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March 2003 Table of Contents
Stories Behind the Songs
"Daddy Was Happy, And Mom Cried"
By Lindsay Terry
In many cases, individuals who have become successful and well-known in the world of Christian music, started the journey in early childhood. Scores of them, later in their lives, write songs that are heard around the world. Geron Davis, born into a pastor's home in Bogalusa, Louisiana, in 1960, is one of those people. He taught himself to play the piano as a very young child. He would listen to recordings of his favorite singers; groups such as the Happy Goodman Family, the Rambos, or a group whose arrangements were done by Lari Goss, and try to pick out their harmonies. Lari, composer of "Cornerstone," was greatly influential in the life of young Davis.
In an interview, he related to me: "I was raised around music. My mom, Patricia Davis, played piano, my dad, Gerald, played the guitar, and they sang together. I often sang with them, even at ages four and five. They would stand me on a piano bench behind the pulpit and I would sing the melody while mom sang alto, dad sang tenor and played his guitar.
I started making up songs as a small child, simple choruses that we would sing in Sunday school. I would often sit at the piano and try to pick out tunes. In those days I was listening to a lot of music."
Davis, who seriously started to write songs in his teen years, to this date he has written more than 200 songs published by major companies such as Integrity Music, Gaither Music, Brentwood- Benson, and Word, just to name a few.
Let's get right into the story behind his most famous song, as he shared it with me:"When I was 19 years of age my dad was pastor of a church in Savannah, Tennessee. The church had progressed and grown to the point that a new sanctuary was needed. When we were about two months from the completion of a beautiful new church auditorium, my dad asked, 'Son, would you write a song for us to sing during the first service in our new building? I replied, 'OK dad.' Well, a couple of weeks went by and I had not written the song. My dad asked, 'Son, how about it? Do you have a song for us?' I said, 'No dad, but I'll write one.'
I was busy traveling from place to place, singing with some of the young people from our church. Dad had purchased us a van, a trailer and a sound system. We sang in churches all around our area. I was also busy writing songs for the group to sing. However, dad was insistent; he desperately wanted me to write the song for the new building. He kept bugging me. I was like, 'Dad, just chill out, I'll write a song.'
Well Saturday night came, the night before the first service in the new building, and I still had not written a song. We had worked all day at the church, getting everything ready. It wasn't a large church, only a couple hundred members, but people were there working, putting last minute touches on everything.
After all of the church members had gone, and only dad, mom and I were left, we began to check all of the Sunday school rooms and the offices, making sure that those areas of the church complex were in readiness for the big day. My dad turned to me and asked, 'Do you have a song for us?' I used a good ole southern term and said, 'No sir, but I'm fixin' to.'
I went into the new sanctuary, dimmed the lights and sat down at the new grand piano. I began to think, 'What do we want to say when we come into this building tomorrow, to have a service for the first time?' I began to hum a bit and softly sing some lyrics that were coming to me. As I began to write the lyrics down they kept coming, about as fast as I could write. Within fifteen minutes, I had finished the entire song. I then went home and to bed. Someone asked me later, 'Did you realize that you had written something powerful?' To which I replied, 'Are you kidding, I was 19 years old, it was midnight, and I wanted to get to bed.' I was too young to recognize the greatness of what God had done. I was just happy the song was finished.
I'm the oldest of four kids. I knew that I could be a little bossy with the younger children, so I got two of them up early the next morning and taught them all of the parts to my new song. We sang it later that morning in the church service."
One has to be amazed when thinking of the depths of the lyrics, especially coming from the heart and mind of a lad so young. I'm sure he was picturing in his mind the crowds who would bring their needs into "His presence" the following morning. Of course, Geron knows that Christ has the answer and that they could reach out and claim the solutions to their problems.
They had all spent so much time and effort in giving, working and preparing for the new sanctuary, where the Word of God would be preached, Davis, I'm sure, thought of it a place where the Spirit of the Lord would work in the hearts of those who were in need—a hallowed place, "in His presence." Geron continued: "My dad was happy because I had written a song for us to sing. My mom cried because she thought her kids never sounded better. The congregation responded unbelievably to Holy Ground. I said to myself, 'Well, it's a highly emotional day.' It was our first Sunday in the new building, and we appreciated what had happened, but we had no idea what would really happen to the song over the coming years. Even so, the events of the morning made for a memorable birth for my song."
At this point in the interview I asked, "How much of the song did you have written down, in order to teach your brother and sister their parts."
"Only the lyrics," was his reply. "I taught each of them their parts by rote. I have always been an arranger at heart, so, as we sat around the piano that morning, I taught them the arrangement of the song that I had retained in my head."
"How old were they?" I asked.
He answered, "My brother, Jeff, was 17 and my sister, Alyson, was 11. We had a younger sister who was only 6 years old. My sister, Alyson, is now married, and she and her husband, Shelton Lovern, travel and sing with us full time."
As Geron and his brother and sister continued to sing Holy Ground, it grew in popularity, even to the point that it was used during the funeral of President Clinton's mother. Barbara Streisand, who was in attendance at the funeral, was so taken by the song, she recorded it and put it on her next CD. It has been recorded by hundreds, if not thousands, of singing groups, and shows no signs of slowing down as it becomes one of the most popular and well-known Christian songs in the world.
Reflection: The goal that all of us should strive to reach is to live in such a way as to recognize that the place whereon we often stand is holy ground, the place where God can meet with us and teach us His ways. He is with us, and in His presence there is fullness of joy. Live today as if you are truly standing on holy ground.
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