Black spiritual featured at BBC Celtic Connections

The famous spiritual is often associated with American country music and Merle Travis but it was a black spiritual long before that. More importantly, it had a double meaning about the underground railroad.

Aaron Neville’s performance at the BBC Celtic Connections brings the song full circle.

Aaron Neville‘s voice is one of the most beautiful on the planet with his unique “tremulous falsetto.” Tender and passionate at the same time, Neville is at home with gospel, rhythm and blues, Cajun and pop music. He has a voice from heaven, almost too fragile and sweet. “In a tremulous falsetto, with phrases that ripple and float, Aaron Neville sings of perfect romance and intricate pain.” NY Times

His latest CD is I Know I’ve Been Changed.

Spiritual or Underground Railroad song?

Like the double meanings of blues songs, black spirituals also had double meanings.  Under the watchful eye of white slave owners, the slaves could sing of going to heaven on the far shore, crossing the River Jordan and being with long-lost relatives. They were also singing of their life waiting for their turn to travel north on the Underground Railroad to freedom.

“The Underground Railroad (UGRR) helped slaves to run to free a country. A fugitive could use several ways. First, they had to walk at night, using hand lights and moonlight. When needed, they walked (“waded”) in water, so that dogs could not smell their tracks. Second, they jumped into chariot, where they could hide and ride away. These chariots stopped at some “stations”, but this word could mean any place where slaves had to go for being taken in charge. So, negro spirituals like “Wade in the Water”, “The Gospel Train” and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” directly refer to the UGRR.” Negro Spirituals

Read the lyrics with the second meaning in mind and the words take on more immediacy that the hope of everlasting life in heaven.

I am a pilgrim and a stranger
Travelin’ through this worrisome land
I got a home built in that yonder city, good Lord
And it’s not, not made by hand

I got a mother, a sister, and a father
Done gone on now to the other shore
And I am determined to go and see them, good Lord
And to live with them forever more

I Am A Pilgrim a White Country music crossover

“Although closely associated with Merle Travis “I Am A Pilgrim” has roots that go deeper than his 1946 recording for King records. Infact, Travis apparently learned it from Moes Rager.

As folklorist Kip Lornell has pointed out in the notes too “Classic Southern Gospel From Smithsonian Folkways, ” it was recorded by fourteen African-American groups before it was even a gleam in Mereles Travis’ eyes. The song was a favorite of Carl Story, who is often called the “The Father of Bluegrass Gospel Music”. As a boy Carl Story’s father used to take him to the courthouse in Lenoir, North Carolina, to hear his idol Riley Puckett. It was from Puckett that Story learned ” I Am A Pilgrim”. Over the years the song has been recorded by Chet Atkins, The Byrds, Johnny Cash, Charlie Daniels, David Grisman, The Country Gentlemen, Grandpa Jones, The Kentucky Colonels, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Bill Monroe.”

I am a Pilgrim from Hymns of the Old Camp Ground

I Am A Pilgrim, Aaron Neville at BBC Celtic Connections 2012 (apologies to those with iPhone or iPad – there was no h.264 version of the BBC performance.)

Migrating black blues and spirituals to white music was not unusual. The Carter Family relied heavily on black music as their source for what would become country classics.

“It was in this part of the country, where Virginia meets Tennessee, that AP Carter learned to merge the negro spirituals and blues forms with traditional hill music. Few people would think a white southerner would like “black” music but this was a tolerant part of the south with little racial tension, mainly because there were few blacks living in the area.”

“A.P. Carter acknowledged that many of the songs he collected were taught to him by a black singer and guitarist from North Carolina named Leslie Riddle.” Americana Roots. Despite the problems it presented with Jim Crow laws, Carter and Riddle traveled together throughout the area looking for new songs.” Johnny Cash last CD