Lord I'm Coming Home: A Song History

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"Lord, I'm Coming Home" is a gospel song with words and music by William J. Kirkpatrick; Hymnary.org dates it to 1892 and gives its source as Winning Songs, published that year in Philadelphia by John J. Hood.[1] Kirkpatrick (1838–1921) was a carpenter who ran a furniture business from 1862 to 1878 before turning to music full-time, leading the music at Grace Methodist Church in Philadelphia and compiling about a hundred gospel songbooks.[1] Discipleship Ministries of the United Methodist Church describes it as a hymn of invitation and conversion that entered the church's hymnals early in the twentieth century, as no. 104 in The Cokesbury Hymnal, and has appeared in none of them since.[2] Hymnary.org indexes it in more than 450 hymnals.[1]

Drawing of a father embracing his returning son in a doorway

Friedrich Olivier, Return of the Prodigal Son, graphite, 1830–35. The prodigal son's return, shown for the hymn's theme of coming home.

The Discography of American Historical Recordings lists a Victor disc by the tenor Frederic Freemantel, recorded on June 14, 1907.[3] The same discography lists later versions by Harry McClaskey for Victor in 1918, Oscar Seagle for Columbia in 1923, the Old Southern Sacred Singers for Brunswick in 1929 and the Callahan Family for ARC in 1934.[4] On October 30, 1928, Smith's Sacred Singers, a men's group led by J. Frank Smith, recorded it in Atlanta with fiddle and piano, and Columbia issued it on 15371-D.[5]

Larry Conger arranges it in DAD tuning for mountain dulcimer in Hymns, Spirituals, And Sacred Songs, a Fingers Of Steel book of 28 classic gospel tunes, each sold with an MP3 recording.[6]

Our book that contains the song "Lord I'm Coming Home"

Sources

  1. Hymnary.org: "I've wandered far away from God".
  2. Discipleship Ministries: "Lord, I'm Coming Home".
  3. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix B-4589. Lord, I'm coming home / Frederic Freemantel".
  4. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "William J. Kirkpatrick".
  5. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Columbia matrix W147353. Lord, I'm coming home / Smith's Sacred Singers".
  6. Fingers Of Steel: "Larry Conger, Hymns, Spirituals, And Sacred Songs".
  7. Image: Friedrich Olivier, Return of the Prodigal Son, graphite, 1830–35. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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