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Blessed Be The Name/Blessed Be the Name of the Lord
Traditional Old-Time Gospel;
ARTIST: Collected in Tennessee- 1914 Journal of American Folk-Lore
Clark and Hudson- 1891:
Wesley and Hudson version from 1894: http://books.google.com/books?id=kGyRyD5h07oC&pg=PA83&dq=%22Blessed+Be+The+Name%22+hudson&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html&cd=3
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel;
DATE: 1800s; 1909 Odum; 1914 Journal of American Folk-Lore
RECORDING INFO: Blessed Be The Name
Blessed Be the Name [of the Lord]
Hurt, Mississippi John. Avalon Blues: The Complete 1928 Okeh Recordings, Columbia Legacy CK 64986, CD (1996), trk# 10 [1928/12/28]
Hurt, Mississippi John. D.C. Blues, Vol 2. Library of Congress Rec...,, Fuel 302 061 495 2, CD (2003), trk# 1.13 [1963/07]
RELATED TO: ""
OTHER NAMES: "Blessed Be the Name of the Lord"
SOURCES: Folk Index; Ballad Index; Howard W. Odum, "Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern. Negroes " (American Journal of Psychology and Education, vol. iii, pp. 307, 364) 1909.
NOTES: "Blessed Be The Name" is a traditional African-American spiritual and revival hymn. Several spiritual versions, adapted by African-Americans, were collceted in the early 1900s and Mississippi John Hurt recorded a similar version. Today it's also used as a contemporary Christian praise song. The version found here in the Journal of American folklore, Volume 27 in 1914 is very similar to the one played by blues musician Mississippi John Hurt.
The chorus is an old revival hymn that was adapted by Ralph E. Hudson who wrote the music with lyric verses by William H. Clark. Their version was published in 1891. Another version after the hymn appeared with Hudson's chorus and lyrics by Charles Wesley (from 1773) with a date given as 1888. More accurate info is needed to confirm the dates and when Hudson adapted the folk hymn.
SOME NEGRO FOLK-SONGS FROM TENNESSEE COLLECTED AND EDITED BY ANNA KRANZ ODUM [1914 Journal of American Folk-Lore]
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.
16. BLESSED BE THE NAME!
A remarkable adaptation of the well-known revival song, "Blessed Be the Name of the Lord" l is found in the following, in which the chorus is identical, and the stanza adapted and made out of whole cloth.
CHORUS: Blessed be the Name, blessed be the Name,
Blessed be the Name of the Lord!
Blessed be the Name, blessed be the Name,
Blessed be the Name of the Lord!
If you don't not like your sister,
Do not carry her name abroad.
Take her in your bosom and carry her home to God.
Blessed be the Name of the Lord!
The songs which narrate stories from the Bible often give the substance of the story in a few lines, and the rest of the song may be more or less related to the subject.
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