Joe- The Old Regular Baptists in the Little Zion Church, (or, "Mom's Church," as our family called it)Jeff, Kentucky, two miles down the road from Viper, have always sung this song; we were raised on it. The words to all the Old Regulars' hymns are in their books,- THE SWEET SONGSTER, and THE THOMAS HYMNNAL were the main ones.But the tunes only existed in folks' heads, and often were interchangeable according to the meter given at the top of the page- e.g. "Long meter," "Common meter," "6s and 8s," etc. Only the songleader had a book, and he picked the tune and sang the first verse alone (sometimes whilst the preacher was still going strong, as a way of calming him down and getting him to think of stopping). Then, he "lined out" the second line, and folks joined in and continued to the end of song.

"Been a long time traveling" was just a four-line chorus that could be added to any song wherein the meter would work. As for the melody, though, that is almost impossible to write down, as everyone is allowed to decorate the song any way he/she feels like. Mom called that, "relishing the notes, and savoring the tune," meaning one should hold onto a note for awhile, getting the best out of it before letting go. Dad talked about, "shiverin up, and shakin down," on the notes, especially at the ends of lines. So you can see how hard it would be to write that down, by today's music rules! You just have to hear it sung... Frank Proffit played it on the guitar, I seem to remember, and so it came out the basic tune, with a definite beat- all the decorations left out. Great, the way he did it, but a different song.

An approximation of the "Old Regular" way of singing is on a few tracks of the Juneappal album, "Sweet Rivers." I have been trying to get them to make a CD of it, but they're afraid it won't make back the cost of doing so.

Not knowing how to get the tune onto the computer, that's the best I can do unless you want me to sing it for you on the telephone! Jean