"Down in the River to Pray" (also known as "Down to the River to Pray," "Down in the Valley to Pray," "The Good Old Way," and "Come, Let Us All Go Down") is a traditional American song variously described as a Christian folk hymn, an African-American spiritual, an Appalachian song, and a Southerngospel song. The exact origin of the song is unknown. The most famous version, featured in O Brother Where Art Thou?, uses a pentatonic scale, common in many African American spirituals.
Lyrics and versions
Earliest known form of the song, from Slave Songs of the United States
The earliest known version of the song, titled "The Good Old Way," was published in Slave Songs of the United States in 1867.[1] The song (#104) was contributed to that book by George H. Allan of Nashville, Tennessee, who may also have been the transcriber. The lyrics printed in this collection are:
As I went down in the valley to pray,
Studying about that good old way,
When you shall wear the starry crown,
Good Lord, show me the way.
O mourner, let's go down, let's go down, let's go down,
O mourner, let's go down,
Down in the valley to pray
Another version, titled "Come, Let Us All Go Down," was published in 1880 in The Story of the Jubilee Singers; With Their Songs, a book about the Fisk Jubilee Singers.[2]
Version of the song as sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers
This version also refers to a valley rather than a river; the first verse is:
As I went down in the valley to pray,
Studying about that good old way;
You shall wear the starry crown,
Good Lord, show me the way.
By-and-by we'll all go down, all go down, all go down,
By-and-by we'll all go down,
Down in the valley to pray.
In some versions, "in the river" is replaced by "to the river". The phrase "in the river" is significant, for two reasons. The more obvious reason is that the song has often been sung at outdoor baptisms (such as the full-immersion baptism depicted in the 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou?).[3] Another reason is that many songs sung by victims of slavery contained coded messages for escaping. When the enslaved people escaped, they would walk in the river because the water would cover their scent from the bounty-hunters' dogs.[4] Similarly, the "starry crown" could refer to navigating their escape by the stars.[5] And "Good Lord, show me the way" could be a prayer for God's guidance to find the escape route, commonly known as "the Underground Railroad."
Mistaken attributions
Some sources mistakenly claim that the song was published in The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion in 1835, several decades before the effort to gather and publish Black spirituals gained momentum in the Reconstruction Era.[3] There is in fact a song called "The Good Old Way" in The Southern Harmony[6] (also found in the Sacred Harp); that song, however, has completely different melody and lyrics (which likewise should not be confused with a Manx hymn tune of the same name and text, made famous by the Watersons).[7] Its lyrics begin as follows:
Lift up your heads, Immanuel's friends
And taste the pleasure Jesus sends
Let nothing cause you to delay
But hasten on the good old way
