Claude Ely was born in 1922 in Puckett’s Creek, Va. When he was 12 years old, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and told that he was going to die as a child. His uncle Leander gave him an old guitar, which he would practice on his sickbed where he wrote the song, ‘There Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down”. Sometime down the road in 1954, this song was recorded by the Ohio based record label King at a church revival via a wire that ran through the radio station WCTW out of Whitesburg, Kentucky, producing one of the greatest white gospel 45’s in American music.

Throwback (side b): Brother Claude Ely – Holy Holy (That’s All Right) (don lowed)

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Throwback (side a): Brother Claude Ely – There Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down (don lowed)

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No one else wrote songs that both Elvis & Johnny Cash covered… so there.

Throwback (Bonus): Brother Claude Ely – Fare You Well (don lowed)

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