clean up low-quality recordings on old tapes?  Soon enough to tell when I find the hardware to play them on.  

  I jumped the gun just a bit.  Searched the house, found several tape players.  One was busted.  One only played high squeaky sounds.  One played, but only though a built-in amp, and only output to RCA jacks.  From all I've read, plugging that into my mic input jack would have likely burned out my computer's audio board.  At the moment, uploading the audio tape is at a standstill.  Got feelers out with some friends, and family.  If that doesn't work out, the next step is to buy a new one.  Bottom line, it's going to take longer than expected.  Still excited, just have to let all the options play out before spending any money.  

In the meantime, practicing a new song to record for YouTube.  Still have most of the Singing Chapmans "Redeemed" album to write about.  And still have all the songs from their "Introducing" album.  Plus rebuilding something like a decade of blogs from my original Grace Notes, including midi files and sheet music.  We're talking years worth of projects.  At least I won't be bored.

Introducing The Chapman Family ... Singing The Gospel

     I made mention that Freil Thrift was in two record albums with the Chapman family.  The one Monique found on ebay, "Redeemed By The Crucified One"... I've been posting about for several days now.  It came with 12 songs, 6 to a side.  All of those have been digitized by now, and uploaded to Youtube.  

    The seller listed it as being in "Very Good Plus".  At first, I questioned that.  There was a long shallow smudge that seemed likely to cause playback problems.  It took a day or so to gather the necessary equipment (record player, cables and converters) and re-familiarize myself with Audacity.  Recording went perfectly.  That smudge had no effect on playback.  The songs digitized perfectly - audio levels great, no clicks worth worrying about.   It went smoothly and took about an hour.  I was thrilled with it.

    The other album wasn't anywhere online to be found.  I had resigned myself to a long patient wait, when my sister told me she had one.  She called it "the green cover", and told me the one I have is the second one, while the green one is the first record Freil was ever in.  She also allowed that I might be able to borrow it.  So long as I returned it, because "it's as important as my Elvis gospel album!"
    (If you know Karen, you'll know that is the highest level of praise.)

    We were originally planning on her bringing it to Mom and Dad's for me.  I was already planning to visit this weekend.  At some point she realized she couldn't make it to the river (home is very close to the Satilla), so offered to meet up in Nahunta on my way home.  I spent yesterday "at the river."  On the way home, Karen and I met at the Gold House.  It's Nahunta's historic diner, a wonderful place to go.  Both for the memories, and the food.  They make wonderful southern food.  I love their fried chicken.  They also make about the best liver around.  And a great, thick burger and home-style fries.

    This time around, we just had coffee, and sat and talked for a bit.  Got home too tired to start digitizing the record right away.  Got up early this morning, pulled the record out.  Remember a few paragraphs ago, when I mentioned the "Very Good Plus" rating on the other album?  How I questioned it, because of the almost-scratch?  I take it back.  It deserves that rating.  When I looked at Karen's record, the rating would have been "Very Loved Plus."  This is what happens to an album when it's a family favorite, and gets played over and over... for about 50 years.

    As expected, playback wasn't perfect.  It was surprisingly good, though.  Only one spot completely skipped a word.  And that was near the end of a song, so not as high-impact as it could have been.  However.  I like that word.  It's dramatic, with a strong foreshadowing of bad news.  
    However, the album was full of clicks, and the volume was a lot lower than the other record.  To be fair, that's probably due to the way the album was created.  Audacity has a very versatile click remover.  And for the most part, it did a great job.  One or two spots I used custom settings, but most of the time default settings were fine.  Audacity also has a pretty cool amplify effect.  It calculates the highest safe level to raise volume to 0 db.  

    Click removal and the amplify effect fixed everything that could be fixed.  Did a bit of manual cutting and silence generation at the start and end of the songs.  Overall it went very well, but wound up taking three hours to get the best versions of all the songs.

    Best of all, it ended (literally) on a great note - the final song on side 2 was an instrumental, and Freil got a couple of excellent segments featuring his piano playing.  I'm thrilled at how well everything turned out.  It's going to take some time to get them turned into video clips so they can be uploaded to YouTube.  But it'll be absolutely worth it.  All those songs will be permanently available at any time, without having to add more wear to our treasured records.  And so many people who don't know the Singing Chapmans, and Freil's playing, will be able to hear and appreciate them.

The Singing Chapmans Redeemed: When I Wake Up

 

    When I Wake Up To Sleep No More is the 3rd song on Side One of The Singing Chapmans "Redeemed By The Crucified One" album.  I'm not sure how they handled copyrights back in the 60's and early 70's.  The album doesn't mention copyrights, or have author credits.  Years later, my uncle Freil mentioned that he had to pay an amazing amount to record certain songs, so I'm working on the premise that they had to obtain permissions, but not necessarily print it as such on the cover.

    For what it's worth, the song is written by Marion W. Easterling, and copyrighted in 1944.  Easterling was a pretty prolific writer, composing over 300 southern gospel songs.  One of his mentors, Dad Speer, is sometimes credited with writing at least one of the songs on this album (He's Mine and I'm His).  Easterling also has the distinction of a Guiness Book of World Records listing, for his 39 years of programming the gospel radio show, "America's Favorites."  You can find a bit more about him, and his music, at Hymnary.org.  

    I had hoped to post this yesterday, in keeping with trying to post once a day until all the songs from the Chapmans record albums have been acknowledged.  The plan was to write it after spending the day with my parents (and great-nieces).  It's a one-hour drive each way, and driving is not something I'm comfortable with.  By the time I got back, my mind and body were both worn out... wound up giving up early, reading a bit, then calling it a night.  

    Monique and I usually sit outside for a while, by the front door.  We gather up the dogs, sit in our rocking chairs, and talk about our day.  It's a good time to share our thoughts, and the dogs love it.  We Piper and Luna have 15-foot leashes, so they can freely wander the yard, or just sit in our laps.  They smell the night air, watch as the occasional car or person goes by.  If they're lucky, sometimes one of the neighborhood cats saunter by.  A good time is had by all.  :^)

    We both had pretty big days.  Monique made a batch of Macarons for an event a friend is attending.  She rarely makes them, but this is her second time recently.  I believe she plans on making them at least one more time, with a friend.  And I told her all about my day with family, what everybody did and said.  Sometimes we'll sit quietly for a while.  We didn't stay outside long.  It was a lot colder than we expected.  

The Singing Chapmans: He's Mine and I'm His

 

More from The Singing Chapmans, featuring the 2nd song from their "Redeemed By The Crucified One" album.  For the filename, and the Youtube title, I didn't use contractions.  I'm old enough to remember the days you could only use alpha and numeric characters.  At least here, it's done properly... He's Mine and I'm His.  

I looked it up, but couldn't find much.  It seems to be credited to G. T. Speer, but his song title reverses this one (I am His and He Is Mine), and the lyrics he's usually credited with don't match this one.  It feels like there are two songs with a similar title, but nobody else is linked to this one that I can find.  

It's not really pertinent here, since post is celebrating The Singing Chapmans, and especially my uncle, Freil Thrift.  It would be nice, though, to give credit where it's due.  I'd like to know the song's history, and who actually wrote this version's melody and lyrics.

Changing the subject a bit, or at least veering off on a different tangent, tomorrow is Saturday and I'm on my way to see my folks.  Looking forward to seeing Mom and Dad, and my great-nieces.  There's also a bit of serendipity to the trip.  My sister will be there too, and she plans to bring her original album of the first record Freil recorded with the Chapmans.  She's willing to loan it to me... as long as I return it posthaste.

That's perfectly fine, as I only need it long enough to digitize the songs.  I'm excited to hear that album again, and to get those songs on Youtube as well.  There's only two albums I know of that had Freil playing.  I miss him.  It's going to be great to hear again.  As with the other album, it's been 50 (or more) years since the last time I heard it.  

That's going to keep me busy. Between posting all the songs from the "Redeemed by the Crucified One" album, then borrowing Karen's album and sharing them, it should keep me busy for a while.  And... if I get really ambitious, there's a chance I have a Hi-8 video of him and I playing a duet... and if it still plays, might even have an old tape recording in a box in the shed.  Now I just have to find the energy to go through all those boxes!!

Not to mention, I'll need something to play them on.  We certainly have tape players around the house.  With luck, one with a headphone jack so I can transfer the audiotape onto computer.  The tough one is going to be a Hi-8 player.  Not so sure about that.  It's been years since mine broke.  My options are either a mail service that will transfer it for me, or finding a cheap player on eBay...  Guess I'll close up here and start researching.  

The Singing Chapmans: Redeemed By The Crucified One

 It took some work, but all 12 song tracks from the Chapmans "Redeemed" album are uploaded to Youtube now.  I'm going to post them here, also.  Not all at once, but over time.  Starting with the title song, Redeemed By The Crucified One:

    

    I was too young to know much about the Chapmans.  Freil was a rock star to me with his amazing piano playing.  I knew Aunt Elsie May, obviously, and the twins, Odell and Othell.  The others were just adults.  They weren't in my circle, and I never got the chance to get to know them.  According to ChatGPT, The Singing Chapmans were based out of Tennessee.  Since Monique found this particular record album on eBay, and it was being sold from Tennessee, that seems like a connecting link.

    The group included father, Walter Chapman, and his sons, daughters, and a son-in-law.  I can't verify, but it seems likely Freil was the mentioned son-in-law.  If not with that generation, then probably with the succeeding generation after that.  They're credited with other records, radio and tv work, including an appearance on the "Old Time Gospel Hour" with Jerry Falwell.  Falwell was still near the height of his fame in my early 20's, which would put them all together in the right time frame.

    That doesn't sound like a lot of information, but it's more than I'd found previously.  The small amount of corroboration I could find was mainly from a record album of theirs, "Six Hours On The Cross."  I don't know much about it, but the song list includes some songs Aunt Elsie May was known for singing as church specials.  I especially remember her singing "Love Will Roll The Clouds Away."

    In other exciting news, my sister told me today she still has the other Chapman album that Freil was in (not sure of the title, but she called it "the green album."  It was the first one, and if I remember right (it WAS 50 years ago), it had more of my favorite songs.  Not certain, it's just a vague memory of playing the first one, over and over and over.

    Anyway, I'll be visiting family this weekend, and she plans to bring it for me.  To borrow... not to keep.  But that's perfect, I'll digitize it just like with this one, and be able to listen to all the music from both albums.  Plus share it on Youtube so many other old-time fans can hear their music again.

Childhood Memories - The Singing Chapmans

     A few days ago, I was reminiscing with Monique about my uncle Freil's piano playing, and talked about the two record albums he made as part of a southern gospel music family group called "The Singing Chapmans".  Monique, of course, searched on eBay, found one of the albums, and ordered it for me.  It arrived yesterday, and I've been on pins and needles since then, wanting to hear it, and more, to share their songs so everybody else can enjoy the music too.

    Opened the package, took pictures, but got stuck trying to figure out how I was going to play it; and even more importantly, get the music digitized.  We had a couple of record players around the house, and one was a self-contained unit that would have been perfect if I just wanted to listen.  But Monique and I both remembered having a record player years ago that was perfect, with RCA audio outputs hardwired into the case.  Couldn't find it.  Gave up for the night.

Next day, I'm home from work, to see the old record player at my computer.  Monique had found it.  Actually, she found it exactly where we tried to look last night, but she went back and dug deeper.  I've seen old players quit working because they were band driven, and after years, the band can get old, brittle, not play right or outright break.  It was a worry in the back of my mind, but as it turned out the player was just fine.

    There was a bit of technical trouble getting all the working parts to work together.  First, my current computer doesn't have RCA input jacks.  All it's got is microphone in.  There are a number of ways around that, but I chose a bit of a hack.  Out in the shed, in my old audio/video cables box (from the days I did video production), was a "mic in/stereo in" connector.  The same box also had a 1/8" male to male stereo audio cable.  Lucky day!  Like a Rube Goldberg drawing... phono player to RCA out to converter to 1/8" to mic input on the computer.  :^)

    Still not ready.  The record played, I could hear it through the computer speakers (headphones, actually).  But the volume was so low, it was almost more imagination and wishful thinking than reality.  Google to the rescue - it suggested I see what the volume is in the SOUNDS controller.  When I checked, the volume was already maxed, but...  there was a "Microphone Boost" slider that offered up to 30db more volume.  

    Since the audio was so quiet, I slid that thing straight up to +30db and started the record back up.  It nearly broke my eardrums.
I yelled and jumped about half a foot straight into the air, scaring Monique at the same time.  After REDUCING the volume a bit... it was perfect!  And with that, suddenly Audacity was up and running, the audio check worked, audio levels set perfectly.  Roughly an hour later, the entire album is saved to my computer, one song at a time!!

Plus, I got to listen to music I haven't heard in 40 or 50 years.  Smiling the entire time.  It was like regaining a treasure I'd thought long lost.  Good memories of good times, music I never thought to hear again.

Next, I'll put the songs together with an image of the record album, and upload the videos to Youtube.  It may take a few days, but when I post again, there'll be something special for you to listen to.