Hard Trials

DESCRIPTION: "The foxes have holes in the ground... And everything has a hiding place, but we poor sinners have none. Now ain't them hard trials?..." Unrelated verses, often floating, about religious life, fidelity to denominations, the Devil, justice, death
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: religious death Devil floatingverses
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 222-223, "Hard Trials" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 213-214 in the 1874 edition)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 600-602, "Hard Trials" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Roud #7554
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Methodist Pie" (floating verses)
cf. "Lonesome Valley (I)" (floating verses)
NOTES [45 words]: It's not clear, from the Lomax notes, whether this song actually exists on its own. Of their eight stanzas, they themselves admit to importing four. Three of the others float. The chorus is commonplace. So I am tempted to regard this as simply a Lomax assembly job. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: LxA600

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