Gonna Be Movin’

The song looks forward to leaving a world short on caring and giving, clouded by sin and sorrow, for a home where there is no more crying, sickness or dying. In its last verse the singer pictures resting from his labor with Jesus as his next-door neighbor. The chorus is set up for call and response, with echo lines answering the lead.

The Lewis Family of Lincolnton, Georgia, known as the “First Family of Bluegrass Gospel,” recorded it in 1977 for their Canaan album Country Faith, at Bradley’s Barn in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, with Bobby Osborne on mandolin, Buddy Spicher on fiddle, Josh Graves on dobro and Hargus “Pig” Robbins on piano alongside the family. Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver sang it as a quartet, under the title “I’m Gonna Be Moving,” on Heavenly Treasures (Sugar Hill, 1983), with Lawson, Jimmy Haley, Terry Baucom and Randy Graham on the vocals.

Larry Sparks & the Lonesome Ramblers cut it on 30 January 1986 at Chandler Audio in Ashland, Kentucky, and made it the title track of their Rebel album Gonna Be Movin’ that year, Sparks singing lead with Larry D. Sparks on tenor and David Harvey on baritone. Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys recorded it in Nashville on 19 March 1992 for Back to the Cross (Freeland). Hylton issued his own versions on The Music Starts Right Here (Rebel, 1989), playing all the instruments himself, and on Pickin’ in the Parlor (Copper Creek), recorded in Tampa, Florida, in February 1994.