We Almost Didn't "Tell It On The Mountain"

On this episode of Christmas Merry and Bright, Raymond Arroyo, an award-winning broadcaster, New York Times best-selling author and acclaimed vocalist, unveils the hidden backstory of how "Go Tell It On The Mountain" was preserved by John Wesley Work, Jr. at the HBCU Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'mra Mondroyo, and this is a very special presentation Christmas,
Mary and Bright play backstories where we reveal the hidden
origins of some of your favorite Christmas songs. I've always
loved things the world discards or overlooks. This next song
is really like that. It's a treasure and it would
have been lost entirely had it not been for a

(00:21):
man named John Wesley Wirk Junior. He was the choir
director for the Fisk Jubilee Singers in eighteen ninety eight.
Fiske University is a black college in Nashville, and they're
credited with preserving the great Black spirituals, including this one.
Mister Work set this tune down he wrote the stanzas

(00:41):
for it nineteen oh seven. Work remembered as a student
getting up with classmates on Christmas morning and excitedly singing
this song door to door. Thanks to him, we can
now all go tell it on the mountain