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Song: I’m Standing on the Solid Rock and Touring That City
Psalm 31:1-8
For Thou art my Rock and my Fortress;
therefore for Thy name’s sake lead me, and guide me.
When calling the roll of those who have been in the forefront of the world of Southern Gospel Music, Harold Lane, a veteran singer and songwriter, is not the first name mentioned, but his popular songs have been recorded and sung by thousands and heard by millions. For many years we have seem them appear in songbooks and choral arrangements, as well as on television, radio, cassette tapes, videos, and compact discs.
Lane, born in 1929, in Huntington, West Virginia, started his music training in high school playing trombone in the band. He became a Christian while attending Marshall University in Huntington, where he continued his music education. He later became a high school band director and music teacher at Wayne High School in Wayne, West Virginia.
At age 37, he joined The Speer Family, one of the most famous of all the Southern Gospel Music touring groups. G. T. “Dad” Speer, a native of Double Springs, Alabama, began the first Speer Quartet more than 80 years ago. They broke a major barrier in this genre of music by including female voices in a field totally dominated by all male quartets. For twenty-two years Harold Lane was part of the success of this group which recorded some seventy plus albums, five of which received Grammy Award nominations. They received eight Dove Awards for Best Mixed Group of the Year. Twice they received Dove Awards for Best Album of the Year, and four times, consecutively, for Best Female Vocalist of the Year. In 1996 they were recipients of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame Life Work Award for Performing Achievement.
In the late 1970s, The Speer Family was on their bus traveling to another engagement, “probably to California,” according to Lane, who had joined the group a few years earlier. As they rode along he fell to thinking of his son back home who was “messed up in the drug scene.” His thoughts quickly turned to the one who can solve drug problems, or any other problem for that matter, and how Christians who trust in the Lord are standing on a firm foundation, Jesus Christ the Chief Cornerstone. Another musician, the Psalmist David, declares, He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Psalm 40:2,3
As they rode along verses began to take shape in his mind and along with them came a melody. He took music paper and, calling on his college music training, put the whole song in manuscript form. From there it has made its way into every nook and cranny of the Southern Gospel Music world, including the Gaither Souvenir Songbooks, a product of the Gaither Homecoming Concerts and Videos.
In the song Lane reminds us that through our disappointments, strife and discontentment, we can cast our every care on our Savior. In the chorus he tells us that we are safe from the storms that rage around us, and that we have untold wealth in our relationship to Jesus.
Another of Harold Lane’s songs that has reached great heights is a song written after a practice session of The Speer Family, in the home of Ben Speer. Harold related, “During the session a friend of the Speer family, from North Carolina, came by to visit Mom Speer who was seriously ill with cancer. As he was leaving he turned to me and said, ‘If I don’t see you again you will find me touring that City.’ That thought stayed with me, and a few days later I wrote the song, Touring That City.
“While participating in the Gospel Singing Jubilee, a television show, we met up with The Inspirations, a singing group from from Bryson City, North Carolina, who were searching for two additional songs to include on a record project. Ben Speer and one of the lady members of The Speer Family helped me to sing Touring That City for them. They liked it and sang it on a television program the very next day.” And so, another Harold Lane song was launched. A myriad of other singing groups have helped to popularize it.
In that song Harold shares the message that as we tour the City of God we will find a place of pretty streets, made of gold, and Jesus our Savior who gave us the victory will be there with us forever. Even though we have burdens and problems on this earth, all will be made right when we reach that City.
Harold Lane and his wife, Betty, live in Nashville, Tennessee, where he attends the Church of Christ and occasionally writes music. To date he has penned some eighty-eight Southern Gospel songs. He delights in going to the National Quartet Convention, held each year in Louisville, Kentucky, where he can renew fellowship with a great host of singers who have become his friends through the years. He appeared in the first three of the Bill Gaither Homecoming Gatherings.
Reflection:
As Christians, and especially during the times of testing, we take great solace in the truth that we indeed are standing on a firm foundation, the solid Rock of our salvation, Jesus Christ.
Reader Comments
Great article!!!! I'm happy to see someone giving Mr. Lane the respect and applause he so deserves.
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Written: 03/01/2007 
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Behind the Songs
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