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Almost Done Traveling/Rocky Road/Most Done Travelin'/Mighty Rocky Road
Traditional Old-Time, Bluegrass Gospel by William Golden;
ARTIST: George Pullen Jackson 1943; Fenner's Cabin and Plantation Songs 1874
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel
DATE: 1800s; First Recorded in 1928 by Alabama Sacred Harp Singers
Record label: Columbia Serial #:15274D (W146091)
RECORDING INFO: Almost Done Traveling/Rocky Road
Alabama Sacred Harp Convention Singers. Anthology of American Folk Music, Smithsonian/Folkways SFW 40090, CD( (1997), trk# 44 [1928/04/16]
Alabama Sacred Harp Convention Singers. Folk Music USA. Vol. 1, Folkways FE 4530, LP (1959), trk# D.04
Sacred Harp Singers. Traditional Music at Newport, 1964, Part 1, Vanguard VSD 79182, LP (1965), trk# 16
OTHER NAMES: "Almost Done Traveling," "Most Done Traveling" "Rocky Road"
SOURCES: Folk Index; Jackson
NOTES: "Almost Done Traveling" appears in the Sacred Harp as "Rocky Road" written by J. C. Brown & Paine Denson, 1935. Clearly they didn't write the song (it was recorded in 1928) just added it to the Sacred Harp collection. Jackson in his book, White and negro Spirituals, titles this "Almost Done Traveling" and the african-American version is usually known as "Most Done Traveling" but also as "Mighty Rocky Road."
"Mighty Rocky Road" John Work; African-American Spiritual
1. It's a mighty rocky road,
Most done traveling, Mighty rocky road,
Most done traveling, Mighty rocky road,
Most done traveling, Bound to carry my soul to the Lord.
Chorus:
I'm bound to carry my soul to Jesus,
Bound to carry my soul to the Lord,
I'm bound to carry my soul to Jesus,
Bound to carry my soul to the Lord.
2. My sister's on the road,
Most done traveling, Sister's on the road,
Most done traveling, Sister's on the road,
Most done traveling, Bound to carry my soul to the Lord.
Chorus I'm bound to carry my soul to Jesus, etc.
Jackson quotes Fenner's Cabin and Plantation Songs 1874 as one of the early versions of this traditional song.
Almost Done Traveling (Mos' done trabeling) Fenner 1874
See: "Most Done Trabeling" for complete lyrics
[Solo] O my mudder's in de road,
[All] Mos' done trabeling
[Solo] O my mudder's in de road,
[All] Mos' done trabeling
[Solo] O my mudder's in de road,
[All]Mos' done trabeling
[All] I'm boun' to carry my soul to de Lord.
CHORUS: I'm boun' to carry my soul to my Jesus,
I'm boun' to carry my soul to de Lord.
I'm boun' to carry my soul to my Jesus,
I'm boun' to carry my soul to de Lord.
294 Rocky Road- Sacred Harp 1935 Edition
Tune: J. C. Brown & Paine Denson, 1935
Words: J. C. Brown & Paine Denson, 1935
Meter: Irregular
I’m enlisted on the road,
I’m almost done traveling,
Enlisted on the road.
I’m bound to go where Jesus is,
My soul shall ascend where Jesus is,
To enjoy the peaceful home of rest.
I’m bound to go where Jesus is,
And be there forever blest.
Chorus: It’s a mighty rocky road,
I’m almost done traveling,
A mighty rocky road,
I’m bound to go where Jesus is.
I’ve a Father on the road,
He’s almost done traveling,
A Father on the road.
He’s bound to go where Jesus is,
His soul shall ascend where Jesus is,
To enjoy the peaceful home of rest.
He’s bound to go where Jesus is,
And be there forever blest.
(Chorus)
"Rocky Road" performed by Alabama Sacred Harp Singers. "Vocal group with reed organ." Recorded in Atlanta on April 16, 1928. Original issue Columbia 15274D (W146091).
The Alabama Sacred Harp Singers was a vocal group from rural Alabama. The group was led by Paine Denson, A. Marcus Cagle and "Uncle Dock" Owen. Little is known of Cagle or Owen, but Paine Denson came from the musical Denson family. Thomas and Seaborn Denson, Paine's father and uncle, respectively, are considered to be the patriarchs of northern Alabama Sacred Harp singing.
In 1928, the Alabama Sacred Harp Singers journeyed to Atalanta, Georgia to record a session for Columbia Records. They recorded fourteen sides, including this version of "Rocky Road," as well as its B-side, "Present Joys" (which will be discussed in our next selection). The Singers were next recorded by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1942. A brief excerpt from an interview with Paine Denson can be heard.
Sacred Harp singing is a tradition of choral singing that dates to the Country Parish music of early 18th century England. In the mid-1700s, the tradition was brought to the English Colonies of North America where it quickly took hold as the First New England School following the publication of William Billings' New England Psalm Singer. Billings and others established singing schools, with the aim of teaching young people sacred songs. They adopted the "shape note" method of teaching music, first introduced in 1801 with the publication of The Easy Instructor by William Smith and William Little. The shape note system assigns certain shapes to certain notes and the syllables that accompany them. For a visual aid, look here.
Sacred Harp singing takes its name from Benjamin Franklin White and Elisha King's The Sacred Harp, a hymnal published in 1844. The book has gone through numerous printings over the years, and was considered to be the second most popular book (after the Bible) among southerners.
Sacred Harp singing took root in the American South where it became hugely popular. It reached the height of its popularity around the period of the Civil War, and experienced a resurgence during the 1920s, during which time most of the commercial recordings of Sacred Harp music were made. It has experienced a similar revival in recent years. Today, most urban areas have a strong Sacred Harp singing community.
Sacred Harp music is participatory, rather than performative. The chorus is divided into tenors, altos, trebles and basses, which are arraigned in a hollow square, facing the center. At the center of the square is the leader (there is no one leader in a Sacred Harp group. Rather, the duty is shared and the role passes among the members of the group). The chorus sings in full voice. The song usually begins with the singers "tuning up" and singing the song's melody, but substituting the singing syllables (fa, so, la) for the lyrics. This is immediately followed the performance of the song, with lyrics. The "tuning up" has become traditional, and is usually included on any recordings of Sacred Harp groups for authenticity's sake.
The singers in a Sacred Harp group are ordinary people and it encourages community over virtuosity. In their musical form, Sacred Harp songs fall into three types: Hymn tunes, Fuguing tunes, and Anthems. Hymn tunes are generally composed of four-bar phrases and contain multiple verses. Fuguing tunes have a section in which the four choral parts enter in succession. Anthems are longer works that are sung through one time.
Sacred Harp songs are not sung in church, but rather at "conventions" or "singings" gathered for that purpose. These can vary in size and can gather people from all over the country. Some will include a potluck dinner known as "dinner on the ground."
The lyrics to "Rocky Road" refer both to the travails of the material world, which will be alleviated upon death, and to the difficulty of adhering to the "Christian Life." In his A Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan describes this as the "narrow way" and distinguishes from the "easy path" which leads to ruin. The Christian is beset on all sides by temptation and by those who mock and deride him. Perseverance is rewarded, however, when the pilgrim reaches God's kingdom.
Although Smith states in his notes that a reed organ is played on this selection, it is difficult to hear at first. The inclusion of the organ on this selection is atypical, since Sacred Harp singing is usually performed a capella.
"Rocky Road" is the third of six selection that feature vocal groups. It is the first of two tracks in a row that features Sacred Harp singing.
[Arborea, did a song called "Torchbearer" that used "Rocky Road"
Current mood: calm; Category: Life
The Story of Torchbearer
Some of you know, and many don't, that someone that I've loved and treasured for 25 years recently passed away unexpectedly, very suddenly with no goodbyes.
I doubt that I will ever be eloquent enough to fully convey in mere words just who he was, his dependable sense of rightness, his firm devotion to truth, even when it hurt awfully, the powerful understanding and love that my father had for all the people who were blessed enough to know him. He came by this greatness in the most old fashioned of ways, by traveling the rocky road. He wasn't blessed (or cursed) with an easy life, he struggled and worked and shared with all of us. The most heartbreaking part of losing him was that he was about to retire and move up to Maine with my mother and live in a house they were building in the forest. I've missed them since we left Virginia seven years ago and have seen them only in the brief weeks that they would come up for a visit. Buck and I were anxiously looking forward to the years that we would spend with them. I imagined winter by the fireplace, discussing God and eternity and earth and politics and economics. He had a way of seeing through to the core truth of any issue, and I always welcomed his clarity. We would have passed warm spring days roaming the mountains or sitting on the porch watching the loons on shagg pond, spent summer days in the garden and autumn in the kitchen canning the bountiful harvest. Now he's not even on this planet and we are left with such an immense sense of loss that I can't even begin to express it. My most tortured question was WHY??? He was only 62, he was a light in all of our lives, it doesn't seem right that we are deprived of at least twenty more years with him (by my reckoning, it would have seemed fair to pass away at 82) Why couldn't he have stayed??
I really really wanted an answer to this. A friend told me in so many words that maybe the answer is right in front of me. Well it is. Bear in mind that in our beliefs there are many roads to travel before the journey stops (does it ever?)
About the song: I have a song in my cd collection that was recorded way back in 1928 by a group called the Alabama Sacred Harp Singers. It has haunted me ever since I heard it several years back. I could never understand what they were saying, it was too muffled, but the rhythm and the cadence of the song resonated with me. A few weeks before my father died I decided I was going to sample the song and create something new, so I put it into my pc and started working on it, only, nothing ever sounded right with it. I tried singing over it, writing words and melodies, threw that out, then harmonium, banjo, guitar, drums, threw it all away, it never ever sounded right to me.
Then I got that phone call. My sister and I headed down to Virginia to be with our mom and brother. A week of the most intense emotional time of our lives, it tore our hearts apart, but together we were the family we've always been, unbreakable in our combined love. Eventually I was back home and sitting in front of the computer, I brought the song back up and decided I want to make a song for my father, no matter how long it took. So I started chipping away at it again. Got nowhere again. Last week I decided I would try to find out what the hell they were actually singing, so I started searching.
Oh my god, I found the words and it was beyond belief.
Here they are:
I've a father on the road
He's almost done traveling
A father on the road
He's almost done traveling
A father on the road
He's bound to go where Jesus is.
His soul shall ascend where Jesus is
To enjoy the peaceful
Home of rest
He's bound to go where Jesus is
And be there forever blessed.
What are the chances of that? So now I had something to work with, and also the answer for his leaving us became apparent. He went ahead to light the way for the rest of us…
So my words that I added are this:
I've a father on the road
He's almost done traveling
I've a father on the road
He's bound to go
To light the way home
We've a father on the road
He's gone ahead to wait in faith
We've a father on the road
He's bound to go the light the way.
And that's who he was, who he's always been- a torchbearer. (and trailblazer!)]
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