The Wayfaring Stranger (song)
"The Wayfaring Stranger" (aka "Poor Wayfaring Stranger" or "I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger"), Roud 3339, is a well-known American spiritual/folk song likely originating in the early 19th century[1] about a plaintive soul on the journey through life. It became one of Burl Ives's signature songs, included on his 1944 album The Wayfaring Stranger. Ives used it as the title of his early 1940s CBS radio show and his 1948 autobiography. He became known as "The Wayfaring Stranger".
The New Christy Minstrels recorded their song "The Ballad of Julie Ann" to this tune.
It was used in the motion picture Cold Mountain performed by Jack White. The movie was nominated for seven Academy Awards.
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[edit] Use in classical music
Ernő Dohnányi used the tune (along with two other traditional American folktunes) in his final composition American Rhapsody (1953).
[edit] Lyrics
As with most folk songs, many variations of the lyrics exist. Here is one common version:
I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger
I'm traveling through this world of woe
Yet there's no sickness, toil nor danger
In that bright land to which I go
I'm going there to see my mother/father
I'm going there no more to roam
I'm only going over Jordan
I'm only going over home
I know dark clouds will gather 'round me
I know my way is rough and steep
Yet golden fields lie just before me
Where God's redeemed shall ever sleep
I'm going there to see my father/mother
S/he said he'd/she'd meet me when I come
I'm only going over Jordan
I'm only going over home
I want to wear a crown of glory
When I get home to that good land
I want to shout salvation's story
In concert with the blood-washed band
I'm going there to meet my Saviour
To sing his praise forever more
I'm just a going over Jordan
I'm just a going over home
[edit] Notable recordings
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This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability. |
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From The Cold Mountain soundtrack. It was performed by Jack White for the film, in which he played the character Georgia
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- Charlie Haden (his own voice, on The Art of Song)
- Chris Thomas King (on his album Antebellum Postcards)
- Dusty Springfield (on the 2007 DVD Live at the BBC)
- Emmylou Harris (released as a single from her album Roses in the Snow, her version peaked at #7 on the U.S. Country Charts in 1980)
- Jack White (from the soundtrack to the film Cold Mountain)
- Kristin Hersh (on the In Shock EP)
- Maria McKee (from the Songcatcher film soundtrack)
- Michael Parks (Then Came Bronson, 1969)
- Neil Young (Americana, 2012)
- Noel Pointer (Phantazia, 1977)
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Norman Cazden, Herbert Haufrecht, Norman Studer. Folk Songs of the Catskills. SUNY Press, 1982. 292-294. ISBN 0-87395-581-1
[edit] Further reading
- John F. Garst, "'Poor Wayfaring Stranger'—Early Publications," The Hymn: [A Publication of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada], vol. 31, no. 2, 1980, pp. 97–101
| Preceded by "True Love Ways" by Mickey Gilley |
RPM Country Tracks number-one single (Emmylou Harris version) August 23, 1980 |
Succeeded by "Love the World Away" by Kenny Rogers |
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