it's the bell of freedom
Few people know this, but my family used to be a band.
Family band, you say? Yes, it's true. We were the Frahm Family Singers and we performed regularly at seminary parties. Seminary families are the poorest of higher education students...many of them are trying to support a family while putting themselves through seminary. They couldn't afford real entertainment. So as the summer sun would set, we would gather on the grass of the seminary campus, bring out our instruments and blankets, our igloo coolers, and play.
People would come to hear us play "If I Had a Hammer" by Peter, Paul and Mary, and "Eat this body, Drink this blood" (probably not the real title of the song). My dad played a ukulele, my brother Tim had a beautiful red acoustic guitar, and my mom would play the maracas or a piano if there was one around. That left Andy on the bongo drums and me on the tambourine. It was a nice one, from a music store, not like a toy one from K-Mart. It matters.
My mom and I usually wore matching navy ponchos. We shopped at the Missouri Synod Lutheran Seminary Bargain Basement, and I wore more than my share of boy's bellbottom corduroy jeans and appliqued kitten tops.
Here's the leader of our band. I think he was preparing to be sort of a pastor to the mafia. He kept the show going and knew when people were getting sick of us. Usually after 3 songs.
This picture of us in the Rocky Mountains would have been a great album cover for the Frahm Family Singers. Too bad we had no original material. My brother Andy in the middle was a fashion KING. I hated wearing dresses. But you'd never guess that. Tim was ever the optimist. But hey, he turned into a worship leader for one of Max Lucado's churches, so I guess who is laughing now?
And you might be guessing what my mom, the queen bee, looked like in her heyday. The Mama Sal who left her Latin lover to marry a University of Wisconsin student who was also a director in the college theater scene. Who smoked a pipe. And who later started up a seminary family band. Here she is, looking dignified.
I'd hammer out danger,
I'd hammer out a warning,
I'd hammer out love between,
My brothers and my sisters,
All over this land.
It's a song of ?
It's a song of ?
It's a song about love between
My brothers and my sisters
All over this land
Family band, you say? Yes, it's true. We were the Frahm Family Singers and we performed regularly at seminary parties. Seminary families are the poorest of higher education students...many of them are trying to support a family while putting themselves through seminary. They couldn't afford real entertainment. So as the summer sun would set, we would gather on the grass of the seminary campus, bring out our instruments and blankets, our igloo coolers, and play.
People would come to hear us play "If I Had a Hammer" by Peter, Paul and Mary, and "Eat this body, Drink this blood" (probably not the real title of the song). My dad played a ukulele, my brother Tim had a beautiful red acoustic guitar, and my mom would play the maracas or a piano if there was one around. That left Andy on the bongo drums and me on the tambourine. It was a nice one, from a music store, not like a toy one from K-Mart. It matters.
My mom and I usually wore matching navy ponchos. We shopped at the Missouri Synod Lutheran Seminary Bargain Basement, and I wore more than my share of boy's bellbottom corduroy jeans and appliqued kitten tops.
Here's the leader of our band. I think he was preparing to be sort of a pastor to the mafia. He kept the show going and knew when people were getting sick of us. Usually after 3 songs.
I had hoped this family band would lead to a career. I've always been a singer. Not one that people like to hear. My close family and friends like to imitate my low alto voice that's been with me since middle school. But there was always music to sing to. And I was sporting the bedhead look way before Harry Styles. Just saying.
My brothers and I sang on family road trips and were constantly reaching over into the front seat to change the radio station. You could do that before seatbelts. We sang in church balconies, wearing robes, in Lutheran school choirs named Jubilate, Rogate and Cantate. It was Kasey Kasem's top 40 on our portable radios that we sang to while we laid out in the backyard to tan ourselves.
We went to every musical that came to Springfield and sometimes we traveled to St. Louis every few months to see a show at the Muny. We sang around church campfires at Camp Cilca, and more than a few days after school I would put Barry Manilow on the record player and fill our living room with his melancholic beauty. Then I would turn him off and eat some Ho Ho's.
This picture of us in the Rocky Mountains would have been a great album cover for the Frahm Family Singers. Too bad we had no original material. My brother Andy in the middle was a fashion KING. I hated wearing dresses. But you'd never guess that. Tim was ever the optimist. But hey, he turned into a worship leader for one of Max Lucado's churches, so I guess who is laughing now?
And you might be guessing what my mom, the queen bee, looked like in her heyday. The Mama Sal who left her Latin lover to marry a University of Wisconsin student who was also a director in the college theater scene. Who smoked a pipe. And who later started up a seminary family band. Here she is, looking dignified.
It was a good run, family. We gave it all we had.
If I had a hammer,
I'd hammer in the morning,
I'd hammer in the evening,
All over this land,
I'd hammer in the morning,
I'd hammer in the evening,
All over this land,
I'd hammer out danger,
I'd hammer out a warning,
I'd hammer out love between,
My brothers and my sisters,
All over this land.
If I had a bell,
I'd ring it in the morning,
I'd ring it in the evening,
All over this land,
I'd ring out danger,
I'd ring out a warning,
I'd ring out love between,
My brothers and my sisters,
All over this land.
I'd ring it in the morning,
I'd ring it in the evening,
All over this land,
I'd ring out danger,
I'd ring out a warning,
I'd ring out love between,
My brothers and my sisters,
All over this land.
If I had a song
I'd sing it in the morning
I'd sing it in the evening
All over this land
I'd sing it in the morning
I'd sing it in the evening
All over this land
It's a song of ?
It's a song of ?
It's a song about love between
My brothers and my sisters
All over this land
Well, I've got a hammer
And I've got a bell
And I've got a song to sing
All over this land
It's the hammer of justice
It's the bell of freedom
It's a song about love between my
Brothers and my sisters
All over this land
And I've got a bell
And I've got a song to sing
All over this land
It's the hammer of justice
It's the bell of freedom
It's a song about love between my
Brothers and my sisters
All over this land