One Of The Most Covered Folk Gospel Songs Has No Known Author

Forging a path through history, crossing regions and genres, "Wayfaring Stranger" has been passed down for generations and has become a standard. This is no doubt in part because of its haunting melody and evocative, even bleak lyrics, which focus on finding salvation. The song's narrator is alone and far from home, and desperate to rejoin their family in the afterlife. Compelling as it has become in folk, country, bluegrass, and gospel music, and as much as it has been covered, this traditional tune has no known author.

"Wayfaring Stranger" has been traced to Appalachia in the 1780s or early 1800s, but beyond that it gets murky. One theory is that it was an African American Spiritual: the imagery of crossing the Jordan River perhaps being a musical reference to escaped enslaved people's journey to freedom. Alternatively, it may have roots in a German hymn ("Ich bin ein Gast auf Erden"), while others trace it to the Melungeon, a historically mixed-race group that lived in isolated Appalachian communities. In the Civil War era, it was called the "Libby Hymn" because it was believed that a Union soldier had scribbled the lyrics onto the wall of the infamously harsh Libby Confederate prison. 

Regardless of who wrote it and where it's from, it's one of the most covered folk songs out there, running into the hundreds. The list of musicians who've recorded it is impressive and long, from Joan Baez to Jack White and even Ed Sheeran, yet each has made the struggle and hope portrayed in the song their own.

In the 1940s, singer and actor Burl Ives popularized "Wayfaring Stranger," featuring it on an album of the same title and naming his weekly folk radio show after it. It was adopted by American folk musicians in the '50s, and in 1969, Joan Baez included a luminous version (called "Poor Wayfaring Stranger") on "David's Album." The traditional tune even found some chart success; in 1980, Emmylou Harris' stripped-down version blazed into the Top 10 of the Billboard Country Songs charts, peaking at No. 7. 

The song continues to crop up in the 21st century. Surely one of the most haunting versions of "Wayfaring Stranger" came in 2000, on Johnny Cash's seminal late-career masterpiece "American III: Solitary Man." With just picked guitar, fiddle, organ, and his gravelly voice, lines such as "I know dark clouds will gather 'round me / I know my way is rough and steep" perfectly capture the struggle. Jack White's cover, featured on the "Cold Mountain" soundtrack, is perhaps the most traditional-sounding: between the mandolins and fiddles and banjo, you can almost hear the crackle of Union Army campfires. On the other end of the spectrum, English pop star Ed Sheeran recorded a gorgeous a capella version, looping his own voice together to create the song's tapestry. 

No doubt, what's attracted so many to this song is that, despite being a church hymn, it has universal appeal. Life's journey may be long, the suffering great, but it's going to get better: "But there's no sickness, toil, or danger / In that great world to which I go." Wherever our paths are headed, we're all seeking home, even if we aren't always sure which way we're supposed to walk.