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I'm A Pilgrim/I Am a Pilgrim
Traditional Old-Time, Bluegrass Gospel. Widely known USA;
ARTIST: Collected by Alan Lomax on his 1939 Southern States Recording Trip.
Sung by Alfred "Helena" Hamilton, Arkansas State Farm #9.
Richard Matteson; Youtube learn to play Video:
TAB for basic solo:
CATEGORY: Traditional Bluegrass Gospel;
DATE: 1800s; Published by Mrs. Mary Stanley Bunce Dana Shindler in 1840 Southern Harp. Shindler's version appears in the The Southern Zion Songster, 1864. (see Version 2 in this collection)
RECORDING INFO: I Am a Pilgrim
Wernick, Peter (ed.) / Bluegrass Songbook, Oak, Sof (1976), p 47a (I'm a Pilgrim)
Lynn, Frank (ed.) / Songs for Swinging Housemothers, Fearon, Sof (1963/1961), p328 (I'm a Pilgrim)
Sing Out Reprints, Sing Out, Sof (1959), 3, p11
Leisy, James F. (ed.) / Hootenanny Tonight!, Gold Medal Books, sof (1964), p 38
Silverman, Jerry / Folk Guitar - Folk Song, Scarborough Book, Sof (1983/1977), p125
Leisy, James F. (ed.) / Folk Song Abecedary, Bonanza, Bk (1966), p173
Bailey, Mike. Banjo Newsletter, BNL, Ser (1973-), 1980/01,p15
Baxter, Robert. Baxter's Finger-Picking Record, Baxter BSP/LP 1001, LP (196?), trk# B.08
Calicanto Singers. Days of Gold!, Calicanto, CD (1999), trk# B.20
Country Gentlemen. Country Gentlemen on the Road, Folkways FA 2411, LP (1963), trk# B.03
Hamilton, Frank. Folk Music of the Newport Folk Festival 1959-60. Vol 1, Folkways FA 2431, LP (1961), trk# 11
Iron Mountain String Band (Calif.). Someday We'll Meet Again, Folkways FA 3836, LP (1981), trk# B.05
Kentucky Colonels. Kentucky Colonels, United Artists UAS 29514, LP (1973/1964), trk# B.01
Lieberson, Richard. Pickin' Magazine, Pickin' Magazine, Ser, 1975/10,p20
Mack, Mo. New and Used Tunes, White Rose Media WRM-001, CD (2000), trk# 12
Monroe, Bill. I Saw the Light, Decca DL-78769, LP (1958), trk# 11
Stanley Brothers. Uncloudy Day, County 753, LP (1987), trk# 11
Traum, Happy. American Stranger, Kicking Mule KM 301, LP (1977), trk# A.05
Travis, Merle. Will the Circle Be Unbroken, United Artists UAS 9801, LP (1972), trk# 33
Upper Hamilton Gravediggers. Undertaking Bluegrass, Concord HRL-1657, LP (1964), trk# 3
Watson, Doc. Doc Watson on Stage, Vanguard VSD 9/10, LP (1970), trk# 9
White, Clarence. Traum, Happy (ed.) / Bluegrass Guitar, Oak, Sof (1974), p 63
White, Clarence. Pickin' Magazine, Pickin' Magazine, Ser, 1975/10,p21
Hoban's Polka," "Seneca Square Dance," "Waiting for the Federals," “Old Raccoon,” “Running from the Federals,” “Old Coon Dog,” “Hell among the Yearlin's,” ”Raccoon's Tail,” “Coon Dog,” “Rock Along John to Kansas” “Heel Flies,” “Get Away from the Federals, or Fall of Paris” “Shoot the Turkey Buzzard,” “Higher Up the Monkey Climbs," "Saddle Old Spike,"
RELATED TO: “I Am A Pilgrim (1800s versions),” “Poor Wayfaring Stranger (lyrics)”
OTHER NAMES: "I'm A Pilgrim"
SOURCES: Ceolas: A Fiddler’s Companion; Henry Reed Collection On-line; W.S. Collins (Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma) [Thede]. Collins, W. S.. Fiddle Book, Oak, Bk (1967), p 18. Another version of the words is "Goin Back to Arkansas to Eat Corn Bread and 'Possum Jaw," Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 18-19.
NOTES: G Major; E Major; D Major (Clarence White); The song was in the repertoire of Riley Puckett. As a boy Carl Story learned the song from Puckett's playing when Story's father took Carl to hear Puckett play in Lenoir, NC. The song was popularized by Merle Travis who recorded the song for King records in 1946. Travis learned the song from Muhlenburg, KY thumb-picker Mose Rager. Rager learned it from an inmate in the Elkton KY jail. Travis included the song on his important 1947 "Folk-Songs from the Hills" CD for Capitol.
According to Wayne Erbsen, I Am A Pilgrim was "recorded by fourteen African-American groups before it was even a gleam in Merle Travis' eyes." A different fingerstyle version has been popularized by Doc Watson and an outstanding flatpick version by Clarence White can be seen on his youtube video (with Soldier's Joy).
John and Ruby Lomax collected a version on their 1939 Southern states recording trip.
The song lyrics have become entwined with versions of Poor Wayfaring Stranger. One early 1862 version is quoted it from an African-American source:
"I am a pilgrim, and a stranger,
I tarry, not a night.
Do not detain me, for I am going,
Where the streamlets are ever flowing."
From "Brief memorials of the Rev. Alphonse Francis Lacroix" By Joseph Mullens 1862.
This popular text can be traced to Mrs. Mary Stanley Bunce Dana Shindler. She first published in 1840 her own collection of poems called the Southern Harp and in 1841 the Northern Harp (which included this hymn below):
I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger;
I can tarry, I can tarry but a night;
Do not detain me, for I am going
To where the fountains are ever flowing.
The above version (for complete lyrics see version 2 in this collection) isn't much different than the version I sing or what Merle Travis learned from Mose Rager. My version is similar to the Travis/Rager version but I picked up an exrtra verse in North Carolina. Here's the earliest related version, circa 1840:
I'M A PILGRIM- Alan Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip.
Sung by Alfred "Helena" Hamilton, Arkansas State Farm #9. *barber = barbarous. Chorus varied by singing My mother, etc., in place of my God. John and Ruby Lomax 1939
Chorus: My God got a home up in yonder city
Where they don't 'low no sinner men (no sinner men)
My God got a home up in yonder city
Where they don't 'low no sinner men.
God knows I'm a pilgrim and a stranger
Travelin' through this barber* land (this barber land)
Don't you walk contrary to God's commandments
In this city where you come to die.
Cho.
While you stay around and a stranger
Travelin' through this barber land (this barber land)
He holds you in that Union Station
Until the time for that train to arrive.
Cho.
My old mother, sister and brother
Some Christian woman pray for me (there's hope for me)
My God's got a home up in yonder city
Where there are millions of sinner men.
Cho.
Yes, thou art a Father who live in Heaven
Hallowed be Thy Holy Name
He will see you with a constant eye
He will save you when you come to die.
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