Away over yonder, away over yonder,
Away over yonder to wear a starry crown.
Seaborn M. Denson, widely known fasola country singing-school teacher and musical editor of the 1911 edition of the Original Sacred Harp, and author of this song, told me he had heard this song sung in camp meetings around Civil War times in northern Alabama. He recorded it from memory and published it first in the Union Harp in 1909. The tune is a member of the ‘[Roll Jordan]’ group. See Introduction, [page 14], and the song by that name in this collection. Further stanzas read “My mother’s gone”, “My sister’s gone” etc.
The wide spread of this song in the American oral tradition and especially at the time when Mr. Denson heard it in northern Alabama, is indicated by the variant and musically somewhat inferior recording in the Revivalist, Albany, New York, 1868. It is there called ‘Away over Jordan’. It runs:
My brother’s going to wear that crown etc.
To wear that starry crown.
Away over Jordan, with my blessed Jesus,
Away over Jordan, to wear that starry crown.
My father’s gone to wear that crown etc.
My mother’s gone etc.