“River of Jordan” is a gospel song drawn from the deep well of spiritual and sacred-song tradition. The river Jordan — the boundary the Israelites crossed into the Promised Land — has long served in gospel song as a figure for death and the passage into heaven, and many songs share the image.
This version of “River of Jordan” was carried into country music by the Carter Family, the foundational Virginia trio, who recorded it in 1928. A.P. Carter, who gathered and reshaped a great deal of older sacred material for the family’s repertoire, is credited on the recording, though the song belongs to a much older tradition.
Like the rest of the Carter Family’s gospel catalog, the song passed readily into bluegrass and country gospel singing, where its hopeful image of crossing over to a heavenly home kept it in steady use.
