Bryan’s Legacy
Hello! My name is Bryan Cleveland Glenn, and I was born on October 14, 1965 to William (Bill) and Ruth Glenn at the old People’s Hospital in Jasper, Alabama, and was the same hospital where George Lindsey was born years earlier. We moved to my hometown of Gardendale, Alabama when I was six months old, and lived there until I got married in 1995. Growing up in a Birmingham suburb was pretty uneventful, until I discovered the intriguing power of music at the young age of five. I remember hearing different songs in my kindergarten class and then coming home and picking them out on our old Kimball console piano. Because my mother came from a musical family, she immediately urged my father to look for a local piano teacher who would accept new students at such a young age. They eventually found a lady by the name of Faye Young, and enrolled me when I started the first grade. She began to teach me everything about theory, scales, reading music, intonation, proper posture at the piano, proper hand and finger placement, and everything else needed to be a trained classical pianist. The one thing I always had trouble with was looking at my hands when I played. Most people wouldn’t think that’s a problem, but if you’re reading a piece of music and you’re constantly looking at your hands, you will definitely lose your place in the song. She had a ruler at the ready to whack my knuckles whenever I looked down at my hands, which only took a few times LOL.
Learning this new instrument, I was naturally intrigued by all the piano players I heard on the radio, most prominently, Elton John. His style was so different than what I was learning with my piano teacher, so I continued my studies while trying to emulate him and what he played. I also started singing along with him and was so frustrated with it, because at the time, my voice had not changed yet and I could not for the life of me reach the lower notes he sang. But, when it finally changed, it was a whole new game.
When I was in the seventh grade, I started Jr. high school learning a new instrument in the concert band, the trumpet. It was relatively easy because I already knew how to read music, so all I had to do was learn how to play it. I got pretty good at it, until my band director, Rick White, came to me and asked if I’d like to try out on the baritone, so I agreed, and was the band’s new baritone player. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and was even more thrilled when I found out Mr. White moved up to take the high school marching band director position. Now it was a whole new playing field, learning how to march in formation while playing the baritone properly. Every Friday night we played our shows at my school’s football games, the Gardendale Rockets. That was a tough, but enjoyable time in my life. Each summer before school started, we were out on the practice field every morning from 8:00 am – 12:00 noon, and then in the band room from 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm to make sure we learned every single note of every song we played. The summers were hot and miserable, but it prepared and conditioned us to march as a single unit and perform a great show. It also got us ready to compete in the area marching band competitions, and we were the top band out of every school that entered the competition.
At the same time I was in the marching and symphonic bands, I enrolled in the concert choir and sang, you guessed it, baritone. I got to know and respect my teacher, James Garner. He could tell I was different, because he asked me to be the student accompanist all the time. I didn’t mind at all, because the type of pieces we sang were uniquely choral arrangements from different genres of music. We frequently performed musicals such as Oliver and Carousel, and I was one of the student musicians for those. We also performed Christmas concerts at the huge Methodist church in town, which was a thrill. Between my junior and senior year, Mr. Garner lined up my first professional piano gig, playing the musical score for The Wizard Of Oz at the summer playhouse theater in Birmingham. To date, that was the toughest thing musically I had ever done, but it continued to stretch my abilities at reading and playing such intricate pieces. I played the original score from the 1939 film production at 17! The year before, he told the class about people he had worked with who could accurately pull correct pitches out of thin air, and this intrigued me, because I could do the same thing and thought everyone else could as well. He assured me they could not, and that this was a special God-given gift and ability, so one day I asked if he could test me for this gift called perfect pitch and he agreed, but waited until class started before he did. He called me to the front and told me to turn my back to the piano so I couldn’t see what notes he was playing. I correctly named every single note he played, then tried to confuse me by banging all over the keyboard so I wouldn’t remember what I just heard. He asked me to sing a G below middle C, making me pull that note out of thin air, and I sang it with accurate precision. Needless to say everyone in the room was shocked, including Mr. Garner.
I started playing piano in my small country Baptist church in Cold Springs, AL on Easter Sunday in 1980, after my aunt, Eloise Hannah, showed me a few things about playing church music out of the red back hymnal which was in every church for miles around. I thought it was a Baptist hymnal until years later, I discovered it was published by the Church of God headquarters in Cleveland, Tennessee (another story for later). It was a completely different style of music I had never encountered before, so I was yet again challenged to stretch my musical ability. Once I got the feel for it and progressed in it musically, I began to venture out into Southern Gospel music, also introduced to me by my aunt. The first SG quartet I ever listened to was The Inspirations, and I was hooked. I started buying their albums at their concerts I attended, because beck then, that was the only way you could get your hands on their product. There wasn’t many of their albums I didn’t have, and when I learned their songs, I started buying their sheet music and sang them in church. I found it easy to play and sing at the same time, so that’s what I did for a long time, until I got the idea to put together a small singing group at church called The Joymakers. It consisted of another aunt and three of my cousins. We sang like this for a few years, before two of them started going to other churches. We thought it was the end, but we carried on anyway and sang at a few local churches with the members we had left. Eventually that group came to an end, but other cousins entered the picture who could sing, so occasionally we would learn a song or two here and there, but that was it; nothing serious.
The same aunt who taught me how to play church music, got with me and her husband and also another cousin, and we formed a group that sang at different local churches, like the first group I was in. I had honed my skills by this time, by listening to gospel greats that have gone on such as Wally Varner, Hovie Lister, Anthony Burger, Roger Bennett and Jeff Stice, plus the guys that are still with us such as Gerald Wolfe, Tim Parton, Jamie Graves, Channing Eleton and Garry Jones. They were all huge influences on me. We sang like this for a few years, but we drifted apart, and I was once again left without a way to enjoy this new thing that I loved.
I was working at a mobile home manufacturing plant in 1996 when I met a man by the name of Bruce Abbott, who was the piano player for a regional quartet called Pure Heart. We got to know each other pretty well, so when I told him I played piano and bass, he asked if I would consider auditioning for their bass player. We met at Cross Baptist Church in Vinemont, Alabama, and it was there I met their tenor singer, Wesley Smith. This was sometime in October, 1996, which was the beginning of a life-long friendship with him. They liked the way I played the bass, so I started playing for them. I also met their bass singer, Bill Lawrence, who had a rich, deep voice. He lived in Falkville, Alabama at the time, so we started practicing at his place in his huge garage. Their lead singer was Josh Feemster, who had a fantastic voice. This was a powerhouse quartet, and it was surprising they didn’t go more places than they did. A few months into traveling and singing with them, Bruce Abbott left the group, which left them in a predicament. They were without a piano player, so I sat down at the piano and started playing a song, can’t remember which one it was. They all looked at me in disbelief, so from that day on, I was promoted to piano. This was sometime in early spring of 1997. Wesley took me under his wing, even though I’m five years older than him. He sure knew his stuff, and I learned a lot under his instruction. I only stayed with them for a year before I felt like I needed to take some time off for personal spiritual healing. When I felt like I was strong enough to return to the quartet life, I called Wesley to ask if I could rejoin Pure Heart. He said he appreciated me wanting to take time for spiritual healing, but felt like the quartet had gone in the direction of using all tracks and no live music, but recommended another quartet that his dad co-founded with Arvil Nix, The King’s Messengers Quartet. I called Arvil and asked if they needed a piano player, and he said yes. I auditioned with them two different times just to make sure it was a great fit, which it was.
During my time with them, Priscilla and I found out we were expecting our first child, Kristina. The Saturday after she was born, I had a singing date that I couldn’t miss, so this was the beginning of a new chapter in our lives. When Kristina was old enough to travel with us, she did great. They spent most of their time rolling down the road in the back of the RV, which bounced up and down. It made for great sleeping for Kristina. I played for them for three years before coming off the road to devote my time to playing piano at my new church, Faith Worship Center in Sumiton, Alabama.
Shortly after I left The King’s Messengers Quartet, Wesley called to tell me of a new quartet he had put together in 2000 called The King’s IV, which consisted of Wesley on tenor, Mark Carlisle on lead, Eric St. Clair on baritone and Kevin Hood on bass. He sent me a few recordings of them and they had a really great sound. Another year had passed and it was now 2001, and I felt the yearning to get back on the road with a quartet again. I called Wesley again to see what he thought about me coming back as his piano player, and he said yes. In the fall of that year, I auditioned by playing a few songs at one of their singings and it was another perfect fit, so I joined them right there on the spot.
God started moving and opened quite a few doors for us in 2002, including the purchase of a Silver Eagle bus and me moving from Sumiton to Vinemont, Alabama. We were traveling all over North Alabama every single weekend, and became apparent that we needed someone to help us with driving and handling our equipment. We asked Joe Kent to drive for us, and he was thrilled. He became a great friend to The King’s IV, so much that he became one of us. We ventured out into our neighboring states later that same year, which allowed us to cross paths with Paul Roark. This was a fateful meeting, because it opened the biggest doors we ever walked through. He invited us to be one of the resident artists on his SonShine Gospel Cruise to Cozumel and Grand Cayman Island in January 2003. This was the first time any of us has ever been on a cruise, so it was an entirely new experience.
We met so many wonderful groups who were signed with Chapel Valley, including The Wright Family, The Hyssongs, solo artist Rick Alan King, The Harvesters Quartet, The Sons Family and The Profitts. I remember thinking Jim Profitt was an awesome singer, so I introduced myself to him and his wife, Shirley. Jim and I hit it off immediately, because I found out that he could play piano and bass as well, so we became inseparable during the remainder of the cruise. Toward the end, we exchanged email addresses and phone numbers and promised to keep in touch. Well, we both fulfilled our end of the promise, and started a friendship that has lasted through thick and thin.
Later in 2003, we were invited back to participate in SonShine Promotions Christmas in the Smokies, which was a 3 day Gospel event that included most of the groups we sang with on the cruise, including Jim and Shirley. We had so much fun catching up with each other and talking about our future plans; it was almost as if time had not passed from the cruise. My wife, Priscilla, got to meet Shirley for the first time and they hit it off immediately just like Jim and I did. I was thrilled, because this meant we could do stuff and hang out as two married couples. Just one month later, we were all together again on the 2004 cruise, this time to the Bahamas. Priscilla was able to go with me this time, along with the other King’s IV wives. We sang our set each night and hung out together as much as we could, but one night turned out to be quite an experience. Wesley, Jim and I were walking through the ship, and discovered one of their Yamaha grand pianos was unlocked in one of the lounge areas, so I sat down and started playing different songs we all knew. Before we knew it, we were in the middle of an impromptu worship gathering! Different groups heard us singing, so they came over to join in with us. I knew just about every song they picked out to sing, but I wanted to hear other people play the piano. The first one I called on to take over for me was Jim, and although he tried to object, I insisted he sit down and play a few. I was amazed at how well he could play country gospel style, so I stood there and watched him play the entire time he was on the piano. Someone else took over, and I believe it was Dale Maxwell of New Ground. He’s a great player also. By this time it was well past midnight, so we all dismissed with a word of prayer and went to our rooms. What happened the next night was simply amazing! Word had spread throughout the artist roster of our “Gathering Around the Piano”, and about a half to two thirds of all the artists showed up to sing and worship around the piano. It was an amazing experience that I’ll never forget!
By the time June 2004 came around, our baritone singer, Eric St. Clair, made the decision to leave us and come off the road.