Bright Morning Stars

This is a traditional Appalachian spiritual. The first known recording is of G.D.Vowell, recorded by the Alan & Elizabewth Lomaxes in Harlan County Kentucky. The song was included in Ruth Crawford Seeger's 1953 American Folksongs for Christmas collection. Her daughters Peggy, Penny & Barbara (as "The Seeger Sisters") recorded the song in 1957 and again with her son Mike in 1989.

Secondhandsongs lists nearly a hundred covers of the song at https://secondhandsongs.com/work/164721/versions

Notable covers include: 

• The Seeger Sisters on American Folksongs for Christmas (1957)
• The Pennywhistlers on A Cool Day and Crooked Corn (1965)
• The Folk Tradition on The Folk Trailer (1970)
• Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys on Cry from the Cross (1971)
• Judy Collins on her 1980 Running for My Life album
• Emmylou Harris on her 1987 Angel Band album
• Mike, Peggy & Penny Seeger on another American Folksongs for Christmas album released on Rounder in 1989
• Martin Simpson on his 1994 instrumental collection of gospel songs A Closer Walk with Thee
• Annie Patterson (a cappella) on her debut 2005 Meet Me by the Moonlight album
• Steeleye Span on their 2009 Winter album (with rather different lyrics)
• The Wailin' Jennys on their 2011 Bright Morning Stars album
• Irish singer Cara Dillon on her 2014 A Thousand Hearts album
• Rising Appalachia on their 2014 Wider Cidrcles album
• Mountain Man (a female vocal trio) on their 2018 Magic Ship album
• Bonny Light Horseman on their eponymous 2020 album