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Cheer The Weary Traveler/Oh Show De Weary Traveler/Weary Traveler
Traditional Spiritual
ARTIST: Ashley Bryant "I'm Going To Sing-Black American Spirituals Volume II." {New York, Atheneum, 1982; p.17} "Weary Traveler"
YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utDc9XRBK7w
Cheer The Weary Traveler (The Kingsmen from Missing People)
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel;
DATE: 1800s; 1883 Amanda Berry Smith;
RECORDING INFO: Cheer the Weary Traveler
Kentucky Jubilee Four.“Let Us Cheer the Weary Traveler”
Moore, Lee. Everybody's Favorite, Rural Rhythm RRLM 202, LP (196?), trk# B.06
Work, John W. / American Negro Songs and Spirituals, Dover, Bk (1998/1940), p190
Ashley Bryant "I'm Going To Sing-Black American Spirituals Volume II." {New York, Atheneum, 1982; p.17} "Weary Traveler"
Olivia and Jack Solomon, eds., Honey in the Rock: The Ruby Pickens Tartt Collection of Religious Folk Songs "Oh Show De Weary Traveler"
Kingsmen Quartet (2009) Cheer the Weary Traveler. Missing People
OTHER NAMES: "Oh Show De Weary Traveler" "Weary Traveler"
RELATED TO: "Heaven Bells Are Ringing" "Climbing Up Zion's Hill"
SOURCES: John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip.
Mudcat
NOTES: "Cheer the Weary Traveler" or "Let Us Cheer the Weary Traveler" is a spiritual collected from various sources including John Work, and the Tartt Collection of Religious Folk Songs. Recently the song has been adapted by modern quartets like The Kingsmen (see their youtube version above) and Kentucky Jubilee Four.
Amanda Berry Smith referenced the song in her autobiography published in 1883 and W. E. B. Du Bois used the chorus for his poem/song, "Free" published in 1903. The song in the Tartt collection is titled, "Oh, Show De Weary Traveler." R. Nathaniel Dett, African-American composer and pianist arranged "Let Us Cheer the Weary Traveler" for SATB in 1926.
The "weary traveller" or properly "weary traveler" was a common figure in gospel music in the early and mid- 1800s. "Don't Be Weary, Traveller" was published in 1867 by William Francis Allen et.al in Slave Songs of the United States. "The Traveler" with a tune by Absalom Ogletree in 1868 appeared in teh Sacred Harp editions:
The Traveler
Trav’ler haste, the night comes on,
Many a shining hour is gone;
Storm is gathering in the west,
And you are so far from home.
Chorus: Oh, come, trav’ler, haste away,
You must walk while it is day.
Oh, come, trav’ler, haste away,
You will find Christ in the way.
In Amanda Berry Smith's "An Autobiography, the Story of the Lord's Dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith," published 1893 (Page 358) she quotes the song, "How I do thank the Lord when it is my privilege to sing and pray and cheer the weary traveler along the lonesome road." Smith (January 23, 1837– February 24, 1915) was a singer and performer. Here's some info about her from wiki:
Amanda Berry Smith was a former slave who became an inspiration to thousands of women both black and white. She was born in Long Green, Maryland, a small town in Baltimore County. Her father's name was Samuel Berry while her mother's name was Mariam. Her father, a slave, worked for years at night and after long days of field labour, he had to make brooms and husk mats to pay for freedom for his whole family of 7.
Amanda taught herself how to read by cutting out large letters from newspapers and asking her mother to make them into words. When she was thirteen, only having three and a half months of formal schooling, Amanda went to work near York, Pennsylvania, as the servant of a widow with five children. While there, she attended a revival service at the Methodist Episcopal Church.
She worked hard as a cook and a washerwoman to provide for herself and her daughter after her husband was killed in the American Civil War. Prayer became a way of life for her as she trusted God for shoes, the money to buy her sisters freedom and food for her family. She became well known for her beautiful voice and hence, opportunities to evangelize in the South and West opened up for her. Wherever she travelled, she wore a plain poke bonnet and a brown or black Quaker wrapper, and she carried her own carpetbag suitcase.
In 1876, she was invited to speak and sing in England travelling on a first class cabin provided by her friends. The captain invited her to conduct a religious service on board and she was so modest that the other passengers spread word of her and resulted in her stay in England and Scotland for a year and a half. After her trip, she returned to her homeland and eventually founded the Amanda Smith Orphans' Home for African-American children in a suburb of Chicago. She continued to visit various nations and gained a reputation as "God's image carved in ebony." Amanda Smith retired to Sebring, Florida in 1912.
Published in 1903, W. E. B. Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk transformed writing about race in the United States. While many scholars and commentators would remain behind the veil of racism, others would come to see with Du Bois that race was a socially constructed category. Moreover, persuaded by Du Bois' words, the would come to see that the politics of race might be challenged, thereby promoting the possibility of a social and cultural transformation.
Free (from The Souls of Black Folk)
Rend the veil and the prisoned shall go free:
free as the sunshine trickling down the morning
into the lavish garden of ours;
free as yonder fresh young voices
welling up from the caverns of brick and mortar below.
Our little children are singing in the sunshine,
swelling with song, instinct with life,
tremulous treble and darkening bass,
and thus they sing:
Let us cheer the weary traveler,
cheer the weary traveler,
let us cheer the weary traveler,
along the heavenly way.
The traveler girds himself,
sets his face toward the morning,
and goes his way.
In John Wesley Work's Folk Song of the American Negro published in 1915 come the following:
"Aunt Ailsie" was a slave in Augusta County, Virginia. She was a powerful specimen of womanhood; her face was brown and sweet; her voice was soft and mellow; she was a woman of few words, but capable, and as a servant, invaluable. Her disposition was wholly lovable until she was angered, and then she was a lioness robbed of her cubs. "Aunt Ailsie" had greatly provoked her master, who would have killed her had she not been too valuable. He decided to sell her South. The slave trader bought her, placed her in his "gang" and went to Staunton on the first stage of the journey. They pitched camp on Sunny Hill, on the outskirts of the town. "Uncle Chester Bowling," her brother, heard the news and went out to Sunny Hill, and begged the trader to let him keep his sister in his cabin over night. The trader yielded, and that night the cabin was full of prayers and songs. Her slave friends came in and stayed all night. Not an eyed closed that night. They sang and prayed for help and comfort for "Aunt Ailsie," and when the bright morn of nature broke upon the world, "Aunt Ailsie" turned her way to the slave gang, bound for the South. The weary, heart-bowed slaves, in weird vioce, sang:
"Let us cheer the Weary Traveler,
Let us cheer the Weary Traveler,
Let us cheer the Weary Traveler,
Along the lonesome Way."
WEARY TRAVELER- Ashley Bryant 1982
CHORUS: Let us cheer the weary traveler
Cheer the weary traveler.
Let us cheer the weary traveler
Along the heavenly way.
Verse 1: I'll take my gospel trumpet,
And I'll begin to blow,
And if my Savior helps me,
I'll blow wheever I go.
Verse 2: And if you meet with crosses,
And trials along the way,
Just keep your trust in Jesus
And don't forget to pray.
Verse 3: If you cannot sing like Angels,
If you cannot pray like Paul,
You can tell the love of Jesus
And say He died for all
Oh, Show De Weary Traveler- Tartt Collection (Excerpt)
One day, one day I wuz weary,
Walkin' in de lonesome road.
My Savior spoke unto me,
en filled my heart wid love.
CHORUS: Oh, show de weary traveler
Oh, show de weary traveler
Oh, show de weary traveler
Erlong de heavely road.
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