Thanksgiving is less than three weeks away, and that means potluck season. Somewhere a church fellowship hall is already planning who brings the green bean casserole and who brings the rolls.
Country singer Ella Langley grew up around tables like that in Alabama. Right now she’s up for nine CMA Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 18, more than anyone else this year.
But long before any awards, Ella was a church kid.
Her family was Southern Baptist. Twice a week, on Sundays and again on Wednesdays, they were in church, and that went on until she was 18. Her grandparents on her dad’s side “pretty much raised” her at their house, and her grandpa could “play anything by ear.”
She has opened up about family on other podcasts too. On “God’s Country,” the talk turned to her first No. 1 hit and to going hunting with your dad.
Ella Langley talks about her first No. 1 and her dad on “God’s Country”
Here’s where the story gets sweet. The church Ella went to wasn’t always a church building.
“It started in a barn,” she said.
It was a special barn, too, right across from the house her dad grew up in. In her words, “it started in hay bales on that barn, and then they moved it to a church.”
So the congregation sat on hay bales before they ever had pews. That’s about as country as a church gets.
Ella’s school life had the same small-town feel. “Homeschooled until 6th grade, and then 7th grade went back to the same high school my dad went to. Graduated with 32 kids.”
Now about that rule.
Wednesday nights meant potluck. “We’d have potluck every Wednesday, so like the best Southern food you can think of,” Ella said.
Anybody raised on church suppers knows there’s always one dish that vanishes first. At Ella’s church, it was the deviled eggs.
They went so fast that the church had to step in. Ella explained, “they had a rule at church that you could only have 2 deviled eggs on your first go”.
Two, and that was just for your first trip through the line.
According to Ella, people would fight over them otherwise. Anyone who has stood in a potluck line can picture it.
She’s had plenty to talk about since September, when the CMA list came out. Here she is chatting with the TV station WATE about her big haul.
Ella Langley on her nine CMA nominations
Ella told the barn and deviled egg stories herself as a guest on “This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von,” the long-form podcast Theo hosts. Her episode, No. 651, was released April 7. It’s a long, loose talk, and the church and potluck memories come up when she gets into growing up Southern Baptist, so you’ll want to listen for that part.
Ella Langley tells Theo Von about growing up in church
Ella’s next big night is the CMA Awards on Nov. 18. Thanksgiving comes eight days later, on Nov. 26, and if your church is having a potluck, it might be smart to get to the deviled eggs early.