You all HAVE to listen to this!

NPR’s All Things Considered recently did a 12-minture segment on Brother Claude Ely, the Pentecostal preacher who wrote the song “There Ain’t No Grave (Gonna Hold My Body Down)” (the song being sung by Johnny Cash in this year’s Deadliest Catch trailer).  Brother Ely traveled up and down the Appalachian Mountains with his guitar and the Bible – signing and preaching to all who would listen.

As the years went by, King Records of Cincinnati heard about him and decided to record some of his songs. The result was the first recording of a Pentecostal rival as well as widespread influence on the development of rock’n’roll:

“[Tulane scholar] Fontenot says that it might be hard to tease out where different musical traditions come from. But he believes that Pentecostal music had an impact on rock ‘n’ roll. He says you can hear that impact in Brother Claude Ely’s music.

Many of the early rockers — Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash — all grew up in the Pentecostal church, according to Hensley.”

This post does not do this story justice – you really need to listen to the story as NPR plays some of Brother Ely’s old soundtracks along with recordings of folks who knew him before he died. In fact, the piece was originally designed to highlight a biography of Brother Claude Ely written by his great nephew, Dr. Macel Ely II.

Give it a listen – you’ll like it. 🙂

Note: Thanks to Jamie Smith for bring this piece to my attention.