Classroom » Multimedia
Long Way to Travel
About this recording
Performed by Mary Tollman and Johnson Place Baptist Church Congregation. Recorded by John and Ruby Lomax, 1939.
- Date created
- 1939
- Duration
- 2:09
- File
- MP3
- License
- This work is believed to be in the public domain. Users are advised to make their own copyright assessment and to understand their rights to fair use.
- Source
- Original audio housed by Library of Congress
See this recording in context
- Antebellum North Carolina: Primary sources and readings explore North Carolina in the antebellum period (1830–1860). Topics include slavery, daily life, agriculture, industry, technology, and the arts, as well as the events leading to secession and civil war. (Page 6.5)
Related media
Learn more
- Search LEARN NC for folk music, history, John Lomax, slavery, and spirituals.
In the classroom
Please upgrade your Flash Player and/or enable JavaScript in your browser to listen to this audio file.
Download audio file (Right-click or option-click)
Long Way to Travel is part of the John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip collection at the Library of Congress.
John Lomax was a folklorist and musicologist who traveled throughout the U.S. making field recordings of American folk music. In 1939, he and his wife, Ruby Lomax, made such a trip through the southern states and recorded more than 300 performers, representing a diverse array of traditional musical styles, including ballads, blues, children’s songs, cowboy songs, fiddle tunes, field hollers, lullabies, play-party songs, religious dramas, spirituals, and work songs.
Long Way to Travel is a folk spiritual, part of an African American song tradition that arose during slavery. Spirituals were created by slaves using elements of African music such as clapping, drumming, repetition of lyrics, and call-and-response to express their religion and their experiences as slaves.
Transcript
We got a long way to travel
Children we got a long way to travel, Lord
Children we got a long way to travelWell I just want to make it in the kingdom
Well I just want to make it in the kingdom, Lord
Well I just want to make it in the kingdomChildren I got a long way to travel
Children I got a long way to travel, Lord
Children I got a long way to travelWell I just want to make it over yonder
Well I just want to make it over yonder, Lord
Well I just want to make it over yonderWell I got on my travelin’ shoes
Well I got on my travelin’ shoes, Lord
Well I got on my travelin’ shoes
