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Blind Bartimus/Old Blind Barnabus/Barnabas
Traditional Gospel;
ARTIST: Elizabeth LaPrelle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ooLK949IeM
Bare Bones "Old Blind Bartemus" about 1:15 into the program: http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=99190314&m=99094842
CATEGORY: Traditional And Shape-Note Gospel;
DATE: 1900s; Golden Gate Quartet 1941
RECORDING INFO: Blind Bartimus
At - Old Blind Barnabus
Nashville Bluegrass Band. My Native Home, Rounder 0212, LP (1985), trk# A.05
Blind Barnabas; Composed by: Willie Johnson [one of the members of the Golden Gate Quartet] Recording date: 25 May 1941; Produced by: Lennick, David
Blind Barnabas Traditional [on the album:] Warrior on the Battlefield: A Capella Trail Blazers -- 1920s-1940s
Martha Carson/ "Martha Carson's Greatest Gospel Hits," Gusto-Starday (1978) "Barnabas"
Macedonians. Octive 1951 "Old Blind Barnabus"
Sunset Travelers Old Blind Bartimaeus Peacock 1963
OTHER NAMES:
(Old) Blind Barnabas/Barnabus- most notably by the Golden Gate Quartet
Blind Bartemus
Blind Bartimus (seems to be the most common)
Blind Bartemaus
Old Blind Bartimaeus
SOURCES: Folk Index; Mudcat
NOTES: "Blind Bartimus " is a traditional gospel song from Elizabeth LaPrelle which is the Nashville Bluegrass Band's version. [The CD notes from Elizabeth's Lizard in the Spring say the song originally came from the gospel group Harps of Melody, but Elizabeth learned it from Ed Norman, who heard it from the Nashville Bluegrass Band. On their CD, the a cappella gospel group "New Hope Harmony" say they got the song from Harps of Melody and the Nashville Bluegrass band (Joe Newberry is part of New Hope Harmony)]
Joe Hickerson "Songfinder" column in Sing Out! in September, 2007:
Nicole enquires: "I'm trying to learn more about a song called 'BLIND BARNABUS.' I first heard it on a Laura Love recording years ago and I'm having a hard time tracking down any written lyrics or other recordings of it. Does anyone know more about it?" Bill Brisotti opined, "You probably mean 'Old Blind Barnabas,' an old Johnny Horton song from the 1950s. You should be able to find it on the web." From Bill Roberson came "Jackie Washington [of Canada] sings it on his CD 'Where Old Friends Meet' with Mose Scarlett and Ken Whiteley, Pyramid Records, 1991." Our esteemed Editor Mark Moss had this to offer: "Johnny Horton recorded the song, and claimed ownership to boot, but this one has been around and recorded lots of times, with various titles ('Blind Barnabas' or 'Blind Bartimus' ... with or without the 'Old'), well before Horton put his automatic copyrighting machine to it. It's an old gospel piece, recorded several times by the Blind Boys of Alabama, the Golden Gate Quartet and a number of other classic Gospel groups. (My personal favorite is the recording by the Harps of Melody, a Memphis based women's quartet, captured on Happy in the Service of Our Lord a compilation put together by ethnomusicologist David Evans in the early 1980s, now reissued on CD by Hightone . There are actually two versions on this disc, by two different groups ...) I don't actually have the CD reissue, but the lyrics were included (along with great historical notes by Kip Lornell) with the original LP. Ideally, they'd be included with the reissue as well." Jack Beard added that "Mark 10:46-52 is the story of blind Bartmacus whose sight was restored by Jesus. I assume all the songs about Blind Barnabus et al are based on this story. Until I hear the Harps of Melody, my favorite version is 'The Little Wonders of Havre de Grace Maryland'--Old Blind Bartemus."
Joe Offer: Document Records has a 1927 recording of a song called Blind Bartemus by Rev. T.T.Rose - but the recording clips I found weren't long enough for me to tell if it was the same song. The authorship is just too heavily clouded. Heck, even Joe Hickerson doesn't have a definitive answer, and I found five files on the song at the Harry Fox Agency - attributed to "Stepney," Willie T. Johnson, Martha Carson, A. Coleman, and 'trad-arranged by.'"
Bartimaeus (more accurately Bar Timaeus, "Son of Timaeus") is the name given in the Gospel of Mark to a blind man healed by Jesus as he exited Jericho (Mark 10:46-52).
That's it - the name appears just that once, and in the Gospel of Mark. Matthew and Luke also tells the story, but doesn't name names.
And while we're at it, we might take note of the telling of the Bartimeus story in the set of lyrics usually sung to the shape note hymn of "Villulia" (56b in the Sacred Harp):, a VERY different tune:
"Mercy, O Thou Son of David,"
Thus poor blind Bartimeus prayed,
"Others by Thy grace are saved,
Now to me afford Thine aid."
Money was not what he wanted,
Though by begging used to live;
But he asked, and Jesus granted,
Alms that none but He could give.
"Lord, remove this grievous blindness,
Let mine eyes behold the day,"
Straight he saw and, won by kindness,
Followed Jesus in the way.
"Old Blind Barnabas," was in the repertoire of Martha Carson. Kentucky's Martha Carson was the wife of James Roberts, son of fellow Kentuckian Fiddlin' Doc Roberts. He backed his father and recorded duets with Asa Martin too. He soloed as James Carson. When he and Martha married they recorded as James and Martha Carson on on White Church and other labels during the 40s. She was certainly Marthie of Mattie, Marthie and Minnie, "The Sunshine Girls," who did a rousing record of "You Can't Live With 'Em and You Can't Live Without 'Em," and ought to have been more widely recorded. She did a blazing version of "Barnabas," too, on "Martha Carson's Greatest Gospel Hits," Gusto-Starday (1978)
Blind Bartimus- Elizabeth LaPrelle/Nashville Bluegrass Band
Well old Blind Bartimus stood on the way blind
Blind Bartimus stood on the way,
Well old Blind Bartimus stood on the way, cryin'
Oh Lord have mercy on me
(repeat)
In my God's bible in the book of James
Christ was a-healin' the crippled and the lame
He gave to the poor and the needy bread,
Healin' the sick and a-raisin' the dead
Well when he came to Galilee
He passed by a man who could not see
The man was blind, he was blind from birth;
They tell me that his name was Blind Bartimus
Well old Blind Bartimus stood on the way blind
Blind Bartimus stood on the way
Well old Blind Bartimus stood on the way, cryin'
Oh Lord have mercy on me
When Bartimus heard that the Lord was nigh
He fell on his knees and began to cry
Oh the man from Galilee
Cryin' Great God Almighty have mercy on me
Cryin' Oh Lord
(Mary's baby)
Oh Lord
(Son of David)
Oh Lord
(Bleeding Lamb)
Lord, my troubles in Bethlehem
(repeat)
Well my God he stopped, he turned around
And he saw Blind Bartimus on the ground
And he touched his eyes with the palm of his hand
Blind Bartimus saw like a natural man
Crying Thank God
(Mary's baby)
Thank God
(Son of David)
Thank God
(Bleeding Lamb)
Lord, my troubles in Bethlehem
(repeat)
Well old Blind Bartimus stood on the way blind
Blind Bartimus stood on the way
Well old Blind Bartimus stood on the way, cryin'
Oh Lord have mercy on me.
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