The Wayfaring Stranger (song)
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"The Wayfaring Stranger," also known as "Poor Wayfaring Stranger," is a well-known folk song about a vagabond on a journey home (i.e., the proverbial Promised Land).[1] It was 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 song has been recorded by many artists, including Pete Seeger, Natalie Merchant, Johnny Cash, Peter, Paul and Mary, Emmylou Harris, 16 Horsepower and Neko Case.
The song is often classified as a "white spiritual." The first known printing of it is in Ananias Davisson's Kentucky Harmony, or, A Choice Collection of Psalm Tunes, Hymns, and Anthems, in Three Parts. The Mormon leader Joseph Smith reportedly sang it shortly before he was murdered.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Digital Tradition Folk Music Database: link
- ^ Herbert Haufrecht, ed., The Wayfarin' Stranger: A Collection of 21 Folk Songs and Ballads. New York: Leeds Music, 1945, p. 46; Library of Congress Catalogue, LCCN 79770668: link
[edit] Further Reading
- John F. Garst, "'Poor Wayfaring Stranger'—Early Publications," The Hymn: [A Publication of the Hymn Society of America], vol. 31, no. 2, 1980, pp. 97-101
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