Rise and Shine

The 2nd Negro spiritual featured on "The Seeger Sessions." The oldest recording documented on this site of "Jacob's Ladder" is by the New Orleans University Glee Club, in 1927. Other early recordings include the Bessemer Sunset Four, P.C. Johnson and his Singers, and the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Although most of the earlier recordings of "Jacob's Ladder" - usually titled "We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder" in those days - as gospel, there are also country and folk versions.

As a child, I learned a little song called "Rise and Shine." This song pretty is an excerpt of some versions of "Jacob's Ladder," and can be heard in The Sons of the Pioneers recording of the song from the 1930s.

Notable recordings of Jacob's Ladder include The Staple Singers, Paul Robeson, the Golden Gate Quartet, The Clara Ward Singers, and Bernice Johnson Reagon. "Jacob's Ladder" has also found a home more recently on several children's records, especially on religiously oriented children's records.