A Place In The Choir: A Song History

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The earliest recording of "A Place in the Choir" found in the sources consulted here is Bill Staines's own, on The Whistle of the Jay, an album he made for the Folk-Legacy label that Smithsonian Folkways lists with a 1979 date.[1] The album's notes credit the song to Staines, list his copyrights on the record as 1978 or 1979, and include his own short comment that he enjoys picturing all kinds of animals making music together.[2] Staines, who grew up near Boston, made more than two dozen albums over a touring career that took him to A Prairie Home Companion and Mountain Stage.[3] He died in New Hampshire on December 5, 2021, at 74, after living for years with prostate cancer.[3][4]

Etching of Noah driving a crowd of animals, among them cattle and a white horse, through a wooded landscape toward the ark

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Il Grechetto), Noah and the Animals Entering the Ark, etching, ca. 1650–55. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown for its crowd of animals; it has no connection to the song.

The song's other name, "All God's Critters Got a Place in the Choir," comes from its chorus, and Sandy Paton's introduction to the 1979 album already alludes to it.[2] In a tribute republished by FolkWorks, Marv Menzel of the Homestead Pickin' Parlor in Richfield, Minnesota, recalled that it and "River" "had just become standards in the folk and country scenes."[3] In 1989 Dutton issued it as a picture book under that longer title, painted by Margot Zemach,[5] and in 2009 Simon & Schuster brought out a new picture book, All God's Critters, illustrated by Kadir Nelson.[6]

The song has also been arranged for choirs; De Haske publishes an SATB setting by Janet Wheeler, which the publisher recommends to adult and community choirs as a light number or closer.[7] The Irish vocal group Celtic Thunder ended its 2011 album Heritage with a bluegrass-flavored version.[8]

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Sources

  1. Smithsonian Folkways: "The Whistle of the Jay".
  2. Smithsonian Folkways / Folk-Legacy Records: "The Whistle of the Jay" (FSI-70 liner notes, 1979).
  3. FolkWorks: "RIP: Bill Staines".
  4. The Westerly Sun: "Postscripts: An authentic cowboy crooner straight from the wilds of N.H.".
  5. Publishers Weekly: "All God's Critters Got a Place in the Choir".
  6. Simon & Schuster: "All God's Critters".
  7. Hal Leonard: "A Place in the Choir" (De Haske Choral Music).
  8. Rambles.NET: "Celtic Thunder, Heritage".