"HEADIN' FOR THE LAST ROUNDUP..."
******************************************
One day in mid-seventies, the great preacher
of the Gospel, Dr. S.M. Morgan, who gave me
my start in Church Music, phoned me here in
Albuquerque from Bosque Farms, where he was
pastor (in his retirement); he had a request for
me.
He always liked my singing and we had worked
together at FBC, Artesia for several years in the
fifties. He said: "Singer, we've had an old rancher
die down here---lived out west of Los Lunas---
they're wanting a solo of Mansion Over the
Hilltop, like Elvis sings it."
At the time I was not a big Elvis fan (I've since
gained an appreciation of him) or songs like
"Mansion," which textually were not up to the
level of the great hymns, which I loved. Words
like "a little silver and a little gold," and "I want
a gold one that's silver lined," were not great
poetry, but on the other hand, much of the
music about heaven is symbolic.
Most of us don't desire great mansions and gold
in heaven, but want to be taken in and forgiven.
Religious music is felt and expressed in many ways
by people...and cowboys in their hard, unlettered
lives knew what they felt and what they liked.
I went and sang the song and was glad to do
so.
These days, sometimes when I'm alone and
writing, I'll sing that song to myself...and think of
old times...and old cowboys I knew...
For you see, over time, I led the music in four
cowboy camp meetings---three at Elk, N.M.
and one at Glenwood. "Mansion" was always
requested, as well as "I'm Headin' For the Last
Roundup," and many songs about heaven.
Elk, N.M., out west of Artesia about 70 miles,
once had a post office and store. (Maybe it still
does.) It is located as the road begins to climb
up into the foothills.
East of the store/post office, back down the
hill three or four miles, on a plain in a sort
of valley, with forested hills on every side, was
a little white stucco building, about 20 X 30.
This was the Elk Baptist Church.
I reckon it was really a church for all people
who loved Jesus, and not just Baptists. It was
a church that met any Sunday a preacher could
come, and the folks had never heard of a
Wednesday night "Officer and Teacher meeting."
Along about 1957, I was music director at the
FBC, Artesia, working with Dr. Morgan. His main
mission was to tell as many people about
Jesus Christ, as he could, in his lifetime.
He always had an interest in the Elk church and
knew many of the ranchers and cowboys out
there. In the summer, hot June, of '57, Dr. Morgan
or "Sig," as he was popularly known, and a bunch
of cowboys from the Elk area decided they wanted
to have a cowboy camp meeting each summer.
Sig was a good carpenter himself, and loved to
build things. He and the cowboys of the area
built a fine "tabernacle" of rough lumber, donated
by someone.
It was sturdy, open, and floorless, but it had a
good roof and a sort of "stage" for the preachers
and singer, and any choir that might show up!
They located it about 50 yards SE of the little
white church bulding.
Then my preacher and the boys out there with
brick-laying ambitions built a brick oven barbecue
thing near the tabernacle; it had a chimney at
one end and several steel doors that opened at
the top. I, myself, was drafted for this work, tho' I
had never laid a brick.
The "Cowboy Camp Meeting" was coming up
soon that summer and the old heavy upright
piano was laboriously moved from the little
white church to the wooden tabernacle , with a
handful of song books.
I led the music for that first one, and was invited
back from wherever I was, to join my cowboy and
rancher friends, and lead the singing for two more.
I always went gratis; it was my pleasure and joy
to join with those salt-of-the-earth people in
singing the Gospel.
You might think those cowboys and their wives
would not do much singing, being out there on
ranches, often far from anywhere, and lonely.
But the truth is---I believe the angelic choirs of
heaven took a break, and sang right along with
those camp meeting folks:
"SHALL WE GATHER AT THE RIVER
WHERE BRIGHT ANGEL FEET HAVE TROD,
WITH ITS CRYSTAL TIDE FORVER
FLOWING BY THE THRONE OF GOD.
YES WE'LL GATHER AT THE RIVER
THE BEAUTIFUL, THE BEAUTIFUL RIVER,
GATHER WITH THE SAINTS AT THE RIVER,
THAT FLOWS BY THE THRONE OF GOD!"
In a "camp meeting" paper, I wrote at the
seminary, I quoted a writer who'd been at
the early nineteenth century camp meetings
in our young country, and here is the gist of
what he said (from my memory)---
"Listening to camp meeting singing, a hundred
yards away, it was GREAT...at three hundred
yards, it was WONDERFUL...and at a mile,
IT WAS MAGNIFICENT!"
The accommodations were pretty much whatever
people came in or brought...some slept in tents,
some in little camp trailers, some slept in horse
trailers. Others sacked out in the backs of their
pickups under tarps, and we got the cement floor
of the little white church. (My wife, Donna, always
went and she was the pianist.)
Like the singing the food was magnificent! It
came in big pieces...sides of beef, whole pigs,
chickens...and the sauce, rolled onto the meat
with a paint brush would almost melt a spoon
or fork. I never saw a bigger pot of pinto
beans ever again in my life as that one
always simmering on the brick barbecue!
So, it's hard to quit talking about camp
meetings...of all the revivals I lead (63 of
them), those outdoor events were the best!
Simple events: praying, singing, preaching,
and eating...and lots of visiting with each
other!
COWBOY CAMP MEETINGS:
Beautiful earthly events...
Beautiful scenery...
Beautiful down-to-earth people...
Beautiful simple songs of faith...
Good preaching ....
Delicious food...
Fine fellowship...and
Life changing experiences:
.....sins buried in the deepest sea,
to be nevermore remembered....
Think I"ll ponder all these memories
and maybe hum an old favorite song
to myself...one that all cowboys seemed to
love...my uncle, a cowboy, had it at
his funeral....
"SOFTLY AND TENDERLY JESUS IS
CALLING...
CALLING FOR YOU AND FOR ME...
SEE ON THE PORTALS HE'S WAITING
AND WATCHING
WATCHING FOR YOU, AND FOR ME.
COME HOME...COME HOME..."
Elvis Presley: "Mansion Over the Hilltop"
Gene Autrey: "The Last Roundup"
Willie Nelson:
"Shall We Gather at the River"
"Softly and Tenderly"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ohADsIlQ-k
BY MIL
11/21/14
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