Lester Flatt wrote “I’m Workin’ on a Road (To Glory Land),” and Flatt, Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys recorded it on 9 May 1951 at Castle Studio in Nashville. Flatt sang lead, with Everett Lilly on tenor, Earl Scruggs on baritone and Jody Rainwater on the bass part; Lilly played mandolin, Chubby Wise fiddle and Rainwater string bass, and Scruggs is listed on guitar rather than banjo for this song. Columbia issued it on 3 August 1953 as Columbia 21147, backed with “He Took Your Place,” cut at the same session.
The lyric builds on the image of a road to heaven. The singer says he is working on a road that leads to glory, hoping to shake his savior’s hand and building his hope on eternal things. He is lonely in this world, wants a foundation built by God’s own hands, and urges sinners to come along, since no one has a promise of living here below. When the road is finished he wants to travel on, hear the angels singing around the throne, and take his mother by the hand.
The Country Gentlemen recorded it on 9 January 1968 at Roy Homer Associates in Clinton, Maryland, with John Duffey singing lead and playing mandolin, Charlie Waller on guitar, Eddie Adcock on banjo and Ed Ferris on bass; it is included in the 1998 Rebel box The Early Rebel Recordings, 1962–1971.
