Other Bright Shore, The

DESCRIPTION: "I have a mother gone to glory (or: ...mother over yonder) (x3), On (that) other (bright) shore." Similarly with father, sister, etc. "Some bright day we'll go and meet them...." "Won't that be a happy meeting..." etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious death reunion family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE,So)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 539, "John Saw de Hundred and Forty-Four Thousand" (1 text, perhaps not this song but too close to separate (it starts "John saw the Hundred and Forty-Four Thousand" and has the chorus "I can't stay away," but the rest appears to be this); also 576, "Gwine Down Jordan" (1 text, also possibly separate as it has the chorus, "I'me gwine down Jordan, hallelo," but the verses seem to belong here); also 648, "We Have Loved Ones Over Yonder" (1 text, which appears to be exactly this song except that it uses the phrase "over yonders ocean" rather than "on the other bright shore")
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 539, "John Saw de Hundred and Forty-Four Thousand" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Chappell-FolkSongsOfRoanokeAndTheAlbermarle 90, "Over Yonders Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 611, "On That Other Bright Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, p. 164, "On Canaan's Happy Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 228, "Some Have Fathers Over Yonger" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. 47, "I've Got a Mother Gone to Glory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky, pp. 217-218, "Oh, Brother Will You Meet Me?" (1 text, 1 tune, in which all meet "On Canaan's happy shores.") (OakEd, p. 218-219)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, p. 572, "The Other Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chase-AmericanFolkTalesAndSongs, p. 170, "Over Yonders Ocean" (1 text, 1 tune)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Portia Naomi Crawford, "A Study of Negro Folk Songs from Greensboro, North Carolina and Surrounding Towns," Vol. XVI, No. 2 (Oct 1968), pp. 114-115, "Over Yonder" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Jackson-AnotherSheaf, #14 p. 9, "O Brothers Will You Meet Me" (1 text fragment, 1 tune)
Jackson-SpiritualFolkSongs, #202 pp. 206-207, "Say Brothers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4213
RECORDINGS:
Rev. Howard Finster, "Some Have Fathers Over Yonder" (on FolkVisions2)
Cas Wallin, "Some Have Fathers Gone to Glory" (on FarMtns3)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hear the Lambs a-Cryin'" (words)
cf. "Departed Loved Ones" (theme)
cf. "I Have a Father Gone to Glory (I Am Alone in this World)" (lyrics)
cf. "Some Have Fathers Gone to Glory" (lyrics)
cf. "Bring In That New Jerusalem" (lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Some Bright Day
Glittering Crowns
NOTES [289 words]: Roud lumps this with "Where Is Old Elijah? (The Hebrew Children, The Promised Land)," which seems a bit strong. But there is no denying that this is a song with a great willingness to transfer verses; it's possible that some of the items listed here actually derived from other songs.
The handful of hymnals that include this seem most typically to call it "Some Bright Day" or "Glittering Crowns" - RBW
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed and Jackson-AnotherSheaf are like Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky. The site at Hymnary.org -- specifically http://www.hymnary.org/text/tellmebrotherswillyoumeetme -- shows eleven gospel collections and the pages listing this song. The chorus there --though there is none in Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, Jackson-AnotherSheaf, or Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky-- is "glory, glory hallelujah (3x), Forever, evermore." A number of sources (for example see, at SecondHandSongs, http://www.secondhandsongs.com/work/43760, "Say Brothers, Will You Meet Us?") say "William Steffe claimed he wrote the lyrics in 1855 or 1856" to a tune that "appeared in Henry Ward Beecher's Plymouth Collection in 1852." The Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, Jackson-AnotherSheaf, and Thomas-BalladMakingInMountainsOfKentucky tunes, which are similar, are not that "Battle Hymn of the Republic" tune; Jackson-AnotherSheaf notes that "the same text with a different tune -- the one made famous by its association with the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic' -- is in SFS[Jackson-SpiritualFolkSongs], p. 206." The chorus in Jackson-SpiritualFolkSongs is "Glory, glory halelujah! (3x) We are marching on."
An argument can be made to split "Say Brothers, Will You Meet Us?"/"Canaan's Happy Shore" from the rest of these texts. - BS
Bibliography

Jackson-AnotherSheaf: George Pullin Jackson, Another Sheaf Of White Spirituals (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1952)
Jackson-SpiritualFolkSongs: George Pullen Jackson, Spiritual Folk-Songs of Early America (New York: Dover Publications, 1964 (reprint of New York: J.J. Augustin, 1937))

Last updated in version 6.7
File: R611

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography