Which is like today, sort of. I had the time, actually, but this allergy/cold/whatever had me down this morning and I was not feeling like doing much of anything.
So now here I am, it's evening, and I'm listening Seldom Scene doing the Gram Parsons/Byrds classic, Hickory Wind. what a lovely song, and easily the best version, in my opinion. I might have first heard that song way back as kid listening to the local college radio station (King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania), which is where I would have heard Sweetheart at the Rodeo by The Byrds, which included among its tracks the original Hickory Wind.
That's where I also would have heard I am a Pilgrim, probably for the first time. A lovely version, that. Maybe I'd heard a country version before that, I don't know, but the first version that really registered with me, that really made me think I was listening to something profound, was on The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will the Circle Be Unbroken, where it is sung by Merle Travis himself, the man who wrote the song.
Thinking about all this and wondering what version I should post here, I've listened to snippets of several renditions, and many of them quite wonderful. But let's settle on one. How about Tennessee Ernie Ford:
Oh well, I suppose it's a little cheesy in that '50s way. Let's end it with the legendary Doc Watson and his son Merle (named for the song's author, Merle Travis).
One pilgrim to another. Perfect theme song for a blog called A Stranger Here, don't you think?
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