About This Item
At the start of the 1970s, Ella Jenkins released A Long Time to Freedom, an album made for all ages but geared toward adult listeners. In the album, she adapts long-established, historically significant Black gospel songs, spirituals, and blues songs collected from the churches, jukeboxes, and record stores of her youth. Songs including InchI'm Gonna Tell God All My TroublesInch and InchHow High's the WaterInch reflect her active role in the ongoing struggle for Black liberation in mid-century America. Joining Ella are her accompanists Brother John Sellers, who learned to sing in churches and collaborated with Northern blues legends, and Joseph Brewer, who enjoyed a career participating in world-famous symphonies and operas, representing the changing makeup of traditionally exclusionary musical spaces. Album Tracks 1. The Wilderness 2. I'm Gonna Tell God All My Troubles 3. Heaven 4. When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder 5. Tol' My Captain 6. I'm Gonna Ride This Train 7. Jimbo 8. Another Man Done Gone 9. Soft Pedal Blues 10. Po' Man's Blues 11. A Friendly Loan 12. How High's the Water 13. An Old Lady and Her Horse 14. If You Ever Get Down 15. Freedom's Coming Mighty Soon 16. A Long Time
