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Long Time Travelling (White)

[ Roud 5732 ; Ballad Index DTlongti ; Elder Edmund Dumas, 1856]

This hymn is normally called White in tribute to Benjamin Franklin White, compiler of The Sacred Harp (1844). Peter Bellamy sang it as Long Time Travelling on his 1979 album Both Sides Then with the Watersons and Anthea Bellamy singing vocal harmonies. It was reissued on the Free Reed 3CD Peter Bellamy anthology, Wake the Vaulted Echoes. The original record's sleeve notes commented:

Entitled White in the Alabama hymnal Original Sacred Harp (1911), this was learned from the 1972 recording of J. T. Allison's Sacred Harp Singers.

Jolly Jack sang White in 1988 on their album named after this song, A Long Time Travelling. They commented in their liner notes:

This song appeared in the Original Sacred Harp as revised in 1859 in which we learn that it was composed by Elder Edmund Dumas in honour of B.F. White of whom unfortunately we are told nothing.

Convention Singing developed in the Appalachians as a form of worship practised by huge choirs and peculiar in that they used a system of music reading known as Shape Notes. In this system all the notes are identified by a different shape, and although they are usually shown on a staff they relate only to what is known as a ‘movable doh’. Thus by using a giving starting note quite complicated music could be read. The Sacred Harp shows the songs in Shape Notes, also in four parts, and whilst we don't follow the harmonies precisely we try to create as much as possible the atmosphere of this stirring form of Gospel singing.

Lyrics

Chorus (after each verse):

I'm a long time travelling here below,
I'm a long time a-travelling away from home.
I'm a long time travelling here below
To lay this body down.

Ye fleeting charms of earth farewell,
Your springs of joy are dry.
My soul now seeks a better home,
A brighter world on high.

Farewell my friends whose tender cares
Has long engaged my love.
Your fond embrace I now exchange
For better friends above.