| "Angel Band" | |
|---|---|
| Song by The Stanley Brothers from the album Melodeon |
|
| Writer | Jefferson Hascall |
| Composer | William Bradbury |
| Cover versions | |
| Emmylou Harris The Monkees The Dead (band) |
|
"Angel Band" is an American Gospel music song. The poem, in Common Metre, was originally titled "My Latest Sun Is Sinking Fast," and was written by Jefferson Hascall (sometimes found as Haskell in hymnals). The lyric was first set in J. W. Dadmun's tunebook The Melodeon in 1860, to a tune by Dadmun. The words are in Common Metre and so could be sung to many hymn tunes, but the tune now universally associated with the poem is by William Batchelder Bradbury, and was published in Bradbury's Golden Shower of S.S. Melodies in 1862. Bradbury's song was originally titled "The Land of Beulah." "Angel Band" became widely known in the 19th century, both in folk traditions and in published form, e.g. William Walker's Christian Harmony of 1866, and has been recorded by many artists, probably most famously by The Stanley Brothers and probably most unusually by The Monkees.