One of the last songs that Johnny Cash recorded before he died was called, “There Ain’t No Grave (Gonna Hold My Body Down).”

But that song is not a Johnny Cash original. “Ain’t No Grave” was actually written in 1934, by a 12-year-old boy named Claude Ely. Ely went on to become an itinerant Pentecostal preacher known to his followers as Brother Claude, the Gospel Ranger. Brother Claude was a fiery speaker and an electrifying singer. Outside the Appalachian mountains, his name was barely known. But his music helped influence some of the pioneers of rock & roll.