This evening at the Sacred Harp sing, we did Happy Land:

"There is a happy land, far far away
where saints in glory stand, bright bright as day
Oh how they sweetly sing, Worthy is our Savior, King
Loud let His praises ring, Praise, praise for aye."

Someone said they had heard that the tune was South Asian and had been collected and filtered through a Scotch influence, and someone else said there had been a country-western type arrangement of it that was popular some years back. Some people knew different words to the tune ("Old soldiers never die ...", for example).

At this point, I'm really curious about the tune, lyrics, and history of Happy Land. So, a question to all you 'Catters: what do you know about this tune? According to the Sacred Harp book, it was arranged by L.P. Breedlove in 1850. Are there earlier occurrences? Is there any evidence supporting the hypothesis that it's Asian in origin? What other words to it are there? And who did the recent arrangement?

I'm looking forward to see what people know about this one.

Chocolate Pi