“Since I Laid My Burden Down” is a traditional African American spiritual, known across its history under many titles — “Glory, Glory,” “Lay My Burden Down,” and others. Its origins are obscure, but it most likely took shape in the United States in the late nineteenth century.
The song is built with great economy: essentially a single verse, repeated with small variations, celebrating the release and lightness the believer feels with earthly burdens set down. Its melody is close kin to that of the gospel standard “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” and an early, influential recording was made by a sanctified-church group in the 1920s.
The song has been sung across gospel, blues, folk, and country, and it carried readily into bluegrass gospel.
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