One More River to Cross

DESCRIPTION: Counting up the contents of Noah's Ark: "The animals went in one by one... two by two... three by three...," often with odd groups listed. Chorus: "One more river, and that is the river Jordan, One more river (for) to cross." Or "Wasn't that a wide river"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment)
KEYWORDS: Bible animal nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So) Ireland Britain
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 140-141, "The animals came in one by one" (1 text)
Nettleingham-TommysTunes, #23, "One More River" (1 short text)
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 98-99, "Oh, Wasn't Dat a Wide Riber?" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 194 in the 1874 edition; a "Wide River" type)
Higginson-ArmyLifeInABlackRegiment 10, p. 204, "One More River" (1 text)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 47, "Wide River" (1 text, a "Wide River" type)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 455, "One More River to Cross" (1 short text)
Randolph 294, "One More River" (2 texts, 1 tune, both "Ark" versions)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 250-252, "One More River" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 294A)
Peters-FolkSongsOutOfWisconsin, p. 60, "One More River" (1 short text, 1 tune); p. 62, "Jordan's River I'm Bound to Cross" (1 short text, 1 tune, too brief to determine whether it is this or something else; I would guess it is a mixture of two songs)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol3, pp. 10-11, "One More River" (1 text, 1 tune, an "Ark" version)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 308, "One More River" (1 text, 1 tune, an "Ark" version)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 392, "One More River to Cross" (1 text, an "Ark" version)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 397-402, 407-410, "One More RIver" (notes, with sample stanzas on pp. 398-399 and 3 texts [C, D, E] on pp. 407-410 that belong here although filed under "Rise and Shine")
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 24, "Noah's Ark" (1 text, 1 tune, an "Ark" version)
MidwestFolklore, W. L. McAtee, "Odds and Ends of North American Folklore on Birds," Volume 5, Number 3 (Fall 1955), p. 180-181, "(Ole Massa Buzzard, 'yo needn't fly so high)" (9 stanzas, probably from multiple sources, but one stanza appears similar to this)
DT, ONEMORER
ADDITIONAL: Edward Harrigan, _The Mulligans_, G. W. Dilingham, 1901, p. 369, "(no title)" (2 verses plus the chorus, possibly rewritten)
Roud #4458 and 12088
RECORDINGS:
Lt. Jim Europe's Four Harmony Kings, "One More Ribber to Cross" (Pathe 22187, 1919)
Uncle Dave Macon, "One More River to Cross" (Bluebird B-5842, 1935)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Old Uncle Noah" (lyrics)
cf. "Who Built the Ark?" (floating lyrics)
SAME TUNE:
One More Battle to Fight ("The car of progress rolls along, One more battle to fight") (Foner, p. 166)
NOTES [91 words]: Cohen notes that a piece, "Dar's One More Ribber for to Cross" was composed in 1881, with words by James Husey and music by Thomas P. Westendorf. I am unable to verify that this is the same as this song.
Roud splits this into two pieces, both with the same chorus but with different verses. The Noah's Ark type texts appear to be #4458; those which speak primarily of the river itself ("Oh, wasn't that a wide river, River Jordan, Lord, Wide River") are #12088. I've tried to label the texts, but some are too short for this to be possible. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: R294

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