“Gonna Be Movin’” is a bluegrass gospel song of the upbeat, heaven-bound kind — an anticipation of the soul’s move from earthly trouble to a home in glory. It was introduced on record by the Lewis Family, the Georgia clan long known as the “First Family of Bluegrass Gospel,” who recorded it in the late 1970s.
From the Lewis Family the song spread quickly through gospel circles. Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, one of the most influential bands in modern bluegrass gospel, recorded it in the early 1980s, and the Southern gospel quartet the Kingsmen carried it onto the gospel charts mid-decade.
The song’s bright tempo and hopeful message made it a natural for bluegrass stage shows and singing conventions alike. The version heard here is by Larry Sparks and the Lonesome Ramblers, who made it the title track of a 1986 album — a setting that pairs the song’s gospel optimism with Sparks’s deep, soulful lead voice.
