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I’m Gwine Home on de Mornin’ Train/All My Sins Been Taken Away/Mary Wore Three Links of Chain/All My Sins Are Taken Away/Mary Wore A Golden Chain/As I Went Down in the Valley to Pray
Public Domain Old-Time, Bluegrass Gospel by William Golden;
ARTIST: Journal of American folklore, Volume 27 By American Folklore Society 1914
Mary Wore Three Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_rCag1w8H0
CATEGORY: Traditional Bluegrass Gospel;
DATE: 1800s; First Recorded in 1927 by Price Family Sacred Singers (I Went Down Into the Garden To Pray); Buffalo Ragged Five (All My Sins Are Taken Away) 1932
RECORDING INFO: All My Sins Been Taken Away [Me III-C 4]
Mary Wore Three Links of Chain [Me III-C 4]
Rt - Hold On
At - All My Sins Been Taken Away
Buffalo Ragged Five (All My Sins Are Taken Away) 1932
Price Family Sacred Singers (I Went Down Into the Garden To Pray) 1927
Sandburg, Carl (ed.) / American Songbag, Harcourt, Sof (1955/1928), p474
Kincaid, Bradley. Mountain Ballads and Old Time Solos. Album Number Six, Bluebonnet BL 123, LP (1963), trk# B.05 [1963/07ca]
Richardson, John. Morris, Alton C. / Folksongs of Florida, Univ. Florida, Bk (1950), p168/# 90 [1934-39] (Mary Wore Three Silver Chains)
OTHER NAMES: "Mary Wore Three Links of Chain" "My Sins Are All Taken Away"
"Mary Wore A Golden Chain" "I’m Gwine Home on de Mornin’ Train" "As I went down in the valley to pray"
RELATED TO: "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane" "Free at Last"
SOURCES: Folk Index; Meade
NOTES: "All My Sins Been Taken Away" is closely tied to "Mary Wore Three Links of Chain" and the similar "Hand Me Down My Walking Chain." James Blnd reportedly wrote/arranged "Hand Me Down My Walking Chain" in 1880 but there seems to be little evidence and no sheet music to back up this claim.
The Great Song Thesaurus (Oxford UP) has an entry "(Oh) Hand Me Down My Walking Cane," and it says: 1865 w.m. traditional black American spiritual
Even this seems suspect as there is no reference to the source. The song, "Hand Me Down My Walking Chain" was popular among both blacks and whites and was recorded by various early Country string bands with Gid Tanner then Kelly Harrell both in 1926.
How do you separate the spirituals? Versions of "All My Sins Been Taken Away" usually include lyrics from "Mary Wore Three Links of Chain" while "Hand Me Down My Walking Chain" has more secular lyrics such as , "going to leave here on the midnight train."
"All My Sins Been Taken Away" usually doesn't have the "hand me down my walking cane" verse.
One of the early versions of "All My Sins Been Taken Away" was published in 1922 by E. A. Perkins in the Journal of American Folk-Lore.
21. ALL ER MY SINS ARE TAKEN ERWAY- 1922 JOAFL
CHORUS: All er my sins are taken erway.
All er my sins are taken erway.
All er my sins are taken erway,
Oh, glory to His name!
All er my sins are taken erway.
Taken erway.
Sister Mary wore three links of chain,
Sister Mary wore three links of chain,
Sister Mary wore three links of chain,
Every link had Jesus' name.
All er my sins are taken erway.
Taken erway.
CHORUS:
If I had er died when I was young,
I had er died when I was young.
If I had er died when I was young,
I wouldn't have had this race to run.
All er my sins are taken erway.
Taken erway.
CHORUS:
The tallest tree in Paradise,
The tallest tree in Paradise,
The tallest tree in Paradise,
The Christians call it the tree of life.
All er my sins are taken erway,
Taken erway.
CHORUS:
As I went down in the valley to pray,
As I went down in the valley to pray,
I went down in the valley to pray,
I went down in the valley to pray.
My soul got happy and I staid all day.
All er my sins are taken erway,
Taken erway.
CHORUS:
If I had wings like Noah's dove,
If I had wings like Noah's dove,
If I had wings like Noah's dove,
I'd fly away to the world above,
All er my sins are taken erway.
Taken erway.
CHORUS:
"All My Sins Been Taken Away" BALLAD INDEX:
DESCRIPTION: "I don't care what this world may say, The're all taken away... All my sins are taken away, taken away." Much of the rest of the song floats, e.g. "The devil is mad and I am glad."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (recording, Kelly Harrell)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
BrownIII 551, "All My Sins Been Taken Away" (1 text)
Chappell-FSRA 85, "My Sins Are All Taken Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4205
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "All My Sins Are Taken Away" (Victor 40095, 1929; on KHarrell02)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane" (lyrics)
cf. "Free at Last" (lyrics)
Notes: This song shares nearly every word of its contents with "Hand Me Down My Walkin' Cane," and I initially lumped them. But there are enough versions without the walkin' cane that I finally split them. This particular version seems best-known in North Carolina; perhaps it's a local sub-text? - RBW
"All My Sins Been Taken Away" is known by a number of titles including "As I went down in the Valley to Pray," "Mary Wore Three Links of Chain," "My Sins Are All Taken Away," "I’m Gwine Home on de Mornin’ Train" and "Mary Wore A Golden Chain."
SOME NEGRO FOLK-SONGS FROM TENNESSEE- COLLECTED AND EDITED BY ANNA KRANZ ODUM; Journal of American folklore, Volume 27 By American Folklore Society 1914
The following negro folk-songs were heard in Sumner County, Tennessee, and were all sung by the children of one family, sometimes two or three of the children singing "parts," but oftener by one girl of fifteen, who sang as she worked. These children could not read, and they sang only the songs they had heard from their elders at home, in the fields, or at church; and they represent a link in the perpetuation of the negro folk-songs. They live in a rural community of negroes whose inhabitants are somewhat stationary, but not isolated. A few of the songs which they sang have been published before; but the versions are different, and they are given here for the purpose of comparison with the same songs from other localities. The majority of the songs are religious, or "spirituals;" and it was with difficulty that the few secular songs were collected, for the singers were reticent about singing any but "church songs," because, they said, they "belonged to de church." Other singers from the same community were later heard singing some of these songs.
8. ALL MY SINS BEEN TAKEN AWAY
Following is a popular song of this class, and one that has appeared before1 in different forms. Only the stanzas that have not been published before are given here.
Chorus: All my sins been taken away
All my sins been taken away
All my sins been taken away
All my sins been taken away
Glory hallelujah to the Holy Name!
All my sins been taken away,
I'm goin' home on the mornin' train,
If you don't see, you'll hear me sing.
Hand me some whiten* let me whiten my hand,
Hand me some whiten* let me whiten my hand,
Wish I had married when I was young,
Wouldn't a had all dat race to run.
whitening
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