No. 207 I Went Down to the Valley
Pentatonic, mode 1 (I II — IV V VI —)
I went down to the valley to pray,
Studying about the good old way.
Who will wear the starry crown?
Oh Lord, teach me to pray.
Recorded by the author from the singing of Donald Davidson, in Nashville, Tennessee, January 20, 1932. He had heard his father, W. B. Davidson, sing it twenty years before in Fayetteville, Tennessee. Negro versions are in Marsh, p. 156, and Slave Songs, No. 104.