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Climbing Up Zion's Hill/Heaven Bells Are Ringing/I'm Climbin Up Zion Hill
Traditional Folk Hymn and Spiritual
NOTE: This is not the 1800s Hymn, "I'm Climbing Up Zion's Hill" or "Climbing Up Zion's Hill" that appears in numerous hymnbooks in the mid-late 1800s:
First Line: I'm trying to climb up Zion's hill
Title: I'm climbing up Zion's hill
Author: J. G. Chaffee Music; Philip Phillips
Publication Date: 1868 "The Eclectic Sabbath School Hymn Book #d78"
http://books.google.com/books?id=UNbIOj4WcHAC&pg=PA296&dq=Climbing+Up+the+Hill+O'+Mt.+
Zion&cd=7#v=onepage&q=Climbing%20Up%20Zion's%20Hill%20&f=false
ARTIST: James Ralph Smith from Wellborn Waters; no date given (circa early 1900s)
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel;
DATE: 1800s; 1880 "The Isles of Summer; Or, Nassau and the Bahamas" By Charles Ives. First recording Bessemer Sunset Four, in 1929.
RECORDING INFO: Climbing Up Zion's Hill/Heaven Bells Are Ringing
Carter Family. Last Recordings, Vol. 1, Old Homestead OHCS 330, Cas (1991), trk# A.05 "Climbing Zion's Hill"
Bessemer Sunset Four. 1929 "I'm Climbing Up Zion Hill"
Mainer's Mountaineers. Bluebird 8203 February 4, 1939 "Heaven Bells Are Ringing"
McKinney, "Tip" Lee Finis Cameron. I'm Old But I'm Awfully Tough, MFFA 1001, LP (1977), trk# 21 Heaven Bells are Ringing
OTHER NAMES: "Heaven Bells Are Ringing"
SOURCES: Meade[Me III-C 50]; Folk Index
"Isles of Summer; Or, Nassau and the Bahamas" By Charles Ives- 1880
Old Plantation Hymns: By William Eleazar 1898-1899
NOTES: "Climbing Zion's Hill" or "Climbing Up Zion's Hill" is a folk hymn from the 1800s and possibly earlier. The first recording titled, "I'm Climbin up Zion Hill" was made by the African-American gospel group, Bessemer Sunset Four, in 1929.
The Bessemer Sunset Four (Dave Brown, Sam Riley, Wash Ivey, Pat Gaines) were an early Jubilee-styled gospel harmony group from Alabama who recorded 27 tracks for Vocalion Records between 1928 and 1930. With Dave Brown's strong lead vocals, and energetic four-part harmonies that at times sound like a barbershop quartet set loose at a Baptist prayer meeting, the Bessemer Sunset Four helped set the stage for the harder-driving soul sound of modern gospel quartets that began to emerge in the 1940s and 1950s.
I've found three African-American sources from the late 1800's:
"The Isles of Summer; Or, Nassau and the Bahamas" By Charles Ives- 1880
http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA78&cd=1&id=pv5KAAAAMAAJ&output=text
The following little piece is said to have been composed by a colored girl a short time before her death. In the ringing of heaven's bells, the singing of the angels, and mounting the hill of Zion, her vivid imagination anticipated and had a foretaste of the happiness that awaited her in the other world. It certainly produced a cheery, comforting effect when musically and spiritedly rendered by the dusky vocalists:
The heavenly bells are ringing,
Archangels singing.
The heavenly bells are ringing,
O rise loving sister,
Let us go to Zion's hill!
Let us go to Zion's hill!
The heavenly bells are ringing,
Archangels singing,
The heavenly bells are ringing,
In the morning.
Old Plantation Hymns: By William Eleazar 1898-1899
http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA20&dq=heaven+bells+are+
ringing+Plantation&lr=&cd=1&id=aqcNAAAAIAAJ#v=onepage&q&f=false
Heaven Bells Ringin' And I'm A-Goin' Home
Oh de heaven bells ringin'
An' I'm a- goin', goin' home.
Oh de heaven bells ringin'
An' I'm a- goin', goin' home.
Oh de heaven bells ringin'
An' I'm a- goin', goin' home,
A-climbin' up Zion's hill.
2—De heaven bells ringin', an' my mother's goin', goin' home, etc.
3—De heaven bells ringin', and my Jesus goin', goin' home, etc.
4—De heaven bells ringin', and de sinner's lost, he's lost a home, etc.
"Zigzag Journeys on the Mississippi: from Chicago to the Islands of the Discovery" By Hezekiah Butterworth- 1892
"The heaven-bells are ringing,
The heaven-bells are ringing,
About Jerusalem.
Oh, do you love God, my brother?
Oh, do you love God, my brother?
My soul is 'bout to shine."
This song went on and on. In the second stanza it was "my sister;" in the third "my father;" in the fourth, "my mother;" in the fifth, "my elder;" and then the refrain took up, in successive stanzas, the names of the singers and their friends.
Bluegrass/Early Country Versions The first bluegrass version of the song was recorded under the title, "Heaven Bells Are Ringing" by J.E. Mainer (Mainer's Mountaineers) on Bluebird 8203 on February 4, 1939. Another notable recording is Clyde Moody's trio version titled "Heaven Bells Are Ringing" with Moody at his liveliest, best sung piece on the album.
The song appears in A Check List of the Titles of Tennessee Folksongs: Heaven's Bells Are Ringing (text). Perry 121. Gracie Birchfield, Carter County. A vrsion also appears in the book, Sang Branch Settlers:
Sang Branch Settlers: Folksongs and Tales of a Kentucky Mountain Family - Page 137 Leonard Ward Roberts, Leonard Roberts, Calvin Buell Agey:
Heaven bells are ringing, I'm a-going home,
Yes, I'm a-going home, I'm a-going
home; Heaven bells are ringing,
I'm a-going home,
A-climbing up Zion's hills.
CLIMBING ZION'S HILL- The Carter Family
Taken from the Album The Acme Sessions 1952/56. While the original Carter trio of A.P., Sara, and Mother Maybelle recorded together for the last time in 1941, two versions of the venerable country originals reformed in the ensuing years--Maybelle with her daughters and ex-spouses A.P. and Sara with their children Joe and Janette. This two-disc set from old-time stalwart label JSP features the latter line-up. Collecting 58 songs from two sessions recorded in 1952 and 1956 for Clifford Spurlock's Acme label, THE ACME SESSIONS finds Joe and Janette filling in for Maybelle admirably and recapturing much of the rustic canter that makes their original recordings so enduring.
Oh, the heaven bells are ringing and I'm a-going home
I'm a-going home, yes, I'm a-going home
Oh, the heaven bells are ringing and I'm a-going home
Climbing up Zion's hill
I'm climbing, I'm climbing
Climbing up Zion's hill
I'm climbing, I'm climbing
Climbing up Zion's hill
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
If you don't, my mother, you'll be too late
You'll be too late, you'll be too late
If you don't, my mother, you'll be too late
Climbing up Zion's hill
I'm climbing, I'm climbing
Climbing up Zion's hill
I'm climbing, I'm climbing
Climbing up Zion's hill
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
If you don't, my father, you'll be too late
You'll be too late, you'll be too late
If you don't, my father, you'll be too late
Climbing up Zion's hill
I'm climbing, I'm climbing
Climbing up Zion's hill
I'm climbing, I'm climbing
Climbing up Zion's hill
[INSTRUMENTAL BREAK]
Climbing Up Zion's Hill- James Ralph Smith from Wellborn Waters; no date given (circa early 1900s) This document was submitted by Joy McKnight who obtained it from the Achieves of Surry Community College.
AN INDIAN
There was a very good old Christian Indian who lived many years ago in Alleghany County in the area of Roaring Gap. My grandfather, James Ralph Smith, a Methodist preacher, had the privilege of knowing this fine man. He told me that he was such a good Christian, that when he was buried, there was never anything that grew over his grave. I know exactly where that grave is and it is true. It is located on the property which used to be owned by his grandson. This property adjoins property that used to be owned by my grandfather, but is now owned by my sister, Cynthia Swisher McMillan and myself, Pauline Swisher Meals.
My grandfather and Mack and Mollie Roberts were very good neighbors all through the years, and Mack knew the Indian also. His name was Wellborn Waters and I guess there is no longer a marker of any kind at the gravesite. He wrote the following Hymn, and my grandfather used to sing it to me when I was a child. I loved it!
CLIMBING UP ZION'S HILL
If you don't mind fathers
You'll be too late,
You'll be too late,
You'll be too late,
If you don't' mind fathers
You'll be too late
A climbing up Zion's Hill.
We're almost there
We're almost there, My Lord,
We're almost there
A climbing up Zion's Hill.
The Heavens bells are ringing
And I'm going home,
And I'm going home,
And I'm going home.
The Heaven bells are ringing
And I'm going home,
A climbing up Zion's Hill.
Additional verses were: If you don't mind Mothers.....
Brothers.....
Sisters.....
Christians....
Sinners....
Neighbors.... etc.
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