Going Down to the River to Pray

Have you heard the old spiritual “Down to the River to Pray” or “The Good Old Way”? It is most famous in popular culture because of Alison Kraus’s version of the song recorded for the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?, where it features in a baptismal scene, though you may also have sung it at a baptismal service.

The abundance of recordings of this song and videos of the song (or the movie scene featuring it) make it easy to…