Albert E. Brumley
Songwriter
Albert Edward Brumley was the most-recorded gospel songwriter in American history, the man behind “I’ll Fly Away” — reportedly the most-recorded gospel song of all time — and somewhere between 600 and 800 other compositions. A son of Oklahoma sharecroppers who learned the trade in the singing-school tradition, Brumley wrote songs that crossed effortlessly from the southern-gospel pew into the bluegrass and country canon.
- Born October 29, 1905, near Spiro, Oklahoma, into a family of sharecroppers.
- Enrolled in 1926 at the Hartford Musical Institute in Hartford, Arkansas, studying through 1931 under Eugene Monroe Bartlett (composer of “Victory in Jesus”).
- Married Goldie Edith Schell on August 30, 1931; the couple raised six children on the banks of Big Sugar Creek in Powell, Missouri.
- Wrote “I’ll Fly Away” in 1929 (published 1932); the song has been recorded thousands of times across gospel, bluegrass, country, and folk traditions and is the most-recorded gospel song of all time.
- Other enduring titles: “Turn Your Radio On,” “If We Never Meet Again (This Side of Heaven),” “I’ll Meet You in the Morning,” “Rank Stranger,” “He Set Me Free,” “Jesus, Hold My Hand.”
- Purchased Hartford Music Company in 1948 and ran it as a publishing concern for the rest of his life; the firm is now operated by his descendants.
- Inducted into the inaugural class of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1970) and one of the first inductees of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame (1970).
- Died November 15, 1977; buried in Fox Cemetery near Powell, Missouri.
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Blessed Jesus Hold My HandJesus is Coming (1988)
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I'll Meet You in the MorningI Saw the Light (1958)
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I've Found a Hiding PlaceI Saw the Light (1958)
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If We Never Meet AgainGood Old Camp Meeting Songs (1962)
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Rank StrangerSingle: Rank Stranger (1960)
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Steal Away and PrayFavorite Hymns (1969)
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Turn Your Radio OnAereo-Plain (1971)