{{Short description|American folk song}} {{redirect|Birmingham Jail|the open letter written by Martin Luther King, Jr.|Letter from Birmingham Jail|the British prison|HM Prison Birmingham}} "'''Down in the Valley'''", also known as "Birmingham Jail", is a traditional American folk song.<ref name="Tate"/> It has been recorded by many artists and is included in the ''Songs of Expanding America'' recordings in Burl Ives' six-album set ''Historical America in Song''.

The verses mentioning "Birmingham Jail" refer to the Birmingham, Alabama, City Jail which was well-known in the mid-1920s, although the reference was often omitted in later versions. Guitarist Jimmie Tarlton claimed to have written the lyrics in 1925 while he was jailed in Birmingham for moonshining. It was first recorded by Tarlton and his partner Tom Darby on November 10, 1927, in Atlanta, Georgia, for Columbia Records. According to one biographer of the folk musician Lead Belly, he performed it for Texas Governor Pat Neff at the Sugarland Penitentiary in 1924.

The ballad is played in the {{music|time|3|4}} time signature. Lyrics vary, as with most folk songs. For example, sometimes the line "Hang your head over, hear the wind blow" is replaced by "Late in the evening, hear the train blow".<ref name="Belden" /> In 1927, Darby and Tarlton sang "down in the levee" in place of "down in the valley"; the version sung by Lead Belly in 1934 substitutes "Shreveport jail" for "Birmingham jail".<ref name="LOC" />

Solomon Burke and Bert Berns borrowed some of the song's lyrics and melody for their own song of the same name. That song was covered by Otis Redding on his album ''Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul''.

==Selected recordings== * Darby and Tarlton (1927, Columbia 15212D) – sold over 200,000 copies, one of Columbia's best-sellers at the time<ref name=Wolfe/> * The Andrews Sisters recorded it in 1944 and their version briefly reached the Billboard charts.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Whitburn|first1=Joel|title=Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954|date=1986|publisher=Record Research Inc|location=Wisconsin, USA|isbn=0-89820-083-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/joelwpopmemories00whit/page/28 28]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/joelwpopmemories00whit/page/28}}</ref> They had featured the song in the film ''Moonlight and Cactus'' (1944). * Patti Page - a single release in 1951.<ref>{{cite web |title=45worlds.com |url=http://www.45worlds.com/78rpm/record/5751us |website=45worlds.com |access-date=September 3, 2018}}</ref> * Cisco Houston included his version of the songs in two of his albums. * Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album ''101 Gang Songs'' (1961) * Connie Francis - included in her album ''Sing Along with Connie Francis'' (1961). * Jo Stafford - for her album ''Do I Hear a Waltz?'' (1966) * Slim Whitman - in his albums ''Love Song of the Waterfall'' (1965) and ''Cool Water'' (1968) and earlier, in 1949, as a 78-rpm side under the title "Birmingham Jail" * Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, on the 1996 album ''Shady Grove''

==In other media== This song is the basis of the 1945 Kurt Weill and Arnold Sundgaard opera ''Down in the Valley''.

It was performed by Anne Baxter in the ''Wagon Train'' episode, “The Kitty Angel Story“ (1959).

It was performed by Joanna Moore on ''The Andy Griffith Show'' in 1962.

The author/songwriter David M. Pierce used selected lyrics from the song as titles for a series of detective novels written between 1989 and 1996: ''Down in the Valley'', ''Hear the Wind Blow, Dear'', ''Roses Love Sunshine'', ''Angels in Heaven'', ''Write Me a Letter'' and ''As She Rides By''. The first four verses are featured in Catherine Marshall's novel, ''Christy'', before the prologue.

It is sung in the movie ''Stir Crazy'' by the character Grossberger portrayed by Erland Van Lidth.

Jim and Anna sing the song in Tillie Olsen's novel ''Yonnondio: From the Thirties'' as they arrive in the Dakotas. The {{music|time|3|4}} time and melancholy of the song contrast with the hope they are feeling as they arrive there.

The song is performed by Ronny Cox (Ozark Bule) and David Carradine (Woody Guthrie) in the Academy Award winning film (Best Cinematography/Best Music-Score) ''Bound for Glory'' (biography of Woody Guthrie) in the scene that takes place in a migrant fruit pickers camp. http://www.halashby.co.uk/page18.html

It is also used in the movie ''Along the Great Divide'' starring Kirk Douglas, Walter Brennan, Virginia Mayo, and John Agar although it was written long after the time period set of the movie.

In the ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' episode “Dark Page”, a mental projection of Deanna Troi's father sings the song, stating she could never fall asleep as a baby unless she heard it.

In ''The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes'' by author Suzanne Collins, Lucy Gray Baird sings her variant of the song, changing the words to "To the Capitol Jail" instead of "To Birmingham Jail."

A group of camp counselors sing the song, accompanied by guitar, in the opening scene of ''Friday the 13th''.

==References== <references> <ref name="Tate">{{cite book |author1=Ken Tate |author2=Janice Tate |title=Favorite Songs of the Good Old Days |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qhdUtDcSN60C&pg=PA29 |year=2004 |publisher=DRG Wholesale |isbn=978-1-59217-034-0 |page=29}}</ref> <ref name=LOC>{{cite web |title=The Shreveport Jail/Leadbelly |work=Traditional Music and Spoken Word Catalog |publisher=Library of Congress |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.afc.afc9999005.489/default.html |access-date=2015-03-06}}</ref> <ref name=Wolfe>{{cite book |author=Charles K. Wolfe |title=Classic Country: Legends of Country Music |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tFWSAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA90 |year=2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-95734-6 |page=90}}</ref> <ref name=Belden>{{cite book |series=The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore |volume=3 |title=Folk Songs from North Carolina |editor1=Henry M. Belden |editor2=Arthur P. Hudson |year=1952 |publisher=Duke University Press |url=https://archive.org/stream/frankcbrowncolle03fran#page/330/mode/1up}} </ref> </references> * {{cite book |first=Joel |last=Whitburn |author-link=Joel Whitburn |title=Joel Whitburn Presents Across the Charts: The 1960s |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9OZ1DZ63NxAC&pg=PA60 |year=2008 |publisher=Record Research |isbn=978-0-89820-175-8 |page=60}}

==Further reading== *{{cite journal |first=G. L. |last=Kittredge |title=Ballads and Songs |journal=The Journal of American Folk-Lore |volume=XXX |issue=117 |date=July–September 1917 |pages=283–369 |doi=10.2307/534379 |jstor=534379}}

==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20180527204708/http://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/R772.html "Traditional Ballad Index of Folk Songs"] at California State University, Fresno * [https://archive.org/details/DarbyAndTarlton-01-08 "Down in the Valley"], Darby and Tarlton 1929 recording at the Internet Archive * [https://web.archive.org/web/20180527204708/https://www.partitionsdechansons.com/sheet-music/11575-usa-down-in-the-valley.html Down in the valley, the sheet music] {{The Andrews Sisters}} {{Slim Whitman}} {{authority control}}

Category:American folk songs Category:Children's songs Category:Songs about Alabama Category:The Andrews Sisters songs Category:Slim Whitman songs Category:1927 songs