"Singin1 Billy's" Book

Visitors to Magnolia Cemetery in Spartanburg, S. C., can read on a gravestone: In memory of William Walker, A.S.H. Died Sept. 24, 1875, in the 67th year of his age. He was a devoted Husband and kind Father. A consistent Baptist 47 yrs. Taught music 45 yrs. The Author of 4 Books of sacred music. He rests from his labors. He died in the triumphs of faith. Sing praises unto the Lord.

William Walker, called "Singin' Billy," was an itinerant singing master who made the rounds of hundreds of singing schools in the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee.

The A.S.H. after his name meant "Author of Southern Harmony" -- a collection of hymns, set to folk tunes, which he published in 1835. Southern Harmony sold 600,000 copies in 25 years, was so popular before the War between the States that even groceries and general stores stocked it. In his arrangements for part-singing, Walker, like other rural teachers of the time, used queer "shape-notes" (square, triangular, diamond, round) which were supposed to make music easier to read. Southern Harmony contained a treatise on the rudiments of music, and such observations on singing as: "All affectation should be banished, for it is disgusting in the performance of sacred music, and contrary to that solemnity which should accompany an exercise so near akin to that which will through all eternity engage the attention of those who walk in climes of bliss." Said "Singin' Billy": "I would rather have A.S.H. after my name than P-r-e-s in front of it."

In 1884, in Benton, Ky., James R. Lemon and some of his family began an annual songfest which became known as "Benton's Big Singing," attracted people from miles around by their performance of hymns and revival songs from Southern Harmony. Sample old favorite:

How tedious and tasteless the hours,

When Jesus no longer I see.

Sweet prospects, sweet birds and sweet flow'rs,

Have lost all their sweetness to me.

All but one of James R. Lemon's sweet-singing children are living today. The Big Singing continues in the Marshall County Court House every May, but many of its dog-eared copies of Southern Harmony been thumbed to pieces.

Lest they disappear entirely, the WPA Federal Writers' Project last week got out facsimile edition of "Singin' Billy's" song book-- just in time for this year's one-day Singing. Armed with fine new copies Southern Harmony, the singers once filled the Court House, yielding to 40 oldsters the honored place in front of rail. To the time-beating of a quavery old leader, everyone joined in the traditional opening number: Brethren, we met to worship, and adore the Lord God. . . .

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