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Story Behind the Song: Mama Taught Me
I grew up surrounded by music because of my mother. She sang special songs in church, and I often traveled with her to places like Monett and Joplin, Missouri, where she even sang on the radio. As a child, my part was to wait in the car until she was done.
As I got older, she began teaching me little songs—Jesus Loves Me, This Little Light of Mine, Preacher and the Bear, My Little Playmate, and even bedtime prayers set to music. Those songs planted seeds of faith and music deep in my heart.
I’ll be honest—when Mama sang in church, I sometimes got nervous for her. I was afraid she might make a mistake, and once I even asked her to stop singing in church. To this day, I wonder how that must have made her feel. But looking back, I realize her faith and courage to keep singing shaped me in ways I couldn’t understand back then.
Mama also sold Stanley Products, and as we drove from one party to another, we sang the whole way there and the whole way home. I believe those moments had a lot to do with God giving me both the love of music and the desire to travel and sing every chance I could.
The funny thing is—I never learned how to read or write music. Still, God would give me songs, both words and melodies, straight to my heart. Later on, I was asked to sing lead in a Gospel group called Canaan Bound. It was a very special season in my life. And I’ll never forget one night, as we started learning a new song, I slipped right into the alto part without even thinking—because Mama had taught it to me years ago.
That’s what this song, Mama Taught Me, is all about. It’s a way of honoring the precious memories of how God used my mother’s voice to put a song in my heart and a calling in my life.
