Singers in the Dusk. After 23 Years, Charles Lampkin Rises from the Ashes.

O, Jesus, my Saviour, on Thee I’ll depend
When troubles are near me you’ll be my true friend

I’m troubled
I’m troubled
I’m troubled in mind
If Jesus don’t help me
I surely will die

When ladened with troubles and burdened with grief
To Jesus in secret I’ll go for relief

In dark days of bondage to Jesus I prayed
To help me to bear it, and He gave me His aid

How I got over,
How I got over, my Lord
And my soul looked back and wondered
How I got over, my Lord

The tallest tree in Paradise
The Christians call it tree of life
And my soul looked back and wondered
How I got over, my Lord

Lord, I’ve been ‘buked and I’ve been scorned
And I’ve been talked ’bout as sure as you’re born
And my soul looked back and wondered
How I got over, my Lord

Oh, Jordan’s river is so chilly and cold
It will chill your body but not your soul
And my soul looked back and wondered
How I got over, my Lord

A few days later, the child was back from the brink. He had made it.

His name was Charles Lampkin.

“We have this wonderful store of folk music-the melodies of an enslaved
people, who poured out their longings, their griefs and their aspiration
in the one great, universal language. But this store will be of no
value unless we utilize it … unless our musical architects take the
rough timber of Negro themes and fashion from it music, which will prove
that we, too, have national feelings and characteristics”.
R. N. Dett (1918)