Artist: Taskiana Four
Author: traditional
Label: Victor
Year: 1926
Vocal quartet from Philadelphia. Lyrical content inspired by Psalm 1: 2,3 where a tree resists the force of water. Image adopted by the unions: black textile workers from North Carolina sang it in the 1920s, members of the West Virginia Miners' Union (with Frank Keeley) first sang it in plural in 1931. Spanish versions (as No Nos Moveran) popped up during the Spanish Civil War and it also became a stable warhorse of the Civil Rights Movement during the fifties & sixties.
Covers:
Blind Joe Taggart [as I Will Not Be Moved]
Rev. Edward W. Clayborn [for Vocalion]
Almanac Singers [as We Shall Not Be Moved]
Morris Family [version Elvis & co knew about]
Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee [on Folkways lp Get On Board]
Joe Glazer [as We Shall Not Be Moved]
Joan Baez [as No Nos Moveran during a Spanish tour coïnciding with Franco's final hours]
Cornell Campbell [reggae version as I Shall Not Remove]
Pete Seeger & Bob Reiser [as Carry It On]
Pops Staples [with Ry Cooder]
Bell Grove Baptist Church Choir [conducted by Rev. Willie Morganfield]
Johnny Cash [posthumously on Unearthed box set and on cd My Mother's Hymn Book]
Mavis Staples [as We Shall Not Be Moved]
Michelle David [as Jeremiah 17]
Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder [on their Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee tribute Get On Board]
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)