Where Shall I Be? A Song History
The Carter Family recorded "Where Shall I Be?" for Victor in Memphis, Tennessee, on November 25, 1930, at a session supervised by Ralph Peer, whom the Victor ledgers note as present.[1] A. P. Carter sang bass, Sara Carter sang alto and played autoharp, and Maybelle Carter sang soprano and played steel guitar.[1] DAHR, drawing on the disc label, lists A. P. Carter as arranger, and records that Victor's ledgers attribute the composition to him.[1]
Jan van Goyen, Village Church, etching, c. 1650. Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the song.
Of the two takes, the second became the master and was issued on Victor 23523, then reissued on Bluebird B-6055 and Montgomery Ward M-4229 and abroad on Regal Zonophone in Australia and Zonophone in South Africa.[1] The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History holds a copy of the Bluebird disc, which pairs the song with "On the Rock Where Moses Stood."[2]
An older African American spiritual, "Where Shall I Be When the First Trumpet Sounds?", was first printed in 1901 in Emily Hallowell's Calhoun Plantation Songs, and C. P. Jones published his own version that same year in Jesus Only Songs and Hymns.[3] The sources consulted here do not establish whether the Carter Family's record is connected to that spiritual or to Jones's song.[1][3] Elwood Donnelly includes the Carter Family's song, in DAD tuning, in Such Singing You Will Hear: 35 Songs Of The Carter Family, a collection of 35 Carter Family songs with guidance on playing the dulcimer, accompanying and singing.[4]
Sources
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BVE-64717. Where shall I be? / Carter Family".
- Smithsonian National Museum of American History: "Where Shall I Be?; On the Rock Where Moses Stood".
- Hymnology Archive: "Where shall I be when the first trumpet sounds?".
- Elwood Donnelly: "Such Singing You Will Hear: 35 Songs Of The Carter Family".
- Image: Jan van Goyen, Village Church, etching, c. 1650. The Cleveland Museum of Art.