No. 193 Martin or Way Over in the Promised Land, Soc 29
Pentatonic, mode 3 (I II III — V VI —)
We have fathers in the promised land,
We have mothers in the promised land;
I hope one day we’ll all get there,
Way over in the promised land.
Chorus
Away over in the promised land,
Away over in the promised land;
I hope one day we’ll all get there,
Way over in the promised land.
John G. McCurry, the compiler of the Social Harp, and William C. Davis, both of Georgia, seem to have been the first to record this tune. McCurry dates it 1854. A recently recorded variant of this tune is ‘Long White Robe’, Richardson, p. 67. Compare for melodic similarities the country dance ‘Once I Loved a Maiden Faire’ on page 47 of Playford’s The English Dancing Master.