Showalter was a mu­sic teach­er, au­thor and pub­lish­er. He stu­died with Ben­ja­min C. Un­seld and George F. Root; for a year in 1895, he stu­died mu­sic for in Eng­land, France, and Ger­ma­ny. He pub­lished over 130 mu­sic books, which sold more than a mil­lion co­pies. He was prin­ci­pal of the South­ern Nor­mal Mu­sic­al Ins­ti­tute in Dal­ton, Geor­gia, from its in­cept­ion in 1880. He ed­it­ed The Mus­ic­al Teach­er for over 20 years, and served as an el­der of the First Pres­by­ter­ian Church in Dal­ton, Georg­ia. He was in­duct­ed in­to the South­ern Gos­pel Mu­sic As­so­ci­a­tion Hall of Fame in 2000. His works in­clude:

• Harmony and Com­po­si­tion, 1880
• Good Tidi­ngs Com­bined, 1885
• Rudiments of Mu­sic, 1887
• Showalter’s The­o­ry of Mu­sic, 1888
• Class, Choir and Con­gre­ga­tion, 1888
• True Meth­od for the Reed Or­gan, 1888
• Showalter’s New Meth­od, 1887
• Hymns, Tunes and Gos­pel Songs, 1888
• Showalter’s Se­lect Songs, 1890
• New Ru­di­ments of Mu­sic, 1891
• Showalter’s Nor­mal Chor­us Book, 1895
• Complete Ru­di­ments, 1896
• Class, Choir and Con­gre­ga­tion No. 2, 1896
• Rudiments and No­ta­tion, 1896
• Showalter’s New Har­mo­ny and Com­po­si­tion, 1896
• Showalter’s Gos­pel Songs No. 1, 1899
• Showalter’s Gos­pel Songs No. 2, 1901
• Standard Church Mu­sic, 1901
• Showalter’s An­thems, Vol. 1, 1902
• Paeans of Praise, with Ru­fus Cor­ne­li­us et al., 1905

• Anderson, p. 202
• Baxter, pp. 175-77
• Erickson, p. 392
• Hall, pp. 361-63

1. Dear Sav­ior, I Would Come
2. Jesus Is Pass­ing This Way
3. Light of the World Is Je­sus, The
4. Some Sweet Day

1. After the Life-Paths
2. Come to Me
3. Draw Me Clos­er, Lord, to Thee
4. In the Morn­ing of Joy
5. Like a Way­ward Child I Wan­dered
6. Silver Lin­ings
7. Showalter
8. Waves of Sal­va­tion, The