“The Wayfaring Stranger” (also known as “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” or “I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger“), is a well-known American folk and gospel song likely originating in the early 19th century about a plaintive soul on the journey through life. As with most folk songs, many variations of the lyrics exist. According to the book, The Makers of the Sacred Harp, by David Warren Steel and Richard H. Hulan, the lyrics were published in 1858 in Bever’s Christian Songster. This may have been the first time the song appeared in print, in English. Steel and Hulan suggest the song was derived from an 1816 German-language hymn, “Ich bin ein Gast auf Erden” by Isaac Niswander.
During and for several years after the American Civil War, the lyrics were known as the Libby Prison Hymn. This was because the words had been inscribed by a dying Union soldier incarcerated in Libby Prison, a notorious Confederate prison in Richmond, Virginia. It had been believed that the dying soldier had authored the song to comfort a disabled soldier, but since it had been published several years before the Civil War had started (and before Libby Prison existed), this was not the case.
It became one of Burl Ives’ 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. Emmylou Harris covered the song on her 1980 album Roses in the Snow. Harris’ version peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. It reached number 1 on the RPM Country Tracks chart in Canada.
The song, here referred to as “I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger”, was featured in the 2019 war drama 1917. It was performed by actor and singer, Jos Slovick. In February 2020, a Change.org petition collected over 2,500 signatures to urge film producers, Universal and Dreamworks, to release a full studio version of Slovik’s performance.
The song has been covered many times by everyone from Johnny Cash to Ed Sheeran. The Rhian Giddens version features her signature banjo playing whereas Sheeran takes advantage of technology to create some sound lops over which he sings. I hope that I have provided a version that you will enjoy of this track, after all in this time virus we are all wayfaring strangers.
I’m just a poor wayfaring stranger
Traveling through this world below
There is no sickness, no toil, nor danger
In that bright land to which I go
I’m going there to see my Father
And all my loved ones who’ve gone on
I’m just going over Jordan
I’m just going over home
I know dark clouds will gather ’round me
I know my way is hard and steep
But beauteous fields arise before me
Where God’s redeemed, their vigils keep
I’m going there to see my Mother
She said she’d meet me when I come
So, I’m just going over Jordan
I’m just going over home
I’m just going over Jordan
I’m just going over home
