Dottie Rambo: The Gifted Songwriter of the Twentieth Century (An Introduction)

Dottie Rambo and the Imperials "Remind Me Dear Lord"



Dottie Rambo's death



Nearly two-and-a-half years ago I started an essay writing about the life of Dottie Rambo.  It is entitled, "Dottie Rambo: The Gifted Songwriter of the Twentieth Century."  I've hardly got it started.  Now I'm ready to proceed full steam ahead.  After researching on the internet and listening to YouTube specials about the life of Dottie Rambo, I feel I'm at the point I can type out this essay.  This particular post is just the introduction.  I'm going to write a few posts on the life of Dottie Rambo in relation to her music and songwriting.  I don't know how many posts it will take until I complete it in its entirety.  It was challenging to gather all my information because I had a difficult time in chronicling certain events in Dottie Rambo's life.  I've listened to different YouTube specials about Dottie Rambo and some of the information is conflicting in some areas.  I've had some difficulty in trying to put some things together in chronological order because I heard different things from different people when certain events took place. For example, when Dottie Rambo was going through a trial back in the 1970's, she went away to the Ozark Mountains in Missouri for a week and I heard her say in an interview with Joanne Thompson that through that incident she felt inspired to write the song entitled, "He Changed My Tears to Showers of Blessings.  In another Dottie Rambo special, it was said that out of that experience from the Ozarks she felt inspired to write a song entitled, "Love Letters."  Are they both correct?  They probably are.  I believe when she was undergoing some trying times in her life, she probably wrote a series of songs that followed that trial she was facing.  Another example was the date when she wrote the song entitled, "He Looked Beyond My Fault and Saw My Need."  I've read on a website she either wrote that song in either 1968 or 1970.  However, in one of Dottie's last interviews, the narrator claimed when she and the Rambos were called to the floor to sing at the National Quartet Convention in 1964, they sang a new song she write entitled, "He Looked Beyond My Fault and Saw My Need."  Some would say the date that song was written is trivial.  I understand what they're saying.  However, it helps me piece events together in a chronological fashion if I know when they took place.  That's why I place a premium on dates.

Anyone who has read this blog has seen posts written about Dottie Rambo.  When this blog first began in June 2009 I wrote a post about Dottie Rambo on June 23, 2009 entitled, "Dottie Rambo--The Prolific Songwriter of the Twentieth Century.  On March 25, 2011 I posted five YouTube videos of Dottie's last interview on March 27, 2008, entitled, "Faith and Fame."  I've also posted several songs she sang as well as her family the Rambos.  Dottie Rambo was dubbed as "Songwriter of the Century."  Dottie wrote more songs during the twentieth century than any other songwriter.  The Gaithers (Bill and Gloria) wrote approximately 700 songs.  Dottie has written at least 2500 songs--maybe more.  She's second to Fanny Crosby, who in the nineteenth century wrote around 8000 songs.  Dottie discovered her talent for songwriting when she was eight years old when she was at the creek and she had written her first song.  From eight to twelve years old she wrote and sang country songs.  She used to listen to the Grand Ole Opry and it was through that she learned how to play the guitar listening to Chet Atkins.  When she was twelve years of age, she became converted and she had a desire to sing praises to God instead of singing country music.  That didn't set well with her father.  As a result, she had to leave home and since that time she was singing and writing songs.

Some of the most famous gospel songs Dottie wrote were "He Looked Beyond My Fault and Saw My Need", "I Go to the Rock", "Come Spring", "We Shall Behold Him", "Sheltered in the Arms of God", "In the Valley He Restoreth My Soul" and many more.  I will be featuring several posts of this gifted songwriter beginning with her childhood all the way to the time of her death.  I will be chronicling her musical "career", for a lack of a better term, and we will be learning the background behind some of the songs she wrote.  I'll also be mentioning about the problems she had in marriage as well as the time her back ruptured in either 1986 or 1987.  I'll also mention some of the rewards she received throughout her lifetime in singing gospel music.  Dottie was definitely a legend.