Videos by American Songwriter
“Lonesome Valley” is a Gospel number written in the early part of the 20th century, or before, that is still used as sacred music in some churches today, and has been recorded by numerous artists in several genres. It gained its widest recognition when it was performed by legendary Gospel group The Fairfield Four as part of the 2000 Coen brothers movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou?
While The Fairfield Four brought it into the 21st century, the song’s authorship may never really be known; it’s usually just listed as “traditional,” but its first known recording is believed to have been in 1925 as a country song by the Jenkins Family, featuring blind evangelist Andrew Jenkins, who himself wrote hundreds of songs. Artistic and lyrical variations notwithstanding, the song has since been cut by everyone from the Monroe Brothers (Bill and Charlie) to Elvis Presley to George Jones. Songwriters Billy Edd Wheeler, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller used part of the chorus for their 1963 song by the Kingston Trio, “The Reverend Mr. Black.”
The song originally had three verses and several repeated choruses, but The Fairfield Four didn’t use any of the verses in their movie version, instead soulfully singing the chorus and adding a couple lines that can be counted as a bridge or a channel that lead to a repeat of the chorus. So they sang:
You got to go to the lonesome valley
You got to go there by yourself
Nobody else can go for you
You got to go there by yourself
Oh, you got to ask the Lord’s forgiveness
Nobody else can ask him for you,
followed by a repeat of the chorus. Regardless of who’s singing it, “Lonesome Valley” typically opens with the chorus, which pretty much sums up the entire premise of the song. Produced for the movie by T Bone Burnett, The Fairfield Four’s version takes the song to a deeper and more reverent place than the recordings by most other artists, serving as the backdrop during the movie’s grave-digging and flood scene when it looks like the heroes of the story are about to meet their maker.
O Brother introduced the Gospel harmonies of The Fairfield Four to millions of people who weren’t familiar with that type of music, while also presenting seldom-heard bluegrass and old-time Appalachian country. The Fairfield Four was originally formed in the early 1920s, named for the Fairfield Baptist church in Nashville. Today’s incarnation of the group – which contains none of the members who actually sang on the song for the movie – still performs the film version of the song in its live shows today. “It’s a good piece and it always gets a good response,” said Larrice Byrd, Sr., the group’s current baritone singer. He calls the group the “third generation” of The Fairfield Four, comprised of singers intimately acquainted with the music, as well as with some of the former (and now deceased) members, for decades. “We realize that a lot of people are familiar with ‘Lonesome Valley,’ the bits and pieces of it we do, because of the movie. We may just go ahead sometime and learn the complete song.”
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