His faith ain't based on the blues

By RONNIE ELLIS
CNHI News Service

April 11, 2009 03:02 pm

— He’s “The Preaching Bluesman,” a pastor whose career to put it mildly “is kind of diversified.”
The Rev. Charlie F. Edmonds, 60, is moving from Hazard where he has been pastor of the Consolidated Missionary Baptist Church to Barren County where he’s the new pastor of Zion Hill Baptist Church near Park City. Last Sunday, was his first day, and “I started out in the water. I had a baptism and communion waiting on me.” The theme of his first sermon, Edmonds said, “was don’t forget who brought you this far.”
But that afternoon, while waiting for a friend, Edmonds was parked on a sidewalk bench on the Glasgow square, resplendent in white suit, tie, and white hat, guitar on his knee, his fingers picking out blues, gospel, and even country notes as he sang along. One passer-by stopped to talk and to listen, but dozens of others driving by, strangers all to the man in the suit and hat playing guitar, his foot tapping on the sidewalk, either waved or blew their horns. Edmonds smiled, nodded and waved back, his hand going back to the guitar strings without ever missing a note.
He’s recorded CDs of blues numbers – “Originally Yours” is the latest – and he’s good. But when the first notes begin to play, a stiffly pious person might wonder about the juxtaposition of blues lyrics and the Gospel.
“I tell folks my faith ain’t based on the blues, it’s based on the blood, Brother,” Edmonds says, laughing and continuing to strum the guitar strings, easing from conversation into the lyrics of “The St. Louis Blues.”
Born one of 12 children in Todd County, “the son of a share cropper,” Edmonds served in the U.S. Army, first in Berlin, Germany, then for two and a half years in Vietnam. He was graduated from the University of Louisville with a degree in philosophy with a minor in history. He’s been a prison chaplain and conducted Christian Outreach workshops and campus ministries. He’s worked in Dallas, Texas, with the Housing Authority and worked in prison release and rehabilitation programs.
But whatever Charlie Edmonds is doing, where ever he is, his music and his faith go with him.
“I been playin’ since I was a kid. Been singin’ since I could talk,” Edmonds said, never ceasing to chord the guitar and pick its strings. “I’ve been religious since I was 11, and I had my callin’ at 13, but I didn’t accept it then. That was later. I became a preacher at 21.”
Both his parents played musical instruments and he took up the guitar at 8 years old. He plays all kinds of music, not just blues. He likes love songs, Motown, even some old time traditional country – “When I come up, there weren’t no black radio stations so I listened to WSM in Nashville,” the station famous for country music and the Grand Ole Opry.
“I pity a person locked into only one kind of music,” Edmonds said.
He plays an original composition – “Remember Me” – written in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. “Where were you when the wind started blowin’/And the rain started comin’ down?”
“That song came to me like two days after the storm,” Edmonds said. “Took me like 12 minutes to write that song.”
And he didn’t just sing about the devastation and despair in New Orleans. He went down there to help – twice. He served in a reconnaissance unit during the Vietnam War, and he first went to New Orleans to survey the damage and what he could do to help.
“Then I went back down there to the places I’d identified to do my ministry,” said Edmonds, still strumming his guitar. “Man, they got places down there that still ain’t been cleaned up.”
Edmonds’ business card reflects his eclectic and numerous interests and talents. The reader learns he’s president of Blue Rhapsody Publishing Company (“specializing in the Education, Preservation, Presentation & Perpetuation of the Blues”), that he’s available to play and perform or to conduct workshops and consultation at churches, retreats, conferences, to do motivational staff development, conduct Bible studies and a host of other activities.
But for now, Charlie Edmonds is settling in to his new job in Park City and making plans to move to Barren County. And playing and singing the blues.
“I don’t worry about the blues,” he sings, “because I got the Lord to hold my hand.”
RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.