“Paul and Silas” is a traditional religious song built on the story in Acts 16. Paul and Silas were arrested and jailed in Philippi; at midnight they were praying and singing praises to God when an earthquake shook the prison, opened its doors and loosed everyone’s bands, and the jailer, who had been about to kill himself, asked what he must do to be saved. The song keeps to a few images from the story: the pair bound in jail, the jailer locking up, the old jail reeling and rocking, and Paul and Silas praying to God. Another verse brings in the Hebrew children in the burning fire. A line of “all night long” follows each phrase, and each verse closes on a plea for someone to deliver the singer.
Red Allen recorded it in 1953 at Gateway Studio in Cincinnati, with Allen singing, Noah Crase on banjo, Frank Stewart on mandolin, John McKee on fiddle and Smokey Tinkerson on bass. Carl Story recorded it on 8 October 1958 at radio station WFLW in Monticello, Kentucky, with Franklin “Bud” Brewster singing lead, and the Country Gentlemen cut an arrangement credited to John Duffey in March 1960 in Washington, with Duffey on lead. Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys performed it on 2 May 1963 at Neely Auditorium, Vanderbilt University, and it appeared on their Columbia LP Recorded Live at Vanderbilt University in March 1964, credited to Flatt and Scruggs.
The Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys recorded it at King Studio in Cincinnati on 2 May 1962, credited to Ralph and Carter Stanley. Carter Stanley sang lead and Ralph Stanley tenor, with George Shuffler on guitar and bass vocal, Ralph Mayo on fiddle and baritone, and Chick Stripling on bass. It was reissued on King’s Bluegrass Salvation: I’m Ready to Go (1998) and the Gusto and Hollywood compilations 16 Greatest Gospel Hits.
