I’ve been working on playing some old guy songs on my tenor guitar, and I remembered this tune, I think I first heard it when Iris Dement came to Bloomington in the 90’s. I liked that the lyrics create an image of an afterlife that comports both with bibilical images as well as my athiest/spiritualist/hopeful perception of a multidimensional universe that is welcoming, abundant, and spacious.
The tune was written by 1930 by Herbert Buffum, an Illinois born Holiness Pentecostal evangelist and gospel songwriter, with over 1000 published songs (while he may have written 10,000 total.) His L.A. Times obituary called him “The King of Gospel Song Writers”. He used Biblical images extensively, and in this tune, he refers to the four square city from
It was first recorded in 1930 by the Vaughan Happy Two, but did not become a hit until it was recorded later that year by Rev. F.W. McGee. McGee’s recording is upbeat, rythmic (with intense backbeat clapping), dual lead vocals, jazz instrumentation, and gospel intensity. Sara Carter said she heard it while visiting L.A. (home to both Baffum and McGee) in the late 30’s, and adapted it for the Carter family’s last recording session in 1941. Most other versions came from this recording, with the exception of Turk Murphy & His Jazz Band and Hank Locklin & His Rocky Mountain Playboys, (see below for details and recordings.)
The Carter Family seems to have dropped the II chord in their version, and slowed it down, making it perhaps more country? They also rewrote the second verse, incorporating the tercet: “Into that city fair, With fifty miles of elbow room, On either side to spare”, and reprising the line “Where the flowers ever bloom” as “Where the fairest flowers bloom”. But the rest is Sara Carter’s folk process.
Here is a well writen post about Rev. F.W. McGee, the details about 50 Miles are in the 2nd half of the piece, with links to quite a few recordings of the tune. Here is a more comprehensive (20 items) list of recordings of the song, once you get past the ads: https://secondhandsongs.com/work/137802/all
CARTER 2nd Verse
Sometimes I’m cramped and I’m crowded here
And I long for elbow room
Now I long to reach for altitude
Where the fairest flowers bloom
It won’t be long before I pass
Into that city fair
With fifty miles of elbow room
On either side to spare
Mitch's Btown Blog 
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