Flying away from it all is a pretty common wish these days, and apparently it always has been. Slaves working the fields and prisoners behind bars traditionally invoke that desire, often extolling the path to freedom that leads through the pearly gates.
So flying up to heaven was a common trope by the time prolific gospel composer and publisher Albert E. Brumley tackled the subject at the dawn of the Depression. Brumley wrote more than 800 songs, and while practitioners of old-timey religion are familiar with plenty of them, this is probably the best-known, because it crossed over from the hymn book into the bluegrass and country music repertoires.
Brumley, who died in 1977, expressed surprise that the song became a standard. He said he was inspired by a line in a prison song about flying to freedom over the prison walls, and realized it could be used as a religious metaphor.
Boy, could it ever. It’s been recorded more than 500 times over the years since Brumley published it in 1932, by everyone from Slim Whitman to Ron Wood and Ronnie Lane. If you’re not a bluegrass buff or a holy roller, you probably know the tune from the Coen brothers movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” The soundtrack to that 2000 film sold 8 million copies and included a version sung by country/bluegrass artists Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss.
Fans of the film know that the Welch-Krauss version isn’t the one that plays over a montage of runaway prisoner George Clooney and his companions dodging the law and pilfering their way across Depression-era Mississippi. The Coens used the 1956 version by the Kossoy Sisters, 18-year-old identical twins in New York City who learned Appalachian tunes at hootenannies in Washington Square Park. It better reflected the sepia-saturated feel of the film, but for reasons unknown didn’t make the soundtrack LP.
The best-selling version of the song was recorded by the 1948 Chuck Wagon Gang, a name that gospel quarter David “Dad” Carter and his progeny used because their radio-station sponsor insisted on it. It sold over a million copies and is in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.
