Poor Wayfaring Stranger

Two versions of this song that were passed into the bluegrass tradition are present in this rendition... The more 'standard' version is the way the first two verses are sung. Bill Monroe's version is the way Kent sings the last chorus, going simply from minor to major... Either way, this tune is haunting.

Gabe's introduction to the tune is a Purcell figured bass, adding Baroque flair to what is otherwise backwoods bluegrass. Kent learned this tune when he was a little boy from his mother. That is appropriate to the history of the tune -- it was a modal melody taught a capella to Bill Monroe and other mountain singers by their mothers -- put to chords and a backbeat only in the middle of the century.

The tune is thought to have originated as an African-American spiritual called "The Pilgrim's Song." The song was first printed in Bever's Christian Songster in 1858, but could well be much older than that.

Poor Wayfaring Stranger (American trad.)
 
I am a poor wayfaring stranger,
Traveling through this world of woe
Yet there's no sickness, toil, or danger
In that bright world to which I go
 
I'm going there to see my mother
I'm going there no more to roam
I am just going over Jordan
I am just going over home
 
I know dark clouds will hang around me
I know my way is rough and steep
But beauteous fields lie just before me
Where God's redeemed their vigils keep
 
I'm going there to see my father
I'm going there no more to roam
I am just going over Jordan
I am just going over home.
 
I am a poor wayfaring stranger
Traveling through this world of woe
Yet there's no sickness, toil, or danger
In that bright world to which I go
 
I'm going there to see my savior
Going there no more to roam
I am just going over Jordan
I am just going over home.

Listen to: "Poor Wayfaring Stranger" at NPR.org

Back to the Stolen Shack Album

Kent Gustavson, vocals, guitar
Nicholas Walker, string bass
Gabe Shuford, harpsichord