Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post showcases a sound file of the Gospel/Country Blues song "How Long" as sung by Sister Ola Mae Terrell (O. M. Terrell). The lyrics for this song are also included in this post along with information about Sister Ola Mae Terrell.
The content of this post is presented for religious, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to Sister Ola Mae Terrell for her musical legacy. Thanks also to John Miller for transcribing this song and thanks to weeniecampbell.com for publishing these lyrics as well as the lyrics to other songs that Sister Ola Mae Terrell recorded. Also, thanks to TheBWJohnson for publishing this sound file on YouTube.
-snip-
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/10/various-origins-meanings-from-around.html "Various Origins & Meanings From Around The World For The Name "Ola" for Part I of a two part pancocojams series on the female name "Ola Mae".
-snip-
This post is dedicated to all those who died or who were injured in the horrific massacre that occurred in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 1, 2017.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT SISTER OLA MAE TERRELL
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6uizr-4hZMSwing Low, Chariot Sister O. M. Terrell "Swing Low, Chariot" published by MyMoppet52
"Ola Mae Terrell (1911-2006) is a gospel/blues performer known for accompanying herself on slide guitar. She recorded a half dozen sides for Columbia in 1953, including her own composition "The Bible's Right" & her music is on numerous compilation albums."
****
From http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6168153 "Sister Terrell: A Crooner on the Amen Corner"
Commentator and musicologist Bruce Nemerov would like to introduce us to the music of Sister Ola Mae Terrell. She died earlier this year at the age of 95. For 75 years, she sang her own gospel compositions using her music to spread her faith.
BRUCE NEMEROV: In less hurried times, guitar preachers stood on street corners and played the songs of inspiration, warning and comfort to passers-by in the poorest sections of many Southern towns. The Holiness Movement took root in the South late in the 19th century. Among poor blacks and whites, Holiness was a reaction to the increased formality and worldliness of the Baptist and Methodist churches.
Holiness people didn't smoke, drink or attend secular entertainments. Holiness told them to live apart and Holiness told them to sing fervently and make a joyful noise onto the Lord, which they did - on guitars, banjos, mandolins, horns or pianos, whatever was at hand. Sister Terrell was born in 1911 in Atlanta. At age 11 she had a conversion experience at the annual summer tent revival of the Fire-Baptized Holiness Church.
She taught herself to play the guitar and began writing gospel songs and singing them on vice-ridden Decatur Street. From the Depression years of the 1930s to the Eisenhower '50s, Sister Terrell lived the life of an itinerate evangelist and supported herself with her music. She was known only to those who heard her sing and play on the street corner, in a park or at church.
[...]
NEMEROV: In 1953, blind chance led Sister Terrell in the door of American consumer culture. She recorded that song [God's Little Birds} and five others for Columbia, the country's biggest record company. Unfortunately, Columbia released them in its country music series. African-American customers who'd happily bought other gospel records had no way to know she was one of their own. By 1955, Columbia lost interest and cancelled her contract. Sister Terrell walked out of the House of Mammon and the door quietly closed behind her.
[...]
Though she seemed to have disappeared from the world at large, her music stayed around. Her recordings were reissued on compact discs and God's Little Birds was used in an off-Broadway play. Sister Terrell had checks waiting and the music publisher couldn't find her. They asked me to track her down and when the hand of mammon came knocking, it was on the door of a nursing home in Conyers, Georgia. The money provided some material comfort those last years. So rest in peace, Sister Terrell. As God blessed you with faith, we are blessed by your music."
****
SHOWCASE SOUND FILE- Sister O.M. Terrell - How Long
TheBWJohnson, Published on Oct 7, 2011
-snip-
Here's a note about this performance from http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=10369.0
"Sister Terrell used cross-note tuning to accompany herself on "How Long", as she did on "Life Is A Problem". She really seemed to expend a special energy when playing in cross-note, though it just may have been the sound of the tuning coinciding with the texts that brought her out so vigorously. In many ways, her music seems strongest when she is operating in a "scolding" mode."
****
LYRICS- HOW LONG
(Ola Mae Terrell)
SOLO
Mmmmmmm
How long
Great God, how long
How long you gon' live in your sin?
Great God, how long
SOLO
Wait a minute, woman
Tell you what's in your mind
Slippin' and dodgin' with the other woman's husband
Leaving yours behind
How long
Great God, how long
How long you gonna live in your sin?
Great God, how long
SOLO
Well, how long
Great God, how long
How long you gon' live in your sin?
Great God, how long
SOLO
Well, wait a minute, man
I'll tell you what's not right
Slippin' and dodgin' all night long
Playin' numbers and shootin' dice
How long
Great God, how long
How long you gon' live in your sin?
Great God, how long
SOLO
Well, how, I mean, how long
How long you gon' live in your sin?
Great God, how long
http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=10369.0, John Miller, October 24,
-snip-
This article doesn't identify Ola Mae Terrell as the composer of "How Long". However, I surmised that since the article indicates that she was known for singing her own songs.
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment