BERLIN – Multiple efforts are currently underway to pay homage to a late gospel music legend born in Berlin.
Rev. Charles Albert Tindley was born in Berlin in 1851 and throughout his storied life rose to be known as a national legend in contemporary gospel music. He is widely considered the first gospel composer with numerous well-known hymns. He made a name for himself in Philadelphia where he lived most of his life before dying in 1933, but his life began in Berlin.
Tindley’s name was in the news last week as part of an ongoing effort to secure grants for a mural in Berlin to celebrate his life. A number of local organizations are teaming together to commission a large mural dedicated to Tindley on the side of the Bruder Hill building on Commerce Street. The Worcester County Commissioners agreed to support the Town of Berlin’s grant request through the Beach to Bay Heritage Area, which is funded through the state.
However, over the last seven years, a grassroots effort has been led by musician and journalist Bryan Russo to dive deeper into Tindley’s legacy. Russo wrote an original song about Tindley in 2018 and recorded it in 2020. The song, which was released Friday, Aug. 27, is featured in a nearly seven-minute video on a website, wearejournos.com, created by Russo. The song is available for purchase through the website. All funds raised through the $1 song downloads will be directed toward the goal of reinventing the annual “Tindley Day Gospel Festival” in Berlin next year.
On his wearejournos.com website, Russo explained his passion for the Tindley project.
“For me, it’s a travesty that a man who is literally inspired the anthem of the Civil Rights movement “We Shall Overcome” with his hymn “I’ll Overcome Someday” is hardly a blip on the radar of history in the town where he was born, and in a region of the country that was the birthplace of the two of the most vitally important African American people in American history in Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass.”
Russo elaborated on the effort in an interview this week.
Q. I remember you talking about this project as far back as seven years ago. Congratulations on seeing this project through while raising kids, navigating a pandemic, a working career and all the other responsibilities of life. Why Charles Albert Tindley? Why now?
A. It’s long been my belief that honoring and celebrating Dr. Tindley is way overdue here in Berlin, so while it’s taken me almost seven years to get to this point, there are many who have waited a lot longer so I guess the easiest answer to that question is “if not now, when?” I’ve been so worried about the timing on releasing this song with everything that’s been going on in our world in the past few years, but I’ve spent a ton of that time asking questions to people in our community who know more about Tindley than I do and have a deeper connection to his story than I do. The resounding message I keep hearing is that the timing is right and the song can be a vehicle to inspire our community to truly work together to achieve that goal of elevating Tindley’s legacy to its rightful place.
Musician Bryan Russo is pictured recording the “Mr. Tindley” song in Wilmington, Del. March 14, 2020. Submitted Photo
Q. You have said in other mediums, “If a story doesn’t get passed down from generation to generation, it runs the risk of being forgotten.” Can you elaborate on what you mean especially in regard with Tindley’s story?
A. Those words were spoken to me by the late Constance Sturgis, who was a beloved and respected school teacher, historian and community leader here in Berlin. She was one of the first people I interviewed back in 2013 when I was producing a story on Tindley for my public radio show “Coastal Connection.” I have thought about her wisdom, her kindness, her encouragement of me and my ability to be an integral part of telling this story quite often in the several years since her passing. But, I think what she was trying to say is that history sometimes is shaped by the loudest or the most powerful voices who determine what is important and what isn’t. It’s the current generation’s job to make sure that the value of the previous generation’s stories and contributions don’t diminish or fade away from the eyes or the ears of future generations. So, I hope the song and the things that are coming shortly after the song’s release will do just that.
Q. How did you decide on the song name “Mr. Tindley”?
A. If you look at the current telling of Tindley’s story in the history books, there is very little written about his formidable years on the Eastern Shore. It’s usually one sentence written about his birthplace and in many cases, the second sentence that’s written claims that he was born a slave, which isn’t true, as his mother was free and his father was a slave, so thusly, he was considered a freeborn child. What people do know of Tindley is what he accomplished in Philadelphia where he became one of the nation’s most revered preachers and one of the first African American published hymnwriters when he became Rev. Dr. Charles Albert Tindley.
Calling the song “Mr. Tindley ” was an attempt to include lesser known parts of his story when he was living in the region, before he became a Reverend and earned a doctorate, to the narrative that exists, which is what you’ll find in the first two verses of the song. His hymn “I’ll Overcome Someday” inspired the Civil Rights Anthem “We Shall Overcome” and this song, which I wanted to make sure his name was the focal point of in the chorus, begs the question of “When Will We Overcome?” In the end, it was an artistic choice and something that was quite honestly a little bit easier for the choir to sing.
Q. How did the song come about being made? It was recorded outside Wilmington, Del. in March 14, 2020 but you wrote back in 2018 at your home in Berlin. Tell us the story.
A. I write songs really early in the morning, and on that particular day, I was pretty much on the verge of giving up. Everything I had tried up until that point either couldn’t get funded or finished for a myriad of reasons, and I felt like I had completely failed. I just thought, ‘no one can stop me from writing a song, so I’ll just try and put everything in four minutes or less.” It all poured out onto the page, and I really liked it, but I was too scared to show it or play for anyone other than a few close confidants so it just sat as a demo on my phone for awhile.
A year and change later, I connected with a good friend named Darnell Miller who is an incredible musician and has a deeply rooted connection to the Gospel community up in Wilmington. He really liked the song and put together a remarkable group of players and singers that ranged from local church choir singers to touring gospel musicians. I thought it would be really apropos to record the song somewhere between Philadelphia and Berlin along the same path that Tindley and many African Americans during that time would have travelled on as they sought better opportunities in the north. We recorded the song in a day, and it was crazy because while the group knew Tindley’s name, they didn’t really know much of his story, so once I shared that with them, the feeling in the room changed and it felt more like a mission than a session. The next day, the world literally shut down due to Covid-19.
Q. The song will be released under the band name “Journos.” Why the name and will songs on the album tell a story like “Mr Tindley”?
A. I think there are similarities in both songwriting and journalism and maybe I see them so clearly because I’ve spent the better part of the past two decades engrossed in both professions. But, for me, this song is different because it’s so particularly focused on the subject, meaning Tindley, and I wanted to remove any and all focus from the author; like any good journalist should do. The album that will follow sometime in 2022 is made up of all story songs, sonic field reports and satirical and sometimes scathing editorials about these strange times we find ourselves in. “Journos” is my nod to all the socially conscious music and top-notch songwriting I’ve ever loved from Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan to Randy Newman and Elvis Costello.
Q. Why was it important for you to put in current day images – some of which may be viewed as controversial in some circles – in the video for your song?
A. The first rule I learned when I joined “The Press”, per se, was that if your work is not challenging your audience and if you aren’t digging to a deeper layer of the proverbial onion, then you are just doing “PR.” The imagery that we’ve been bombarded by in the past few years has been both unsettling and overwhelming, but when you juxtapose some of those images with things that have occurred in our not so distant history, they are essentially mirror images. People are going to feel different things when they watch the video and that’s the point of art. Some people view things through whatever social media powered lens they prefer and others choose to listen only to the way things reverberate off the walls of their own echo chambers. There is a lot of hopeful and beautiful imagery in the video too, so I guess it tells more about the viewer than the art depending on what your takeaway is.
Q. Tindley was actually in the news last week when Berlin’s Ivy Wells approached the Worcester County Commissioners for support for a Tindley mural in Berlin. You have been involved in this effort. How so?
A. On a regional level, I always wanted to get Tindley’s name in the same sentence with the two other most famous African American residents of the Eastern Shore, Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. There is that incredible mural in Dorchester County of Tubman and I had read that there was one in development on Douglass in Talbot County, so I went to Ivy (Wells) in Berlin and pitched an idea to see if there was grant funding for a public mural project that would feature Tindley here in Berlin. There was in fact a good bit of grant money available for a project like this that thankfully Ivy applied for some through the town of Berlin, and Lisa Challenger (Beach to Bay Heritage Area) applied for additional funding for an expanded part of the project that will include historical markers throughout the county and an audio walking/driving tour that will integrate untold African American stories from our region into already well-known bits of local folklore. It’s so exciting what is coming in our little town in regard to not only uplifting Tindley, but embracing all of our rich history here in Worcester County for both our locals and our visitors. I’m so proud to be a part of the group that represents all corners of our community that is driving this effort forward.
Q. Funds from purchases of this song will be directed to a specific effort to bring back a former gospel festival named after Tindley in Berlin. Why is that important to you?
A. I found out about Tindley for the first time when my wife read an article in this paper back in 2011 or so about a gospel festival the local church community put on to honor one of the founding fathers of gospel music, who was born in Berlin. The fact that I had absolutely no idea about Tindley as both a songwriter, a journalist, and a resident blew me away and essentially sent me down this historical rabbit hole and on this musical mission. Ironically, that year was the last year the festival took place, so I want to help play a small role in bringing it back to life. It doesn’t matter how spiritual you are as a person, when you hear Tindley’s hymns sung by a choir, your heart will be full of joy, and our world could certainly use a bit of that right now
Q. Is there anything else you would like our readers to know about your song and this project in general?
A. Right now, the $1 download is exclusively on Bandcamp, which can be accessed at the wearejournos.bandcamp.com. Please support and share the project with others who may be inspired and interested in Tindley’s incredible story and his local roots.
Art and music can bring beauty and unity into a town, it can celebrate history and even draw more people to a region. If this song and the projects that follow do all of that, then I think Miss Connie (Sturgis) will be looking down on all of us with an approving smile.
