I'll Sing On

Any of us who have known and worked with Sam (Carlton R. Young) over many years, are always being surprised. These are surprises born of love, respect, and unbounded wit. If one only considered his musical compositions and arrangements alone, one would be amazed. If we began to explore his adventures from small Ohio to Europe to the Far East—filled with collaboration, editing, and joyful exploration—we would begin to understand him as a truly global musician. If we only considered his unique role as having edited two denominational hymnals for Methodists, dayenu, that would be enough. But this would leave out his teaching and his remarkable musical compositions and active presence in several seminaries—principally in Dallas at SMU and in Atlanta at Candler. Still, we would have to remember the vast and multiple range of his friendships and associations over nearly nine decades. We could certainly not forget his life-partner, Marj, and their 75 years of marriage, a love stretching from World War II to the era of COVID, with deep resiliency and joy.

In entering these pages, dear reader, you traverse a most remarkable life in a remarkable time in the story of American church music. Follow the life of a stringed bass jazz player who embraces the richness of choral and instrumental music both within and outside the church—and all with a Methodist passion for justice. But these pages are also a narrative of encounter with cultures by a creative and restless soul who knows the depth of lament and praise. Here is a musician always on the boundary of wit and theological honesty. He gives us a kaleidoscope of images born of unstinting musical creativity and a keen eye. As I like to say with the psalmist, Sam is “still green, still full of sap.”

I, for one, give thanks to God for what Sam Young has given to church and world. I suppose we can righty claim that “the world is his musical parish.”

Don Saliers