Happy Land (II)

DESCRIPTION: Sister let's go where my teacher, 30 days "mourning," will bring a message of the promised land. At Jordan, they shout, dip you in the water, shout a doption, and we are going to the happy land of Canaan.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
The Lion (Rafael de Leon), "Happy Land of Canaan - Calypso Shouter" also John H. Cowley, liner notes to disc 9, #244 pp. 255-256,(on "West Indian Rhythm," Bear Family Records 10CD BCD 16623 JM, 2006)
Lord Invader (Rupert Westmore Grant) and Duke of Iron (Cecil Anderson), "Happy Land of Canaan" (on "Calypso at Midnight," Rounder CD 11661-1840-2, 1999; recorded 1946)
Emile Paul, Carl Monsegui, Allan Lovelace, "Happy Land" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
Wilmouth Houdini and his Shouting Congregation, "Happy Land of Canaan" (on "The Gospel Tradition: The Roots and Branches, vol. 1," Columbia/Legacy CD AAD 47333, 1991)
NOTES [384 words]: Do not confuse this with the hymn indexed here as "There Is a Happy Land."
Donald R. Hill and Lise Winer, liner notes for WITrinidadVillage02 have this as a Spiritual Baptist baptising song, and Lion's words support that. The description follows Lion's text. "Mourning" and "doption" are Spiritual Baptist terms. The trips are understood to be "spiritual journeys" that are such an important feature of Spiritual Baptism.
Lion's tune and words are not the same as Paul's and Invader's, but Lion's may just be a more complete text. Cowley has a hand in the liner notes for Lion and Invader, and Hill has a hand in the liner notes for Paul and Invader, and both liner notes make the connection to the Johnny Walker 78 for Victor (which I have not heard): "things equal to the same thing ...?" Invader's version was recorded "before a live audience" in 1946, is less than two minutes, and got what I take to be an enthusiastic response. It is a shorter version than Houdini's and seems to me to be a partial cover of Houdini's three minute 1934 Columbia recording.
'"Happy Land of Canaan' is a common Spiritual Baptist song often parodied in Caribbean popular music" (Donald R. Hill and Lise Winer, liner notes for WITrinidadVillage02, p. 24). Is the song itself parodied or just the sentiment, as for Lion's "Happy Land of Canaan" (John H. Cowley, "Canboulay, Carnival, and Calenda," liner notes on "West Indian Rhythm", pp. 259-271, Bear Family Records 10CD BCD 16623 JM, 2006)
"This is a Spiritual Baptist song. Spiritual Baptists were derisively called "Shouters"; their faith dates from the nineteenth century and may have originated in St. Vincent, although there is evidence of related wake ceremonies in Trinidad as early as 1848.... 'Happy Land of Canaan' was first recorded on May 17, 1921 for Victor by Johnny Walker, a Trinidad vaudevillian...." (Donald R. Hill and John H. Cowley, "Song Notes" liner notes for "Intro to 'Happy Land of Canaan'" on "Calypso at Midnight," Rounder CD 11661-1840-2, 1999) (recorded 1946)])(Spottswood has this as Vi 73207 "Happy Land-Shouters Meeting (Brother Walters)"(Richard K Spottswood, Ethnic Music on Records: a Discography of Ethnic Recordings Produced in the United States, 1893 to 1942 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, c1990), vol. 5 p. 2923).)) - BS
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File: RcHapLa2

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