Wherever He Leads, I'll Go: A Song History

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"Wherever He Leads I'll Go" is a gospel hymn with words by B. B. McKinney.[1] Baylus Benjamin McKinney was born in Heflin, Louisiana, on July 22, 1886, and went on to write gospel songs, sing at evangelistic meetings, teach and edit music, working for the Dallas songbook publisher Robert Henry Coleman from 1918 to 1935 and then as music editor of the Baptist Sunday School Board.[2] By the archive's count he wrote words and music for 149 gospel hymns and songs and set music to 114 more texts by others.[2] He died in Bryson City, North Carolina, on September 7, 1952, from injuries suffered in a car accident several days earlier while returning from a Church Leadership Week at the Ridgecrest Baptist Assembly.[2][3]

Etching of a sandy path winding between tall leafy trees, with small figures in the distance

Anthonie Waterloo, A Path Through the Woods, etching, 17th century. A path leading on through woods, etched by Anthonie Waterloo, shown for the hymn's title; the etching has no connection to the song.

Sources differ slightly on the date: Hymnary.org lists the text as a 1936 copyright, renewed in 1964 by Broadman Press, while the Southern Baptist archive dates the song to 1937, the year printed with it in the 1940 Broadman Hymnal.[1][2][4] Its theme is the call to take up the cross and follow, and Hymnary.org links it to Gospel passages such as Matthew 16:24 and Mark 8:34.[1] The tune, by McKinney as well, goes by the name FALLS CREEK and is in 8.6.8.7 meter with a refrain.[5] The 1940 hymnal filed it under invitation and youth hymns, and Hymnary.org now counts it in more than fifty hymnals, with a Spanish version by Marjorie Caudill.[4][1] Baptist Press has retold how McKinney, after leading some 10,000 Baptists in the song, quietly urged them to mean what they had sung, and an annual hymn sing in his honor is held on July 22, his birthday, at Bistineau Baptist Church in Heflin.[6] A 1974 biography of McKinney by Paul R. Powell even borrows the hymn's title.[2]

On the mountain dulcimer, Larry Conger gives it a DAA-tuning arrangement in his Hymns Of Faith Tab Book, a downloadable tablature collection from Fingers Of Steel that pairs it with hymns such as "He Leadeth Me" and "Whiter Than Snow."[7]

Our book that contains the song "Wherever He Leads, I'll Go"

Sources

  1. Hymnary.org: "Wherever He Leads I'll Go".
  2. Southern Baptist Historical Library & Archives: "Baylus Benjamin McKinney".
  3. Rappahannock Record: "Reflections" (Rev. John Farmer column on B. B. McKinney).
  4. Hymnary.org: "The Broadman Hymnal (1940), no. 99: Wherever He Leads I'll Go".
  5. Hymnary.org: "FALLS CREEK".
  6. Baptist Press: "B.B. McKinney hymn sing, Bistineau Baptist Church".
  7. Fingers Of Steel: "Larry Conger, Hymns Of Faith Tab Book".
  8. Image: Anthonie Waterloo, A Path Through the Woods, etching, 17th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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