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As I Went Down in the Valley to Pray/Down in the Valley to Pray/Down to the River to Pray/The Good Old Way/Come Let us All Go Down
SEE ALSO: Come Let us All Go Down (Jubilee Singers)
SEE ALSO: Down in the Valley to Pray
SEE ALSO: Good Old Way
Tradtional Old-Time, Bluegrass Gospel and Spiritual;
ARTIST: Brown Collection 1918
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel
DATE: 1800s- 1867 Allen;
First Recorded in 1927 by the Price Family Sacred Singers, "I Went Down Into the Valley to Pray" (OKeh 40796, 1927)
Delta Big Four, "Moaner Let's Go Down in the Valley" (Paramount 13009, 1930; on VocalQ2)
RECORDING INFO: As I Went Down in the Valley to Pray
Mf - Down on the Picket Line
Allen, William Francis, et.al (eds.) / Slave Songs of the United States, Dover, Sof (1995/1867), #104 [1860s] (Good Old Way)
Work, John W. / American Negro Songs and Spirituals, Dover, Bk (1998/1940), p 69 (I Went Down in the Valley)
Cleland, Becky;, Ben and Wayne Seymour. Down in the Valley to Pray, Kudzu KPP 008, CD (2002), trk# 1
Cleland, Becky;, Ben and Wayne Seymour. Down in the Valley to Pray, Kudzu KPP 008, CD (2002), trk# 23
Davidson, Donald. Jackson, George P.(ed.) / Spiritual Folk Songs of Early America, Dover, Sof (1964/1937), p209/#207 [1932/01/20] (I Went Down to the Valley)
Fisk Jubilee Singers. Marsh, J. B. T. / Story of the Jubilee Singers, Houghton Mifflin, Bk (1880), p156/# 33 (Come Let Us All Go Down)
Leadbelly. Leadbelly; The Library of Congress Recordings, Elektra EKL 301/2, LP (1965), trk# C.05d [1933-42]
Montgomery, Chris. Faded Memories, Star SLP12690, Cas (1990), trk# 11 (Valley to Pray)
O'Brien, Tim & Mollie. Take Me Back, Sugar Hill SH 3766, LP (1988), trk# 5 (Down To The Valley To Pray)
Watson, Doc. Home Again, Vanguard VSD 79239, LP (1967), trk# 1
Watson, Doc. Essential Doc Watson, Vanguard VCD 45/46, CD (1986), trk# 7 [1963ca]
Watson, Doc. Watson, Doc / Songs of Doc Watson, Oak, Sof (1971), p102
Watson, Doc. Cooney, Michael (ed.) / How Can We Keep From Singing, Sing Out, Sof (1974), p38
Price Family Sacred Singers, "I Went Down Into the Valley to Pray" (OKeh 40796, 1927)
Delta Big Four, "Moaner Let's Go Down in the Valley" (Paramount 13009, 1930; on VocalQ2)
OTHER NAMES: "The Good Old Way," "Down to the River to Pray" "Down in the Valley to Pray"
SOURCES: Folk Index; Meade
NOTES: "As I Went Down in the Valley to Pray" usually known as, "Down in the Valley to Pray" or "The Good Old Way" was popularized in the 2000 movie, "O Brother Where Art Thou" as "Down to the River To Pray." It appears in the old spiritual books as "The Good Old Way" and "Come Let Us All Go Down" (Fisk Jubilee Singers).
Here's the entry from Brown:
553 As I Went Down in the Valley to Pray- Brown Collection
Songs corresponding to parts of the following are to be found in White ANFS 71, 132: Jackson WNS 166-7: L. L. McDowell, Songs of the Old Camp Ground (Ann Arbor, 1937), p. 44; and Perkins lAFL xxv 233-4. Cf. The Good Old Way,' in Allen SS, p. 84.
'Down in the Valley to Pray.' With music. From Mrs. Maude Minish Sutton; undated, but the following note indicates 1917-18. From the note it is also to be observed that Airs. Sutton's version is not an *African-American song.
"We went to a foot-washing. It isn't a bit funny; it's like the ceremony the King of Spain performs on Christmas Day. The service was held at the Elk Valley church, and we were sure we'd laugh, but we were sobered, and even reverent, when we came away. Nobody could fail to be impressed by the earnestness, the dignity, and the deep sincerity of those old men. The minister read, in the tone he always uses, the story of the Last Supper, and then girding his waist with a towel he went around and washed the feet of five old men. As he did so, the congregation sang the song that follows. There was much emotion. The air was full of it. I felt it and responded to it as I would if I had been at a play.
"The old lady who sat next to me might have posed for the peasant woman in Millet's The Angcliis, and yet I should have chosen her for a typical North Carolina woman. She looked understandingly at the service star I wore. 'Your feller?' she inquired. 'My brother, with the 30th,' I answered. 'My boy's in the 30th,' she said. I talked with
licr after tlie service.
"The old preacher did a pretty thorough job. He washed one pair of feet to a verse. I believe if more elders or deacons, or whatever the honorees were, had l)een present more verses would have been forthcoming.
"The old lady can't write, and neither can her boy. I must tell Ralph to look him up and tell me something about him to tell her. She 'ain't shore' who his captain is — poor old woman!"
A 1. O sisters, le's go down, le's go down, le's go down,
O sisters, le's go down, down in the valley to pray.
As I went down in the valley to pray,
Studyin' about that good old way,
And who should wear the starry crown;
Good Lord, show me the way.
2. O brothers, etc.
3. O mothers, etc.
4. O fathers, etc.
5. O children, etc.
B. No title. From Jennie Belvin, Durham; c. 1920-21. Phonograph recording July 1922.
As I went down in the valley to pray,
Studying about that good old way.
Who shall wear the starry crown?
Good Lord, show me the way.
Chorus: Oh, sinners let's go down,
Let's go down, let's go down.
Oh. sinners let's go down,
Down in the valley to pray.
Oh, mourners, let's go down.
Let's go down, let's go down,
Oh, mourners, let's go down,
Down in the valley to pray.
C. No title. From Miss Aura Hohon, Durham; c. 1924. "I know the air—may he able to get words."
As I went down in the valley to pray,
Studyin' 'bout de good ol' way.
As I went down in de valley to pray.
Oh, Lawd, show me de way.
Chorus: Oh, sinner, yo' better go down.
Yo' better go down, you better go down,
Oh, sinner, you better go down.
Down in de valley to pray.
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