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Kingdom Coming (The Year of Jubilo)
Old-Time, Song or Reel by Henry Clay Work- USA; New York, Pennsylvania.
ARTIST: by Henry Clay Work, 1832-1884 No. 10; The Year of Jubilo.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: 1861
RECORDING INFO: Walter Morris, “Massa Run Away” (Co uniss- 1926); Kessinger Brothers “Sopping the Gravy” Br 411- 1930); Pete Seeger, "Kingdom Coming" (on PeteSeeger28) Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1940/1965), p339 . Ashby, John; and the Free State Ramblers. Fiddling by the Hearth, County 773, LP (1979), cut# 11 (Yellow Gals from the South). Blake, Norman. Blackberry Blossom, Flying Fish FF-047, LP (1977), cut#B.04b. Bursen, Howard (Howie). Cider in the Kitchen, Folk Legacy FSI-074, LP (1980), cut# 12. Buzzard Rock String Band. I've Got the Blues for My Kentucky Home, June Appal JA-0054, LP (1988), cut#A.05b. Cedar Point String Band. Cedar Point String Band, Roane, Cas (1993), cut# 9 (Massa's Gone Away). Connor, Sam. Appalachia, The Old Traditions, Home Made Music LP-001, LP (1982), cut# 11 (Massa Run Away) .Daddario, Harry. Learning the Fiddler's Ways, Penn State, Sof (1980), p 91 (Kingdom) . George, Franklin/Frank. Swope's Knobs, Anachronistic 001, LP (1977), cut#3.02 (Massa's Gone Away). Guntharp, Matthew G. Learning the Fiddler's Ways, Penn State, Sof (1980), p 91b (Kingdom Coming/Come) .Hardesty, Cliff. White Eyes Music Club. Traditional Music in Southeastern Ohio, Western Kentucky Univ. WKU #1, LP (1977), cut#A.07. Harold and Abe. Cornbred, Molasses and Sassafras Tea, Heritage (Galax) 023, LP, cut# 8 (Kingdom Coming/Come). Hollow Rock String Band. Hollow Rock String Band, Rounder 0024, LP (1974), cut#A.03b. Kuntz, Andrew. Devil's Box, Devil's Box DB, Ser (196?), 33/3, p11. McGee, Sam & Kirk. Nashville Early String Bands, Vol. 2, County 542, LP, cut# 5 (Old Master's Runnaway). Miller, Archie. Learning the Fiddler's Ways, Penn State, Sof (1980), p 79 (Kingdom Coming/Come) . Moss, Frazier. Fiddling with Frazier, Plateau NR-3508, LP (197?), cut#A.02 (Old/Ole Mossie). Red Clay Ramblers. Stolen Love, Flying Fish FF-009, LP (1975), cut# 12 (Kingdom Coming/Come). Staley, Jeff. Galax International, Heritage (Galax) 067, LP (1988), cut# 24. Sweeney, Ed. American Sampler, North Star NS0033, Cas (1991), cut# 6. Tate, Tater; and the Bluegrass Cutups. Fiddling Favorites of the USA and Canada, Rural Rhythm RR 193, LP (197?), cut# 4. Wallace, Andy. Songs of the Civil War, National Geographic Soc. 0789, LP (197?), cut#B.07. Wear, DeWayne; and the Great Wear Family. Hoe Down! Vol. 4, Rural Rhythm RR 121, LP (197?), cut# 4; Flying Fish FF-009, The Red Clay Ramblers - "Stolen Love" (1975). Vocalion 5167 (78 RPM), Sam and Kirk McGee (1927. Learned from their father, c. 1910).
OTHER NAMES: "The Kingdom," “The Year of Jubilo;” “Massa's Gone Away;” "The Year of Jubelo;" "The Doodletown Fifer;" “Massa Run Away;” “Sopping the Gravy;”
SOURCES: Randolph 230, "The Year of Jubelo". RJackson-19CPop, pp. 106-109, "Kingdom Coming" (1 text, 1 tune).Silber-CivWar, pp. 92-93, "Kingdom Coming" (1 text, 1 tune); Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 114-115, "Kingdom Coming" . Greenway-AFP, p. 104, "The Year of Jubalo" (1 text) Harry Daddario (Buffalo Valley region, Pa.) [Guntharp]; Angus McPhee (b. c. 1929, Mt. Stewart, Queens County, Prince Edward Island) [Perlman]. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pgs. 69 & 339. Guntharp (Learning the Fiddler's Ways), 1980; pg. 91. Ostling, 1939; No. 13. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; pg. 159. Shaw (Cowboy Dances), 1943; pg. 384. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1964/1981; pg. 20.
NOTES: D Major. Standard. AAB (Shaw): ABB (Sweet): AABB (Perlman): AA'BB (Ford). Composed as a song for the minstrel stage by Henry Clay Work in 1861. The song was widely published in early 1960's songsters and was popular with Civil War soldiers who upon their discharges helped to spread the air into folk tradition. This was the first song by Work (1832-1864) to be published. Work was an abolitionist; his father had been jailed for his activities with the underground railroad.
"George F. Root 'discovered' Henry Clay Work, the composer of 'Kingdom Coming' and other nineteenth-century popular classics. In his autobiography Root tells of his first meeting with Henry Clay Work (1832-1884): One day early in the war a quiet and rather solemn-looking young man, poorly clad, was sent up to my room from the store [Root & Cady] with a song for me to examine. I looked at it and then at him in astonishment. It was 'Kingdom Coming,'--elegant in manuscript, full of bright, good sense and comical situations in its 'darkey' dialect--the words fitting the melody almost as aptly and neatly as Gilbert fits Sullivan--the melody decidedly good and taking, and the whole exactly suited to the times.... He needed some musical help that I could give him, and we needed just such songs as he could write. The connection, which continued some years, proved very profitable both to him and to us....”
"'Kingdom Coming' was introduced by Christy's Minstrels in Chicago with much promotional fanfare in April 1862; it was published the next month and quickly spread far beyond Chicago. The events pictured in the song, casually referred to by Root as 'comical situations,' are grim and bitterly satiric. Work was not unacquainted with the realities of slave life: his abolitionist father was an active participant in helping runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad and their home in Illinois was a 'station'; the father served a jail sentence for his activities. The great tune itself, perfectly fit for a jubilee and one of the most memorable of the era, creates a double edge to the satire. How far removed it all is from the gentle dreamworld of Stephen Foster's plantations with their slaves mourning the good master in the cold, cold ground." (Richard Jackson, Popular Songs of Nineteenth-Century America, Dover, 1976, p. 273)
Charles Wolfe (1991) says the song is to be found more in white than black songsters. Bill Hicks (1975) notes that while the air seems to have been popular with older traditional musicians, the song (which celebrates the end of slavery) is never heard sung. The word, Jubilee, in the title refers to the emancipation of slaves:
“Sixty-Three Is the Jubilee”(1863)
Words by J. L. Greene Music by D. A. French
Oh darkey's hab ye heard it, hab ye heerd de joyful news?
Uncle Abra'm's gwine to free us, and he'll send us where we chuse?
For de Jubilee is comin', don't ye sniff it in de air?
And sixty-three is de Jubilee for de darkeys eb'rywhere.
Chorus: Oh, de jubilee is comin'
Don't ye sniff it in the air
And sixty-three is the jubilee
For de darkeys eb'rywhere.
"Kingdom Coming" is cited as having commonly been played for Orange County, New York country dances in the 1930's (Lettie Osborn, New York Folklore Quarterly), and by central Pa. fiddlers Ralph Sauers, Harry Daddario, and Archie Miller. Kessinger Brothers called it, “Sopping the Gravy” (Br 411- 1930), and played the tune in NYC in 1929. It has been collected in the fife as well as fiddle tradition in Pennsylvania (Bayard).
Here are the original lyrics to “Kingdom Coming” from Henry Clay Work:
Say, darkeys, hab you seen de massa,
Wid de muffstash on his face,
Go long de road some time dis mornin',
Like he gwine to leag de place?
He seen a smoke, way up de ribber,
Whar de *Linkum gumboats lay;
He took his hat, an' lef berry sudden,
An' I spec he's run away!
CHORUS: De massa run? ha, ha!
De darkey stay? ho, ho!
It mus' be now de kingdom comin',
An' de year of Jubilo!
He six foot one way, two foot tudder,
An' he weigh tree hundred pound,
His coat so big, he couldn't pay de tailor,
An' it won't go half way round.
He drill so much they call him Cap'an,
An' he get so drefful tann'd,
I spec he try an' fool dem Yankees
For to tink he's contraband.
(CHORUS)
De darkey's feel so lonesome libing
in de loghouse on de lawn,
Dey move dar things to massa's parlor
For to keep it while he's gone.
Dar's wine an' cider in de kitchen,
An' de darkey's dey'll hab some;
I spose dey'll all be cornfiscated
When de Linkum sojers come.
(CHORUS)
De oberseer he make us trouble,
An' he dribe us round a spell;
We lock him up in de smokehouse cellar,
Wid de key trown in de well.
De whip is lost, de han'cuff broken,
But de massa'll hab his pay;
He's ole enough, big enough, ought to known better
Dan to went an' run away.
(CHORUS)
*Lincoln gunboats
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