Baptism on Fires or Tusquitee Creek by Gideon Thomas Laney – Southern Appalachian Digital Collections
The movie Brother Where Art Thou brought many old songs back into popularity. Pap joked that the film was one of the best things that ever happened to bluegrass music.
“Down to the River to Pray” was one of the songs from the movie that became very popular, the fame also helped the performer Alison Krauss gain a wider audience.
The song is an African American Spiritual. I found a page that discussed the history of the song. You can find it here. Like many old songs the tune and the words have changed over time.
Last Sunday the girls walked out in the woods and sung “Down to the River to Pray” a cappella.
I hope you enjoyed the song as much as I do and I hope you have a blessed Sunday.
Tipper
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Beautiful!! I love the song and their rendition of it.
I just watched Oh, Brother (for the umpteenth time) last week. The music is my favorite part.
I’d love to hear the girls sing this song by Patty Loveless — Two Coats. https://youtu.be/baW7bV5P8-c?si=uR_Q9BOsEKe3-POv It’s the story of my life and I want it sung at my home-going.
God bless and keep y’all.
I listened to the twins singing this just the other day on their channel, simply beautiful harmony!!
Corie and Katie, you did a marvelous job singing that beautiful song. Such amazing harmony. May the good Lord look down on you and your little ones and keep you safe and well. God bless the Wilson and Pressley families. AMEN
I feel blessed by their singing this song. What a treasure to the ears and heart. Thank you all!
So lovely!! And so meaningful when Corie and Katie look heavenward at the end. This song also brings to mind the old hymn ‘Shall We Gather by the River’!
One of my favorite movies, because I always really loved the old Bluegrass music. Those sweet girls harmonize beautifully! I grew up listening to the very old hymns sung a cappella in what was once called the “Old Regular Baptist.” Those songs still touch my spirit almost bringing tears! I wish Paul would write them a lovely ole time song of their very own. With his talent and their harmonizing, it could certainly draw some listeners. God Bless all the Blind Pig crowd including subscribers.
This was beautiful. It is one of my favorites.
Happy Sunday! What a blessing to hear your two beautiful daughters sing so sweetly a song of rejoice to honor our Heavenly Father. Loved seeing the picture of church families gathered together for a baptism at the river. It took me back to my youth when the church I had attend use to go to the river to baptize those who had accepted Jesus in their hearts. What great memories! Thank you Tipper for sharing the picture and thank Chitter and Chatter for sharing the sweet song so beautifully.
Beautiful harmony! Loved it!
The twins did a great job on that old spiritual.
You mentioned the movie, Brother Where Art Thou, which was to me, a mockery. While I appreciate the music that came from it, I was disgusted by the way clooney and the others played it. To me, they mocked simple faith an people who live simply. It is a sad time when such sinners as clooney get to mock religion and faith.
Very, very nice. Enjoyed listening to the singing!
Just beautiful! The setting was beautiful as well, a natural cathedral.
That was so beautiful Katie and Corie! Thank you for sharing and everyone, have a blessed Sunday!!
They did a beautiful rendition of this… This is one of my friend’s favorite song. He is dying from pancreatic cancer (they said he probably won’t last til Christmas) and his other favorite one is Abide with Me…if that is one that you all know i know he would love to hear yall sing it. He’s staying with me and my husband and of course i’m going through my own cancer battle so any prayers for all of us that folks would be willing to offer up is highly appreciated…
Becky-I’m so sorry. I will pray.
Becky- I will pray also.
Thank you Tipper for the link to the cultural history of that song. Singing is the ultimate mnemonic device. Songs, long before the invention of writing, were a way to remember and be in sync, in agreement, work together, share the same values and beliefs about the world we inhabit. Songs are habits, a manifestation of the culture we share from bluegrass to the Beatles to Megan Thee Stallion. I was particularly fascinated by the details of how “river” replaced “valley” as the geographic focus of the lyrics. Memory, WORDS we hold on to, repeat, enjoy and deploy, or change and forget, misremember, “dis”-remember, or ignore, reveals a lot about us, our people, our particular “world” or “culture”, the home place, be it Appalachia or Africa, is not about what is historically or Biblically “true”. Runaway slaves did run down to the river to confuse the tracker dogs but the written evidence (if you believe “written” always trumps oral) suggests nobody sang of going down to the RIVER until long after slavery ended. What matters most to me is paying attention to what and why folks choose to “remember” in the ways they do.
Katie and Corie’s delivery of this glorious song was as good as it gets. I love this song and was sitting at my computer, singing right along with them when first heard on YT. I would love to hear them do some songs with Granny who also has that beautiful family voice.
Corie and Katie did a fine job singing that wonderful old spiritual. Like many, I first heard it from Alison Krauss, one of my favorite Bluegrass artists.
I have been waiting a long time for this day! That is real harmony! That is perfect!
I loved it when I heard the girls singing it the other day!
That was beautiful Katie and Corie!! God bless and have a great day and week ahead!
I listened to this video of the girls a few days ago on you tube and it just made me feel happy. They did such a wonderful job! Thank you for sharing your girls talents and the history of this great song. Have a blessed day everyone!
Wow! Such clear and sweet harmony. I’m amazed there was no pickup of other sounds. It’s as if Nature waited and was still. At the church I grew up in an old man would sing this song. That was many a year ago now, way before the movie. Good memories. As a boy I thought going down to the river to pray was peculiar but I think it probably derives from Acts where it speaks of meeting at the river “where prayer was wont to be made” (kjv). All our singing in my home church was acapella and also in the other like churches throughout the county. I discovered in later years that singing that way typically results in both slowing a song down and lowering the pitch. Some song leaders carried and used a pitch pipe to get the start correct. I do know this by painful experience, if a song is started too high it is almost impossible to fix on the fly. It is a dreadful feeling to be approaching high notes and know it is going to be a wreck. And I find it is getting worse instead of better! Great performance Chitter and Chatter. And appropriate setting also.
I read a story about a song leader who was encouraged to use a pitch pipe. He said, “I had one once. It’d throw you high ever’ time.” I shudder when I hear the national anthem being sung, wondering if the high notes will be a wreck. Pop singers usually murder it long before they get to “the land of the free.”
Oh, wow, that was so beautiful, Corie and Katie!
I love their singing. I also like that song, very much. Many times, I watch
their videos and yours and others from you tube on tv. The tv does not give an easy
path to comment. I watch every video you and your family make. Thank you for sharing your
love of Appalachia with us.
God Bless you and yours and prayers for all of you and the you tube community.
Thank you for starting my day with a good old time music. Great job girls. Y’all have a blessed and wonderful day.
My daddy said that his daddy was baptized in a river near their home in eastern KY before he died. Poppy, as daddy called him, was 36 years old. Many of my other relatives were baptized in the rivers and creeks around them. My husband and I enjoyed hearing Katie and Corie sing. The history behind the song is interesting. My daughter and son-in-law are on their way to North Carolina for a memorial service for his aunt who died of cancer. Please pray for safe traveling mercies. Have a blessed Sunday everyone.
Tricia-I will pray for them and for his family.
Tricia, I remember my Granddaddy taking and showing me the place in the creek where our church use to baptize. I know many of my relatives were baptized in the creek. I am guessing that our old church building did not have a baptism pool until the late 40’s when Sunday School rooms and some other things were added to the church. We moved into our more modern “new” church building in 1965.
They have such a gift for music and singing.
You are so blessed to have them so near to you. I have been so lonely for family close by. My youngest is 4 hours away at bible college and my oldest just moved two hours away. Some days I just want to cry all day, but then I go out to my garden. Soon I won’t be able to do that.
Please pray for me. My husband may be getting a position as an assistant pastor and we will have to move 3 hours away, so even further from my girls.
Laura Lee-I’m sorry. I will pray for you. I know you miss them so.
Love it!