The first song I ever sang in front of an audience was a hymn. I was four or five years old, and our family was staying at the Frontier Hotel in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for the Frontier Days Rodeo.<\/p>\n
Daddy had won the steer-roping event there twice in previous years\u2014just like his daddy had done a couple of decades earlier at the same venue\u2014and he was competing again. In between performances, when we weren\u2019t at the rodeo arena, the cowboys and their families would hang out in the lobby of the hotel to visit and pass the time.<\/p>\n
One afternoon my older brother, Pake, stood in front of a group of the cowboys, who had talked him into singing them a song. He launched into Elvis\u2019s \u201cHound Dog\u201d (minus the hip swiveling). To my amazement, Everett Shaw, one of the rodeo champions, fished a quarter out of his jeans and gave it to Pake.<\/p>\n
BROWSE OUR BOOKS ON CHRISTIAN LIVING<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI want a quarter too,\u201d I told my brother. But what would I sing for the folks?<\/p>\n \u201cWell, you know \u2018Jesus Loves Me,\u2019 don\u2019t you?\u201d Pake said. \u201cSing that.\u201d<\/p>\n So I sauntered to the center of the lobby while Pake got everybody quiet, and I sang in my best Sunday-school voice, \u201cJesus loves me, this I know….\u201d At the end, everybody clapped.<\/p>\n Somebody did press a coin in my hand, but it was only a nickel. No matter. I was officially a singer, and as my family will tell you, it\u2019s been hard to get me to stop singing.<\/p>\n I love singing, love making music with others, love working on a song in my head and then sharing it. But I especially love how songs of faith, new ones and old, keep me connected to God.<\/p>\n So I suppose it was only a matter of time before I recorded an album of inspirational songs and classic hymns.<\/p>\n It\u2019s taken me all these years to collect the ones that have made the biggest difference in my life. People have been lifting up their voices to God since before David penned a psalm and riffed on his harp. It\u2019s the way we let each other know who we are and Whose we are.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a selection of some of my alltime favorite hymns. You\u2019ll find them all on the album. Don\u2019t be afraid to sing along.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the Roll Is Called Up Yonder\u201d<\/strong> Singing a cappella\u2014without accompaniment\u2014is one of the best ways to sing, as it turns out. You learn how to listen to yourself and tune up to each other, getting all the intervals right, blending the harmonies so that many voices become one, each voice lifting the others.<\/p>\n I can still see my maternal grandparents, Elvin and Reba Smith, standing in front of the congregation and leading us in \u201cWhen the Roll Is Called Up Yonder,\u201d singing, \u201cWhen the trumpet of the Lord shall sound…\u201d<\/p>\n There were no trumpets in our church either, but you can be sure we all made a fine sound, letting the Lord know where we would be when that roll was called. I can still close my eyes and see those Sundays in the little church that we filled with praise. I can still hear those lovely voices lifted up to God.<\/p>\n READ MORE: REBA McENTIRE’S GIFT FROM GOD<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll Fly Away\u201d<\/strong> Albert E. Brumley, the composer, got the idea for the song when he was picking cotton on his father\u2019s farm in Rock Island, Oklahoma, sweltering under the hot sun, wishing he could fly away\u2014if not to heaven, at least to a cooler place. I can relate to that, from all the hard work we kids had to do on the ranch.<\/p>\n So when I decided to record this song, I realized I wanted my family with me. Nobody harmonizes more naturally than your relatives. Blood harmony, I call it. We always sing a gospel tune or two when we\u2019re together for holidays. I knew we could make it happen in a Nashville studio.<\/p>\n My mama, who is 90 years old, and my sisters, Alice and Susie, joined me. Boy, did we have a good time. And we sounded pretty good too. We could have been satisfied with one take, but we were having so much fun we did several more. As I always say, music is a great connector.<\/p>\n \u201cAngel on My Shoulder\u201d<\/strong> I actually asked God, Lord, is this because I\u2019m supposed to be on television or in the movies? (I was a pretty ambitious kid with a very vivid imagination!)<\/p>\n Later it came to me. That feeling\u2014those were my angels! I\u2019ve leaned on them ever since. My son, Shelby, is a race-car driver, and whenever I know there\u2019s a race coming up I pray for the angels to keep Shelby and all the other drivers safe on the track.<\/p>\n Any album I did of songs of faith would have to include praises of the angels, heavenly and otherwise. This song, by Leigh Reynolds, Amber White and Philip White, says it all: \u201cThere must be an angel on my shoulder\/Whispering in my ear\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI Got the Lord on My Side\u201d<\/strong> One day, those words formed in my mind: \u201cI\u2019m so happy I\u2019ve got the Lord on my side.\u201d I wanted to thank God for all the good in my life. I linked a tune in my head to the words and it became a prayer.<\/p>\n You know that old saying: When you sing, you pray twice! But the song wasn\u2019t really complete until I was in the recording studio. Mama was listening in the control booth and she said after she heard the first take, \u201cInstead of saying \u2018I\u2019m so happy\u2019 on the last verse, why don\u2019t you say, \u2018If you\u2019re happy\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n READ MORE: REBA McENTIRE’S GUIDE TO LIFE<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n In other words, why didn\u2019t I sing about sharing that happiness\u2014that blessedness? Happiness comes when we do indeed have the Lord on our side.<\/p>\n \u201cDoes this mean I\u2019m going to have to give you a writer\u2019s credit?\u201d I asked Mama. We both burst out laughing. In the end, I did give her a writer\u2019s credit\u2014and I give her credit for a lot more than that. I sure did appreciate Mama\u2019s help.<\/p>\n \u201cHow Great Thou Art\u201d<\/strong> I\u2019ve heard folks say, \u201cWhy does God need to be praised all the time?\u201d I believe it is because it helps us. I find if I\u2019m worrying too much about something, I\u2019m not trusting God. I need to give my worries back to him.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t tell you what a joy it was to sing my old favorites like \u201cSwing Low, Sweet Chariot\u201d or \u201cSoftly and Tenderly\u201d or \u201cIn the Garden.\u201d I love the newer songs too, like \u201cGod and My Girlfriends,\u201d by Patricia Conroy, Lisa Hentrich and Marcia Ramirez.<\/p>\n It\u2019s so real, because those are the two places I go when I\u2019ve got problems. God is always there to listen to me, and my girlfriends form this cocoon around me when I\u2019m down and hurting. Some of them I\u2019ve known since grade school. Without them, the world would be a lonely place.<\/p>\n And there\u2019s the song \u201cFrom the Inside Out,\u201d by Amy Fletcher, which describes just how God works, digging down deep to truly heal from the inside out.<\/p>\n As I\u2019ve gotten older I\u2019ve realized that the more time I spend with God, the more I can face my challenges and thank him for my blessings. I hope these songs will help anyone who listens to them, that they will be a prayer for them.<\/p>\n I love the song \u201cSay a Prayer,\u201d by Michael Dulaney, Jason Sellers and Neil Thrasher. The refrain goes, \u201cOh, say a prayer for me\/When you\u2019re down on your knees\/And I will say one for you\/And hope it helps sees you through.\u201d<\/p>\n How can you go wrong with that?<\/p>\n Reba’s album , ‘Sing It Now: Songs of Faith & Hope,’ (Nash Icon Records and Capitol Christian Music Group) is #1 on Billboard’s Christian\/Gospel and Country Music. Buy it here<\/a>. Did you enjoy this story? Subscribe to <\/em>Guideposts<\/strong><\/a> magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\nYes, we had a piano in the tiny one-room church near our ranch in Chockie, Oklahoma, but most of the time there wasn\u2019t anybody good enough to play it. So Mrs. Stella McGee would turn to the hymnal, finger the opening chord and get us all launched in the same key.<\/p>\n
\nMy hymnal from childhood, a much-thumbed-through green volume with gold lettering, sits on my piano. I was looking through it the other day and found this classic, one of my favorites.<\/p>\n
\nGrowing up, I used to think that someone was watching me when I was outside. I would be riding my horse on the right-of-way next to the railroad tracks and the feeling was so strong I sometimes thought that maybe someone was filming me, like a cameraman somewhere. I couldn\u2019t figure it out.<\/p>\n
\nI pray a lot. First thing in the morning, I throw my arms in the air and say, \u201cThank you, Lord Jesus, Father God and Holy Spirit. Thank you for a wonderful night\u2019s sleep. This is going to be a great day because you made it.\u201d That positivity stays with me all day long. It\u2019s very comforting to know that you\u2019ve got the Lord on your side.<\/p>\n
\nThese last few years haven\u2019t been easy, with the end of my marriage after 26 years. I felt a real sense of loss. Music has always been incredibly healing for me. I can remember how healing it was when Grandma Smith died and we all sang \u201cHow Great Thou Art\u201d at her funeral. I\u2019ve sung this during my hard times too.<\/p>\n