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. As with most folk songs, many variations of the lyrics exist.
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Use[edit]
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.
In classical music[edit]
Ernő Dohnányi used the tune (along with two other traditional American folktunes) in his final composition American Rhapsody (1953). In addition, George Crumb used the tune with lyrics in Unto the Hills (2001), for soprano, piano, and percussion quartet.
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
Appearance in media[edit]
- The song was used in the motion picture Cold Mountain, performed by Jack White.
- The song was used in the US television show "Then Came Bronson" in 1969.
- The song was used in the German feature film Romeos from 2011, lip-synched by drag queen Cassy Carrington to a recording by Andreas Scholl.
- In the 1993-1996 edition of the educational PC game The Oregon Trail, this song was the music played when the player's wagon party reached Independence Rock in Wyoming.
- The song was used in the 2012 Documentary film "The Imposter".
- The song was also sung in the motion picture How The West Was Won from 1963
- the song was sung in the Belgian feature film The Broken Circle Breakdown from 2012
Notable recordings[edit]
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This section does not cite any references or sources. (March 2011) |
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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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- Andy Griffith (on his album I Love to Tell the Story - 25 Timeless Hymns)
- Charlie Haden (his own voice, on The Art of Song)
- Chris Thomas King (on his album Antebellum Postcards)
- David Eugene Edwards (on 16 Horsepower album Secret South)
- Dusty Springfield (on the 2007 DVD Live at the BBC)
- Ed Sheeran (One Take EP, 2011)
- 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)
- Eva Cassidy (on her album Songbird (Eva Cassidy album))
- Jack White (from the soundtrack to the film Cold Mountain)
- Jamie Woon (Wayfaring Stranger album, 2007)
- Jo Stafford (on her album Jo Stafford Sings American Folk Songs)
- Johnny Cash (on his album American III: Solitary Man)
- Kristin Hersh (on the In Shock EP)
- Laura Love (on her album The Laura Love Collection)
- Maria McKee (from the Songcatcher film soundtrack)
- Michael Parks (Then Came Bronson, 1969)
- Neil Young (Americana, 2012)
- Neko Case (The Tigers Have Spoken, 2004)
- Noel Pointer (Phantazia, 1977)
- Pretty Lights (Re:GENERATION music project album, 2012)
- Suzy Bogguss (on her album American Folk Songbook, 2011)
- Tim Buckley (Live in London, 1968)
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Norman Cazden, Herbert Haufrecht, Norman Studer. Folk Songs of the Catskills. SUNY Press, 1982. 292-294. ISBN 0-87395-581-1
Further reading[edit]
- 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 |
