This beautiful spiritual is being sung here by Ariel Smith who has already been featured on this collection. She puts a modern twist on a very old song, and proves that the gospel blues is music that connects with anyone and everyone. Ariel works as an environmentalist and is studying the impact of micro-plastics in the ocean. She is also an amazing songwriter. Check out her original music at arielsmith.ca

I first heard Lillie Knox sing ‘Got the Keys to the Kingdom’ on a public radio show. The show was describing the work of ethnomusicologists John and Alan Lomax who collected field recordings of old folk, blues and spiritual songs from throughout the American south (as well as many other places) beginning in the 1930s. This father and son team (and later on Alan Lomax by himself) would travel around into rural areas with their recording equipment and capture old songs – many of which were never written down, but simply passed down through the oral tradition. They happened to find Lillie Knox in rural South Carolina and recorded her singing this song, ‘Got the Keys to the Kingdom’, acapella on her back porch. That old recording is so compelling that I fell in love with the song. The version we arranged here has the distinctive dropped beat at the beginning of each chorus that was in the Lillie Knox version from 1939.
The song lyric looks forward to a better life but not with triumphalism. In contrast to our funky arrangement, Lillie’s original version actually sounds gently mournful but with a measured hopefulness for a better world beyond this one.

The Lomax’s decades of work is all archived at The Library of Congress. The Alan Lomax archive of over 17,000 blues and folk songs from the 1940’s to the 90’s is now online at openculture.com. Enjoy!

"Got the Keys to The Kingdom"
Public domain

Got the keys to the kingdom
The world can’t do me no harm

Gabriel, get that trumpet
Move on down to the sea,
Don’t you go blowing that trumpet
till you hear from me

Got the keys to the kingdom
The world can’t do me no harm

Take old Paul and Silas
sitting in a jail all alone
Angel come from heaven down
unlock the prison house door

Got the keys to the kingdom
The world can’t do me no harm

Take old John on the island
put him in a kettle of oil
Angel come from heaven down
Said the oil won’t boil

Got the keys to the kingdom
The world can’t do me no harm

When I get in trouble
You know I ain’t done no crime
Call up central and glory
Jesus come to the line

Got the keys to the kingdom
The world can’t do me no harm