I Am A Pilgrim: A Song History

← Back to Browse By Song

“I Am a Pilgrim” is a traditional gospel song with no known author. Its verses picture the believer as a weary traveler passing through a strange land toward a heavenly home, and its refrain borrows the New Testament language of Christians as pilgrims and strangers on earth.[1] The earliest recording listed by the SecondHandSongs database was made in 1924 by the Norfolk Jubilee Quartette, an African American gospel group, under the title “I’m a Pilgrim.”[1][2][3] Singers outside the recording industry knew it too: the Max Hunter Folk Song Collection at Missouri State University holds a 1969 performance by Ollie Gilbert of Mountain View, Arkansas.[4] The sources consulted here do not establish where or when the song first took shape.

Oil study of a lone pilgrim reaching the end of a journey, met by bright heavenly light and angels

Thomas Cole, The Pilgrim of the Cross at the End of His Journey (study), ca. 1846–1848. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Public domain (CC0).

In the 1940s the song was taken up by Merle Travis, a guitarist from Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, who had learned his thumb-led picking style from local coal miners Mose Rager and Ike Everly.[5] Capitol wanted folk material to compete with the popular Burl Ives, and the result was Folk Songs of the Hills, a 1947 album of 78s on which Travis reworked several older songs alongside new pieces of his own.[6] “I Am a Pilgrim” was one of the traditional numbers, set beside Travis originals such as “Sixteen Tons” and “Dark as a Dungeon”;[7] SecondHandSongs dates his recording to August 1946.[8] The album drew little notice at first,[5] but Travis kept the song close: he sang it on Alan Lomax’s 1948 radio program Your Ballad Man,[9] and it came to rank among the songs he is best remembered for.[5] The sources consulted here do not say how Travis himself first came to know the song.

In 1968 the Byrds recorded the song for their country-rock album Sweetheart of the Rodeo, with Chris Hillman singing lead and the track credited as a traditional song arranged by Roger McGuinn and Hillman; it was also released that year as a single.[10] Hillman was still playing it in 2018 on a tour revisiting the album.[11] Other recordings are reported from artists ranging from Bill Monroe and Johnny Cash[1] to jazz players Bud Shank and Joe Pass,[2] and the song has found a place in the mountain dulcimer repertoire: Stephen Seifert includes it in his hymn and gospel collection Join the Jam: Gospel Edition.[12]

Find books with I Am A Pilgrim for sale →

Sources

  1. Wikipedia: "I Am a Pilgrim".
  2. SecondHandSongs: "I Am a Pilgrim" (work page).
  3. SecondHandSongs: "I'm a Pilgrim" by Norfolk Jubilee Quartette.
  4. Missouri State University, Max Hunter Folk Song Collection: "I Am a Pilgrim".
  5. Webster County (KY) Historical & Genealogical Society, Jerry Long: "Merle Robert Travis (1917-1983)".
  6. Library of Congress, National Recording Registry: "Folk Songs of the Hills, Merle Travis (1947)".
  7. Wikipedia: "Folk Songs of the Hills".
  8. SecondHandSongs: "I Am a Pilgrim" by Merle Travis.
  9. Association for Cultural Equity: "Merle Travis".
  10. Wikipedia: "Sweetheart of the Rodeo".
  11. Songfacts: "Chris Hillman (The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers): Songwriter Interviews".
  12. Stephen Seifert: "Join the Jam Gospel Edition".