Rory Feek – I’ll Fly Away

“Scroll down to the end of the article to listen to music.”

Introduction

Few songs carry the weight of faith, hope, and longing for something greater quite like “I’ll Fly Away.” Whether you’ve heard it in church, at a funeral, or strummed on a back porch with friends, this hymn has a way of sinking into your soul and lifting your spirit all at once.

Written in 1929 by Albert E. Brumley, this gospel classic isn’t just a song—it’s a promise. Brumley was reportedly inspired while picking cotton, humming an old prison work song called “The Prisoner’s Song.” But rather than a lament of confinement, his lyrics transformed into something more profound—a vision of freedom, of flying away from the burdens of life and into eternal rest.

What makes “I’ll Fly Away” so powerful is its simplicity. The melody is warm and familiar, wrapping around you like a comforting embrace. And the lyrics? They cut right to the heart:
“Some glad morning when this life is over, I’ll fly away…”
There’s no uncertainty, no doubt—just a deep-seated belief that something beautiful awaits beyond this life.

Over the decades, the song has been covered by countless artists—from bluegrass greats like Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch to country legends like Johnny Cash. It even found its way into pop culture through movies and TV shows, proving that its message is as timeless as ever.

At its core, “I’ll Fly Away” is a song of release—letting go of pain, embracing peace, and soaring into the unknown with faith. It’s the kind of tune that unites people, whether they’re singing it in harmony at a Sunday service or reflecting quietly during a moment of solitude. And maybe that’s why it still resonates so deeply today—because we all long for a place where the troubles of this world no longer weigh us down

Video

Lyrics

Some bright morning when this life is over, I’ll fly away
To that home on God’s celestial shore I’ll fly away,
I’ll fly away, oh glory, I’ll fly away
When I die hallelujah by and by, I’ll fly away

When the shadows of this life have gone, I’ll fly away
Like a bird from prison bars have flown, I’ll fly away

I’ll fly away, oh glory, I’ll fly away
When I die, hallelujah by and by, I’ll fly away

(Take it away)

Oh how glad and happy when we meet, I’ll fly away
No more cold iron shackles on my feet, I’ll fly away

I’ll fly away, oh glory, I’ll fly away
When I die, hallelujah by and by, I’ll fly away
Just a few more weary days and then, I’ll, I’ll fly away
To a land where joy will never end, I’ll fly away
(One more time)
I’ll fly away, oh glory, I’ll fly away
When I die, hallelujah by and by, I’ll fly away
When I die, hallelujah by and by, I’ll fly away

Country Music

MARTINA McBRIDE WENT ON TOUR WITH GARTH BROOKS SELLING T-SHIRTS. A FEW YEARS LATER, SHE WAS WALKING ONSTAGE TO OPEN HIS SHOWS. Martina McBride moved to Nashville with her husband John in January 1990, just as country music was entering one of its biggest commercial eras. John found work as a sound engineer and, in 1991, became production manager for Garth Brooks. Martina was still trying to build a singing career, but she also wanted to spend more time with her husband, so she joined the tour in a very different role. She sold T-shirts. While Brooks was filling arenas, Martina worked the merchandise table and kept trying to get her own voice heard in Nashville. She recorded a five-song demo and began approaching labels, but RCA had strict rules against accepting unsolicited material. Martina found a way around them. She put the cassette inside a bright purple package and wrote “REQUESTED MATERIAL” across the front in large letters, even though nobody at RCA had requested it. The package made it through. RCA listened to the tape and signed Martina McBride in 1991. Her debut album, The Time Has Come, arrived in May 1992. It leaned heavily toward traditional country and earned some critical praise, but commercially it struggled and failed to give Martina the breakthrough she needed. Still, the record deal had already changed her place on Garth Brooks’ tour. By the summer of 1992, Martina was no longer working behind the merchandise table. She was opening shows for Brooks, including his sold-out appearance at the Forum in Los Angeles that July. The jump was enormous. Brooks was playing some of the biggest rooms in country music, while Martina was being asked to walk out in front of those crowds before she had a major hit of her own. She later described the experience as “sink or swim.” It forced her to learn quickly how to command an arena and trust herself onstage. The first album still did not take off. Her second one did. With The Way That I Am in 1993, Martina stopped second-guessing herself as much. “My Baby Loves Me” became a major hit, “Life No. 9” followed, and “Independence Day” helped establish the kind of strong, message-driven material that would become central to her career. By 1994, she was touring with Brooks again, this time with hit records behind her and European dates ahead. Garth Brooks gave Martina McBride access to enormous audiences before country radio had fully decided what to do with her. But the first real door had opened earlier, back in Nashville, when a five-song cassette arrived at RCA inside a purple package carrying two words that were technically untrue. “REQUESTED MATERIAL.” Sometimes the difference between an unheard demo and a record contract was simply getting someone to open the package.

Country Music

WADE HAYES WAS 42, FIT AND STILL TOURING WHEN DOCTORS FOUND STAGE IV COLON CANCER THAT HAD ALREADY SPREAD DEEPLY INTO HIS LIVER. DURING CHEMOTHERAPY, HE STARTED WRITING A SONG AROUND THE QUESTION HE WAS AFRAID TO ASK: “IS IT ALREADY TIME?” Years earlier, Hayes had arrived on country radio almost effortlessly. His 1994 debut single, “Old Enough to Know Better,” went to No. 1, followed by a run of Top 10 records that made his baritone familiar across 1990s country. By 2011, that commercial peak was behind him, but Hayes was still recording and performing. For several years he had also been ignoring minor bleeding and fatigue. He was young, lifting weights heavily and had no known family history of colon cancer, so cancer seemed an unlikely explanation. Then one October night, the pain became impossible to dismiss. Hayes still flew to Houston the next morning and played his scheduled show. Back in Nashville, a colonoscopy found a large tumor. Further tests delivered the worse news: the cancer had spread extensively into his liver. Kix Brooks heard about the diagnosis through a mutual friend and helped get Hayes into Vanderbilt. The situation soon became urgent. On December 8, surgeons removed more than 20 inches of his large intestine, roughly 60–75 percent of his liver and part of his diaphragm. Chemotherapy followed. That was when Hayes began writing “Is It Already Time?” Much of it came during chemotherapy and walks with his dog Jack. The title was not poetic invention. Hayes had been reading survival statistics and found himself genuinely wondering whether, at 42, he had already reached the end of his life. Then, almost exactly a year after the first battle, doctors found cancer again — this time in his lymph nodes. More chemotherapy. Another operation. Hayes survived that one too. After his second treatment, an oncologist looked at his results and gave him a simple instruction: go live your life. Hayes carried those words away and turned them into another song, eventually making Go Live Your Life the title of his 2015 album. That left two songs documenting two very different Wade Hayeses. He has since said he no longer wants to write from the place that produced “Is It Already Time?” The experience changed what he wanted his songs to give people: less fear, more hope. And Jack — the dog beside him on those walks while the first song was taking shape — eventually received a song of his own. Hayes called it “Who Saved Who?”

Country Music

BEFORE DIAMOND RIO HAD A RECORD DEAL, THEY WERE PLAYING FOR TOURISTS AT OPRYLAND. THEN THEIR FIRST SINGLE WENT TO No. 1 — SOMETHING NO COUNTRY GROUP HAD EVER DONE BEFORE. Diamond Rio did not begin as six musicians arriving in Nashville with a finished plan. Its roots ran through the Tennessee River Boys, a band that performed at the former Opryland USA theme park. Marty Roe, Jimmy Olander and Dan Truman eventually left that group to build something of their own in 1986. Drummer Brian Prout and mandolinist Gene Johnson joined the following year, and bassist Dana Williams completed what became the classic six-man lineup in 1989. That same year, the group adopted the name Diamond Rio. The chemistry was unusually important. Their sound depended not only on Roe’s lead vocal but on tight harmonies and musicians who could play with the precision of a studio band. Unlike many country acts built around one star and changing road musicians, Diamond Rio’s identity came from the six men functioning as a unit. Arista Nashville signed them in 1990. Then came the first test. Their debut single, “Meet in the Middle,” was released in 1991. It told a simple story about two young people meeting halfway beneath an old Georgia pine, but radio reacted far beyond anything expected from a brand-new group. The song climbed all the way to No. 1. In doing so, Diamond Rio became the first country group in history to send its debut single to the top of the chart. It was not a one-record accident. “Mirror, Mirror” and “Mama Don’t Forget to Pray for Me” followed, while their self-titled debut album helped establish Diamond Rio as part of the early-’90s “young country” movement. The combination of polished harmonies, bluegrass-rooted instrumentation and contemporary country production gave them a sound that was recognizable almost immediately. Seven years after that first single, another Nashville institution made the trajectory even more significant. On April 18, 1998, Diamond Rio was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. They were the first group since The Whites in 1984 to receive Opry membership. For a band whose roots had grown only a short distance away inside an amusement park built around country music, that distinction carried a different weight. The early Opryland years had taught them how to play together. “Meet in the Middle” proved that country radio was ready for them. But the Opry invitation meant something else entirely: Diamond Rio was no longer simply part of Nashville’s new generation. By 1998, one of Nashville’s oldest institutions had decided they belonged in its permanent family.

Rory Feek – I’ll Fly Away

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