Lonesome Valley (II), The

DESCRIPTION: ""My brother, want to get religion? Go down in the lonesome valley (x4), To meet my Jesus there." "Oh, feed on milk and honey." "Oh, John he write the letter." "And Mary and Martha read 'em."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (Spaulding)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 5, "The Lonesome Valley" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H.G. Spaulding, "Under the Palmetto" in _The Continental Monthly_, Vol. 4, No. 11 (August 1863 ("Digitized by Google")), p. 199-200, ("Down in de lonesome valley") (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #11858
NOTES [197 words]: Spaulding is writing from Port Royal, South Carolina. - BS
This should not be confused with "Lonesome Valley (I)"; they have nothing in common except those two words.
The phrase "lonesome valley," interestingly, never occurs in the King James Bible, though the phrase would easily be suggested by Psalm 23.
There are three epistles credited to John in the New Testament -- but not one of them actually says it is from John. The assignment of authorship is based on the fact that they definitely seem to be from the same "school," and probably the same author, as the fourth gospel. And the fourth gospel is attributed to the Beloved Disciple, and the BD was surely either Peter or James or John (the three disciples who made up Jesus's inner circle), and it can't be Peter because Peter talked to the BD, and it can't be James because he was executed early on, so presumably it was John.
Even if John did write the three letters, there is absolutely no reason to connect them with Mary and Martha, since Martha is mentioned only in Luke 10 and John 11-12. (In fact, the Gospel of John never mentions John the Disciple by name; every reference to John is to John the Baptist.) - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: AWG005

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