Christmas Song Reclamation Project, 2024

Uplifting renditions of the underloved classic "Children, Go Where I Send Thee."

After the very first verse of her 1959 version of “Children Go Where I Send You,” Nina Simone addresses her band. “Take your time, boys….we got awhile to go now.”

That’s because this spiritual, which seems to have slipped off the ever-shortening Christmas tune shortlist, has 12 verses that unfold in a cumulative structure, a la “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Each includes an image or symbol related to Biblical legend; names of imprisoned church leaders Paul and Silas are commonly cross-interpreted as references to enslaved people in the lyrics.

Scholars believe that the song is related to the English folk song “The Twelve Apostles.” According to Wikipedia, British composer Percy Grainger captured the earliest known recording of it, in 1908. U.S. folklorists John and Alan Lomax documented several versions of “Children Go Where I Send Thee” in the late 1930s; the below features a singer named Kelly Pace and several other inmates; it was recorded at the Arkansas State Prison in Gould, Arkansas in 1939.

Among the early studio recordings is this stirring, inventively arranged version by the Golden Gate Quartet, which was a “hit” in 1937.

Jumping ahead some decades, here’s a mighty choral version from the Spellman College Glee Club. Another great arrangement — note the presence of hand drums in front of the choir.

It works for solo guitar, too….check this impressionistic treatment by the master John Fahey.

There have been recordings of “Children Go Where I Send Thee” in recent years — Ledesi uses it as a melisma launch pad on her 2008 set for Verve. In my (admittedly limited) survey, one recording that catches the sense of purpose and (for lack of a better term) “mission” embedded in the song is Kenny Burrell’s tamborine-spiked version from 1966, set in a brisk jubilee tempo.

Happy holidays!