What is it About the River Jordan?

What is it about the river Jordan? It's mentioned in so many Gospel songs in the genres of Southern Gospel, Bluegrass Gospel and African-American Spirituals. Is it just a 156-mile long river flowing north to south from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea? It borders modern-day Israel on it's eastern border and both Syria and Jordan on their western borders. It must a significant river to be mention in the Bible over 185 times. After a season of adversity and waiting it offers freedom. It's waters represent freedom from being oppressed and deliverance. Joshua led the Israelites, who were freed from bondage in Egypt, across it after God stopped it's flow which also allowed the Ark of the Covenant to be carried across dry land (Joshua 3). John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the river Jordan (Matt. 3:13-17).

When you consider the Israelites were once enslaved in Egypt, freed after Moses and the good Lord convinced Pharaoh to let them go, and that Jesus was born to eventually die for our sins thereby freeing us from the bondage of sin, you will see why the river Jordan is mentioned in Gospel music, especially the Spirituals.

Spirituals are the songs that African-American slaves sang, usually while working in the fields, as an expression against the inhuman conditions of slavery. These songs were inspired by the messages of black preachers or from pondering the Bible stories heard, as slaves weren't allowed to be taught to read or even write, at home and at work. The Bible proved to be a treasure trove of images, ideas and themes which also inspired the spirituals. Undoubtedly the slaves knew the story of the Israelites who were enslaved in Egypt and of their having to cross the river Jordan on their journey to the promise land. Therefore to the enslaved in the American south the river represented the border between slavery and freedom.

Symbolism abounds in Spirituals. Certain phrases, even whole songs, have particular meanings. Referencing "the other side of Jordan" is suggestive of the American north, and even Canada, where a slave would be free. "Walking Jordan's road" is suggestive of living a Christian life. "Going down to the river" suggests making a commitment to Christ via baptism. The spiritual "Roll, Jordan, Roll" became a coded message for escape. It brought to mind the Mississippi and Ohio rivers both of which led to freedom in the northern United States. The notion of the river Jordan rolling suggests approaching judgement on present injustices. In the spiritual "Deep River" the river Jordan can be connected to the Old Testament scripture of Deut. 12:10- "But when ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the LORD your God giveth you to inherit, and when he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety" (KJV). This song could quicken a slave's desire to "cross over" the river into a promise land of freedom. How could it not with lines such as "Deep River, my home is over Jordan....Oh, don't you want to go to the Gospel feast? That Promise Land where all is peace?..." The phrases "cross over" and crossing over" have another meaning, referencing another reason, other than freedom from slavery, to cross the river Jordan and that is death. This is the difference, in my opinion, between what the river Jordan means in Spirituals and what it means in traditional Southern and Bluegrass Gospel. Granted, many Spirituals have found their way into the aforementioned traditional Gospel music where they are as common place as traditional hymns. So much so you wouldn't know you were singing, or hearing, a Spiritual unless someone told you. Take the Gospel song "Far Side Banks of Jordan". It's about two people and how the one who dies first will be waiting for the other on the "far side banks of Jordan". "On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand" symbolizes a time of joyful transition when believers take their final steps on life's journey onto the shores of heaven.

It should be clear now why we hear so much of the river Jordan in Gospel music and Spirituals. We can equate, I think, the river of Jordan with hope and freedom. In the past it was a seen as a way over to a promised land of freedom for the enslaved in the American south. From the death of Christ on the cross to now and in the future, for the born again children of God it's a crossing that'll take us to heaven's shores. You can make that crossing if you have accepted Christ as your Savior. He freed us from sin's bondage when He died for us on Calvary and His sacrifice is the ticket that allows you passage across the river Jordan onto heaven's shores.

The songs:

Deep River

Roll, Jordan, Roll

I Stood on the Banks of Jordan

Far Side Banks of Jordan

On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand

Other songs about the river of Jordan but not mentioned in article:

Stand Still Jordan

River of Jordan

Just Beyond the River Jordan

Mentions the river Jordan:

One More River

Sources:

firmisrael.org

gotquestions.org

bibleodyssey.org

My First Attempt at Making a Crossword Puzzle

This is my first attempt at making a crossword puzzle. I've had the Eclipse Crossword software for a long time but this is the first time I've made a puzzle. It's simple, not a brain wrecker.

Click on the link below and the blank puzzle will open in another window. You have to print it out. I tried a link for the answer key but when I do they both end up answer keys, or blanks. Be sure your pop up blocker, if you have one in place, is off or there's a way to make an exception for the page the puzzle is on. If you want the answer key email me at blog.shinbonestar@gmail.com 

If you are a teacher, or have kids, feel free to make as many copies as you need. Most puzzles, when I get around to making more, will be suitable for kids. 

Enjoy! 

Blank Crossword: Games We Play

Murder Ballads

Note: I am updating the song list a little at a time.

Murder outnumbers any other subject for a ballad topic. Jody Amable, in a January 30, 2021 article for JSTOR daily, referred to murder ballads as “...the original true crime podcast”. In the article Amable quoted Harold Schechter who wrote in The Yale Review that murder ballads were “the oldest form of crime literature”. Ballads began as news stories which would be printed on broadsides, one of the first forms of printed news, which carried the news of the day. The most sensational stories, often having to do with a trial, especially if it involved murder, would be sung in ballad form on sidewalks by those hawking the broadsides. For those who couldn't read this was the only way they got any news. Many of our ballads were brought over from Europe, especially the British Isles, when emigrants left their homeland for a new home thousands of miles away. Over the course of time many broadside ballads undoubtedly faded away into obscurity while others endured and are sung about still albeit in an altered form.

After the emigrants and their songs crossed the Atlantic, locations and details, even the titles, of songs would get altered somewhat. For instance, the murderous tale of “The Oxford Girl” in England became “The Wexford Girl” in Ireland and “The Knoxville Girl” in Kentucky, U. S. A. If you listen carefully the stories are basically the same. A boy takes up with a girl, promises to marry said girl, who may or may not be pregnant, and one day they spend some time walking, or riding, and, supposedly, talking about their wedding to be and fixing a date. All the while, and unbeknownst to her, he's planning to kill her. She is either stabbed and pushed into a river or beaten with a large stick and dragged by her hair and put into a river. In one instance a young lady is given poisoned wine. I highlight a few ballads below, hopefully without giving too much away.

In the 19th century murder ballad “Banks of the Ohio”, also known as “Down on the Banks of the Ohio”, a young man named Willie is spurned when his lady love rejects his marriage proposal. Once alone, and obviously unable to take “no” for an answer, he murders her. Unlike other murder ballads, this murderer explains why he killed his beloved and goes on to express his sorrow and regret. There isn't much background on this one so I don't know if it really happened or was made up for entertainment.

The ballad “Omie Wise” tells of the murder of Naomi 'Omie' Wise in 1808 in Randolph County, North Carolina. She had gotten pregnant by her young man, John Lewis, who beguiled her with the promise of “some jewels and many other fine things”.

“Tom Dooley” is likewise based on an actual murder, also committed in North Carolina, but in Wilkes County. Tom's surname was Dula but was pronounced Dooley. In 1866 he murdered his lover Laura Foster, who was carrying their unborn child, by stabbing her to death with a large knife. Anne Foster Melton, Laura Foster's cousin, had been Dula's lover long before he left for the Civil War. Upon his returning from the war he and Anne resumed their affair even though she had married a much older man, James Melton. While Dula continued to carry on with Anne he took up with her cousin Laura and also their cousin Pauline Foster. It was comments made by Pauline that led to the discovery of Laura's body. Accusations were made against both Dula and Anne Foster Melton. On Dula's sworn word that she had nothing to do with the killing Anne Foster Melton was acquitted. On the gallows, however, Dula said he had not harmed Laura but still deserved punishment. This led to speculation that Anne Foster Melton was indeed the killer which would mean Dula went to the gallows in her place. Local poet Thomas Land wrote a song about the tragedy entitled “Tom Dooley” not long after Dula was hung.

“The Long Black Veil”, a country music classic, began as a poem written by Danny Dill who, in 1959, presented it to Marijohn Wilkin who fine tuned it. Dill said he drew on three sources for inspiration: the song “God Walks These Hills With Me" which was recorded by Red Foley, the contemporary newspaper report about the unsolved murder of a priest, and the legend of a mysterious veiled woman who regularly visited actor Rudolph Valentino's grave. It was originally recorded by Lefty Frizzell March 3, 1959 and released a few weeks later on April 20th. The story is told from the point of view of a man falsely accused of killing a man. He would have been let go if he was somewhere else at the time of the killing, which he was, but he wouldn't give up that information. Wilkin wrote and recorded an answer to “The Long Black Veil” in 1960 entitled “My Long Black Veil” but it was never released and we'll likely never know why. I stumbled upon it while browsing YouTube. In “The Long Black Veil” it's said the woman stood in the crowd and shed not a tear, which I always thought was cold until I realized that if she cried a little too loud or too much it would get folks to speculating and set gossiping tongues to wagging. In the answer song the woman tells her side of the story in which we learn she did cry, she just did so inwardly. Now fast forward 50 some odd years to the 21st century. Texas/Red Dirt artist Jason Boland wrote a song entitled “False Accuser's Lament”. By the time he got through with it he realized it could be the backstory for “The Long Black Veil”. It's not where he was headed when he started writing “False Accuser's Lament” but it's where he ended up. From the time I first heard it, long before hearing his explanation, as told on an episode on the internet show “The Texas Connection”, I thought of “The Long Black Veil”. I only discovered Marijohn Wilkin's answer song just a couple of years ago long after first hearing “False Accuser's Lament”. This story is pure fiction.

The story of the murders of David “Stringbean” and Estelle Akeman is told in “The Ballad of Stringbean and Estelle”. As it happened on November 10, 1973, which was a little more than two months after my tenth birthday, my memory of the story is vague. I do, however, remember Stringbean being part of the cast of the country music variety show "Hee-Haw". He was a singer-songwriter, musician, comedian, actor and semi-professional baseball player. On that November night Stringbean had a show on the Grand Ole Opry. During that time two burglars, seeking money alleged to be hidden in the home, were lying in wait at the Akeman's rural Tennessee home near Ridgetop. The couple was killed shortly after arriving home. Close friend, neighbor, and fellow "Hee-Haw" cast member Louis "Grandpa" Jones discovered the bodies the next day. All the killers got was a chainsaw and some firearms, although they expected more than that, in addition to very long prison sentences. Something interesting happened when the home was torn down some time after the murders but you'll have to listen to the song to find out what it was. 

Stringbean

While murder ballads have waned in popularity, the idea of them has not been put away in the storehouse of time. There are still ballads out there that tell a tale of murder, revenge for murder, the implication of murder and murder-suicide. It's not always because of a beau's soured heart or a sweetheart's rejection. In “When It's Springtime in Alaska” the guy who comes in from the back of beyond choses to dance with the wrong gal. In “Down the River” a man is shot and killed by someone he had a fight with the week before. Even though the death in “I Hung My Head” is caused by an accidental shooting it's the shooter's response that makes it look bad. In “Independence Day” an abused wife takes matters into her own hands. “The Legend of Wooley Swamp” is both a murder and a ghost story. When you listen to a song be sure to hear the words so you get the story.

I have made a partial list of American ballads, including, of course, those brought over from Europe and altered over time after reaching America, in which murder takes place. I'm sure I may have missed quite a few or more. While they are primarily country there is also bluegrass, blues, folk and other genres. I list with the songs at least one singer known to have sung it even though most have been covered by many other artists. I'll note, too, if the ballad is based on an actual event. Any of these can be found by doing a search on YouTube.

• "A Prisoner's Diary", Leon Payne
• "Ain't It Sad to Stand and Watch Love Die", Conway Twitty
• "The Ballad of Annie Palmer", Johnny Cash
• "The Ballad of Emmett Till", Bob Dylan (based on an actual event)
• "The Ballad of Hollis Brown", Bob Dylan
• "The Ballad of John Rollin", Walter 'Tex' Dixon
• "The Ballad of Sarah Malone", David Davis
• "The Ballad of Stringbean and Estelle", Sam Bush (based on an actual event)
• "Banks of the Ohio", Johnny Cash
• " Billy Paul", Vince Gill
• "Blackadders Cove", New Found Road
• "Blood Red and Going Down", Tanya Tucker
• "Bow Down Your Head and Cry", Charlie Walker
• "Caney Fork River", Balsam Range  
• "Cedar Town, Georgia", Waylon Jennings
• "Cocaine Blues" (also known as "Little Sadie"), Johnny Cash
• "Cold Hard Facts of Life", Porter Wagoner
• "Cross the Brazos at Waco", Billy Walker
• "Delia's Gone", Johnny Cash
• "Delilah", Tom Jones
• "Della and the Dealer", Hoyt Axton
• "Devil's Right Hand", Steve Earle (added 07/05/2023)
• "Don't Take Your Guns to Town", Johnny Cash
• "Down in the Willow Garden", Charlie Monroe
• "Down the River", Chris Knight
• "El Paso", Marty Robbins
• "The Everglades", Waylon Jennings
• "False Accuser's Lament", Jason Boland & The Stragglers
• "Folsom Prison Blues", Johnny Cash
• "Frankie and Johnny", Jimmie Rodgers, many others  (added 07/05/2023)
• "Goodbye, Earl", The (Dixie) Chicks
• "Guilty as Can Be", Cody Johnson
• "I Hung My Head", Johnny Cash
• "I Killed Sally's Lover", The Avett Brothers
• "I Left My Gal in the Mountains", Hank Thompson  (added 07/05/2023)
• "I Never Picked Cotton", Roy Clark
• "In the Ghetto", Mac Davis
• "In the Pines (Where Did You Sleep Last Night)", Lead Belly (The difference between this version and “In the Pines” by The Louvin Bros., Mac Wiseman, & others is that the latter version leaves out the implication of murder.)
• "Independence Day", Martina McBride
• "Jenny Lou", Sonny James
• "The Knoxville Girl", The Louvin Brothers
• "The Legend of Wooley Swamp", Charlie Daniels
• "Lily of the West", Bob Dylan (added 07/05/2023)
• "Little Glass of Wine", Stanley Brothers  (added 07/05/2023)
• "Little Omie Wise", Doc Watson (based on an actual event)
• "Little Sadie" (also known as "Cocaine Blues"), Doc Watson
• "My Long Black Veil", Marijohn Wilkin
• "The Long Black Veil", Lefty Frizzell
• "L. A. County", Lyle Lovett (added 07/05/2023)
• "Loving County", Charlie Robison
• "Miller's Cave", Bobby Bare
• "Matty Groves", Doc Watson
• "The Murder of the Lawson Family", Walter Smith & Friends (based on an actual event)
• "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia", Reba McEntire & Vicky Lawrence
• *"Open Pit Mine", George Jones (added 10/19/2022)
• "Papa Loved Mama", Garth Brooks
• "Poor Ellen Smith", Country Gentlemen  (added 07/05/2023)
• "Pretty Polly", Estil C Ball
• *"Radio Lover", George Jones (added 10/19/2022)
• "Red Georgia Clay", John Anderson
• "Red Headed Stranger", Willie Nelson (added 07/05/2023)
• "River Bottom", The Country Gentlemen
• "Rose in Paradise", Waylon Jennings (murder is implied)
• "Running Gun", Marty Robbins
• "Stagger Lee", Lloyd Price
• "Stagger Mountain Tragedy", Kris Kristofferson
• "Sugar Man", Kris Kristofferson
• "Take Me Back to Jackson", Carl Butler (murder is implied)
• "Tall Lover Man", June Carter Cash
• "That Georgia Sun Was Blood Red and Goin' Down", Tanya Tucker
• "The Veil of White Lace", Mel Tillis
• "They're Hanging Me Tonight", Marty Robbins
• "Tom Dooley", The Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul & Mary (added 07/05/2023)
• "When It's Springtime in Alaska", Johnny Horton

I'm on the fence concerning “Play, Guitar, Play”, by Conway Twitty, whether it could be a murder ballad by implication. With Waylon Jennings' “Rose in Paradise” and Carl Butler's “Take Me Back to Jackson” there is enough said to imply murder may have been committed but not so with “Play, Guitar, Play”. The man in the song surely done something wrong. First, the man in the song wants to hear his momma calling “Look a-yonder ya-all who's coming down the road, he's a coming home..” but, he says, “they know I never will”. Second, he mentions leaving them, presumably his family, “with that awful thing I done”, how he didn't say a word and just packed his clothes and ran. Third, he's apparently on the move. He mentions singing one more song before having to move along to “another town, another crowd”, and wondering “if they know”, asking himself “can they read between the lines in my song as I sing about a good boy that went wrong”.

Sources for information:

The Miller's Apprentice , Omie Wise , Yale Review Essay on Omie Wise

Pretty Polly , Banks of the Ohio , Matty Groves

Down in the Willow Garden , The Long Black Veil

Tom Dooley , Delia's Gone , David 'Stringbean' Akeman

The Lawson Family , Emmett Till , Stagger Lee

Jody Amable's Jan. 30, 2021 JSTOR Daily article

List of Murder Ballads at Wikipedia  (added 10/19/2022)

For more information on songs not mentioned above, just do a "murder ballads" search at google. 

Revised and updated 9/25/22. tkp

Update again 10/18/2022. tkp

The Short Stories of Four Music Genres and Their Ties to Country Music

Dare I call them 'kissin' cousins'?

Boogie-Woogie:

The roots of this genre lie in the Piney Woods of northeast Texas dating back to the late 19th century. What became boogie-woogie began in African-American communities in the late 1870s and evolved from there. Oral histories that were gathered in the 1930s from some of the oldest living Americans, both African-Americans and white Americans, showed a widespread consensus that revealed that boogie-woogie piano was first played in Texas in the early 1870s. Jelly Roll Morton (1890-1941), African-American ragtime and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer said he first heard boogie-woogie on a piano early in the 20th century. Influenced by blues and ragtime, the genre evolved and spread out as time went on. In turn, it had an influence on other genres, country and western music one of them. Boogie-woogie, initially played on the piano, eventually found its way to the guitar. African-American folk and blues singer and musician Lead Belly (1888-1949) was known for his proficiency on the 12 string guitar. He was among the first guitar players to adapt the rolling bass of the piano for the guitar. Lead Belly was born in Mooringsport, Louisiana and raised in Harrison county, Texas. He said he first heard a boogie-woogie piano in the area of Caddo Lake in northeast Texas in 1899. Another time he heard boogie-woogie coming from a piano was in Shreveport, Louisiana's Fannin Street district. White country musician Merle Travis (1917-1983) played a role in marrying country music and boogie-woogie. He learned his guitar style from his father's barber Ike Everly (1908-1975; father of Don (1937-2021) and Phil (1939-2014)). His picking style was called “Travis picking” which was born during his boogie-woogie period and changed guitar playing in America. It involved picking bass with one finger while picking the melody at the same time.

Jelly Roll Morton "Boogie Woogie Blues"

Merle Travis and "Cannonball Rag"

Hillbilly Boogie:

Fads come and go and boogie-woogie, considered a fad, had just about gone away in the late 1930's into the early 1940's. After WWII the genre was resurrected in country music where it was called hillbilly boogie. It wasn't much of a stretch since there was already a relationship between country music and boogie-woogie. Rock historian Ed Ward (from an interview transcript from NPR dated Nov. 15, 2011) gives the credit for hillbilly boogie to Arthur Smith who, Ward says, started it all in 1945. Smith's Hot Quintet, having some time remaining in a recording session, recorded “Guitar Boogie” on a lark. The song became a hit and for the rest of his life Smith was billed as Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith (1921-2014). However, according to an article at WikiZero, musicians who played country music began recording boogie music in 1939. This came after Johnny Barefield (1909-1974) recorded “Boogie Woogie”, also in 1939. The Delmore Brothers (Alton (1908-1964) & Rabon (1916-1952)) embraced the boogie-woogie style sometime in the 1940s. With their influence hillbilly boogie found itself at home among musicians recording country music. Their “Freight Train Boogie” was said to be part of the joint evolution of country music and the blues that culminated into rockabilly. While hillbilly boogie and country music were becoming great friends, Western swing was evolving even more in Texas and Louisiana. In those places polka and a bit of jazz were tossed into the music mix that included hillbilly boogie.

Arthur Smith and Guitar Boogie

Rockabilly:

Rockabilly draws on two major influences: country music and rock music. At the time rockabilly was born rock music usually referred to the rhythm and blues music made by African-American musicians. Rockabilly's roots lie in the American South. There, for decades before rockabilly was a twinkle in anyone's eye, the music played by African-Americans and that played by white Americans had mixed and mingled. Sun Records recorded some of the best examples of rockabilly music. Their roster included Elvis (do you really need a last name? (1935-1977)), Carl Perkins (1932-1998), Johnny Cash (1932-2003) and Jerry Lee Lewis (1935-). While men dominated rockabilly there were two women who held their own against them: Wanda Jackson (1937-) and Brenda Lee (1944-). Jackson sung a song entitled “Rockabilly Fever”, written by Carl Perkins, which gives this description of rockabilly:

“We took a little country music, put some pop in, and dressed it up in soul.”

Rockabilly songs are a vivacious high-energy take on a blues chord progression. In a rockabilly band there would be three or four members. There would be two guitars, one electric and one acoustic. The former would handle lead duties and the latter held rhythm duties. From hillbilly boogie lead guitars adopted a heavy twang. The upright bass was often played by slapping rather than plucking. Some guitarists, like Carl Perkins, also sang. Drumming wasn't often considered because the bass could double as both rhythm and percussion.

Rockabilly singers had different styles of singing. For instance, the deep, overheated sound of R & B and blues singers was favored by Elvis and Gene Vincent (1935-1971). Others, however, could be rather eccentric, like Charlie Feathers (1932-1998). He included vocal tricks and tics in his singing such as hiccups and croons.

  Carl Perkins singing "Honey Don't"

Wanda Jackson singing "Hard Headed Woman"

Western Swing:

This sub-genre of country music began in the late 1920's in the West and the South with regional western string bands. It grew out of jazz but was actually a mix of rural, cowboy, polka, old-time, Dixieland jazz, and blues music which was blended with swing. It was played by a hot string band accompanied by drums, saxophones, pianos and, most notably, the fiddle and the steel guitar. The stringed instruments were electrically amplified and this gave the music a distinctive sound. Don't try and marry Western swing bands with the big swing bands of the same era. The two do differ. In Western swing bands, even if heavily orchestrated, the fiddle would most always take the lead, though the steel guitar could also take the lead, and other instruments, even the vocals, followed it. Unlike the horn laden big swing bands, who arranged and scored their own music, Western swing bands freely improvised. This improvisation occurred either by the band as a whole or by the vocalist. Country singer and musician Merle Travis defined Western swing thus:

"Western swing is nothing more than a group of talented country boys, unschooled in music, but playing the music they feel, beating a solid two-four rhythm to the harmonies that buzz around their brains. When it escapes in all its musical glory, my friend, you have Western swing."

During the 1930's and 1940's Western swing's unique up-beat style drew large crowds to dance halls and night clubs in Texas, Oklahoma, and California. Unfortunately, in 1944 a war-time 30% federal excise tax was levied against dance halls and nightclubs that allowed dancing. Even though it was later dropped to 20% “no dancing” signs remained posted and, in essence, was the death knell for Western swing. The war-time tax is believed to have curtailed public dancing as a recreational activity. Well, not quite. Recordings by Bob Wills, Spade Cooley and others were ever popular after the war. Folks could dance again in public if they wanted to but then again, they could dance at home as well.

Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys, feat. Joe Andrews singing "Deep Water"

I think the key component to all four genres is the instruments. In boogie-woogie it's the rousing way a piano is played. Hillbilly boogie and Western swing have four stringed instruments in common: acoustic, electric and steel guitars and the standup bass. However, Western swing has the fiddle which would be as prominent as the steel guitar. Later, in rockabilly, there would just be heavy bass lines and no percussion.

So while each genre grew out of another, influenced another, or was influenced by another, they developed in such a way to make each music genre their own by deciding which elements to keep and which ones to let go of.

NPR The History of Hillbilly Boogie's Earliest Days by Ed Ward, rock historian

American Roots blog

Boogie-Woogie

Hillbilly Music

Boogie-Woogie and Black History

Origins of Country Music

Country Music

Revised and updated 9/25/22. tkp