Moanish Lady
Channel: Stephen Griffith
Date: 2020-03-25

Day 4 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series  (folksongindex.com)

Carl Sandburg says, "This offshoot of the spiritual, "Mourner, You Shall be Free," has been widely known for many years among barber shop harmonizers. The other stanzas of the barber shop version, however, are so lackadaisical that they don't do justice to the stately cadence of that solemn promise that when the good Lord shall call you home you shall be free. Any one requiring foolish verses for this air can easily improvise as silly ones as have been left out here. The music is too superbly serious to have cheap lines."

Of course, when I read this I was curious about the 'other' versions with which he did not like. I found a few and will record those at a later date, at least the ones not as offensive as some of the versions I found.