Can the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By)

"Can the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By)"
Single by Carter Family
B-side	"Glory to the Lamb"
Published	June 22, 1935 by Southern Music Publishing Co., Inc., New York.[1]
Released	August 1935
Recorded	May 6, 1935 (1935-05-06)[2]
Genre	Gospel, Country, American folk
Length	3:07
Label	Banner 33465
Songwriter(s)	Ada R. Habershon and Charles H. Gabriel, reworked by A. P. Carter
Carter Family singles chronology
"He Took a White Rose from Her Hair" (1935) "Can the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By)" (1935) "Behind Those Stone Walls" (1936)

"Can the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By)" is a country/folk song reworked by A. P. Carter from the hymn "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" by Ada R. Habershon and Charles H. Gabriel.^[3][4] The song's lyrics concern the death, funeral, and mourning of the narrator's mother.

The song first gained attention due to the

.

Almost all cover versions of the song use a straight 4/4

throughout, while the Carter Family recording from 1927 uses bars of 3/4 near the end of each verse and twice in the chorus.

In 1988, springing from the Great Hudson River "Clearwater" Revivals (now referred to as Festivals) which Pete Seeger championed from the mid-1960s through the present, the second line of the chorus was rewritten and copyrighted by Cathy Winter, Betsy Rose, Marcia Taylor and Terry Dash as "Rise Up Singing":

Will the circle be unbroken, by and by Lord by and by.
There's a better way to live now, we can have it if we try.
I was born down in the valley where the sun refused to shine
but now I'm climbing - up to the highlands - Gonna make all those mountains mine.

The song's refrain and lyrics were worked into the track "High & Hurt" by the Danish band Iceage, featured on their 2021 album Seek Shelter.

Published version

• Rise Up Singing, page 98

References