Tim Eriksen: Wayfaring Stranger
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- Опубликовано: 5 фев 2025
- timeriksenmusic...
By request, from a midnight concert in the church on the square in Namest nad Oslavou, Czech Republic, July 24-25, 2009. There's an exterior shot of the church and square at the end of the video.
This is one of those songs that's been done to death, but it's still pretty great. I sing it most often out of the Sacred Harp, but I performed it with Dirk Powell and Riley Baugus as part of our set on the Great High Mountain Tour a couple years back. Jack White joined us when we played the Fox Theater in Detroit, which was fun.
In pop music circles, wobbly singing is understood to signify honesty, authenticity and a connection to "everyman," a term T Bone Burnett used in describing Jack's voice when we were working on the film Cold Mountain. I don't mean to dis either of them- they're both perfectly suited to their own areas of work, much of which I think is really excellent. But when it comes to folk/traditional/Americana/roots or whatever I'm looking forward to a time when it's no longer generally assumed that in the old days the regular people, whoever they were, must have sung in a kind of wobbly monotone, perhaps as a result of a rocking chair injury or all the grainy black and white barn photographs to which they had been exposed.
The image at the beginning of the video is a stand of beeches in the White Carpathians near Veseli nad Moravou.
The banjo is an extremely ornate and well made open back by the Czech maker Jarda Prucha. www.pruchabanjo...
Thanks to Dusan Sviba for getting hold of it and to Vlada Ptacek and Eliska for bringing it to the festival and letting me play it all week!
www.ptacekbanjo...
I think the Czechs have as much a claim to bluegrass as we do by now. It's played such an important role in their recent cultural history...
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
WoW!!! The hairs on the back of my neck stood up listening to that! Excellent!!!
Yeah, if you like the music just go for it. I didn't get seriously into this older stuff until I was about your age, for what it's worth...
He replies himself! Hi Tim! I love you. Marry me please.
The preservation of art is paramount to the study of history. What you can learn in books about great battles and kings is only one perspective of the highest cultural stratum. Through Art and Music we can plunge through time and connect to those who did not have privilege and titles. Their struggles are our struggles and their loves are parallel to ours. Too often Historians look at the past ages with dispassionate eyes and forget that it was our forebears playing out their own heart.
this is OUR hillbilly gospel at its best. . I played this song at my woman's funeral. .
Oh...I'm sorry I didn't see your comment until now. I'm sobered but happy to hear the song may have been a balm.
OK, well, I hope you enjoy the music in any case. FYI, the concert was in a disused church in a small town in the Czech Republic.
Amen brother
I'm sorry to hear about your woman..she is up in heaven now
I must have heard this song a million times but I don't remember hearing it performed any better than this! Great setting and acoustics in the Church and excellent Statue at the end.
Tim, your music preservation and your songs are an inspiration. Thank you for everything you do, man. Seriously.
My wife and I got the chance to see you play a concert at ASU in Boone NC on the 12th and I have to say that it was the highlight of our trip. I could have sat there till morning listening to you!!
10/10 performance man. You are inspiring as hell for the lack of better words.
It's a 5 string open back banjo made in the Czech Republic. A really nice instrument.
Stark , real & heartbreakingly beautiful.
Thanks, glad to hear
Truly my favorite version as well as recording of this piece. Spiritually transient.
This was beautiful. Glory to God :)
Tim, your music fills my soul - many many thanks, brother!
Just utterly fabulous!!!
I love this so much! After discovering Tim Eriksen's music a couple years ago, i've started singing and discovered that i LOVE it. It's also pretty much my life goal to learn to play the fiddle and banjo... too bad i'm a 20 year old girl who lives at the jersey shore and I was definitely born in the wrong time period/ area. Ah f it, i'll do it anyway.
This music crosses all shores and is timeless
I know this is only 13 years later coming across this but better late than never. Anyway, I got chills. Thank you! Oh, and the song I wish my baby was born was born with Riley Baugus is perfection. Thanks for that one too.
Hey, you're welcome. Glad you found them!
I need this at my funeral, dance and sing
This song changed my life,thank you for this beauty.
I love this Tim, I can't get enough of this one. I love your rendition.
It's times like these I wish I could claw-hammer that well...!!
My first time hearing Tim Eriksen.
Amazing.
Beautiful
Crisp and clear singing and playing. On key. And this song is exquisite. Wonderful! Thank you.
Love the sound you put out to the world. You have a great voice. Thanks Tim
You’re welcome- thanks for the note
This man is gifted.
This is otherworldly. Thank you
A-MAZING
That sounded great. What a find!
Just super Tim.!! What a great place to perform.
"Rocking chair injury"! Hahaha. I agree with you. Sometimes at folk clubs, I just want to reach over and stabilize peoples' vocal chords :-D
You are fabulous!
I always loved this song by anonymous 4 but I really love this version as well. TY
You're welcome!
I'm glad you're enjoying it. Thanks for the note!
You're giving me the chills, Mr. Eriksen.
Please tour in London soon!
so cool. I love this type of music.
A true inspiration.
this is one of the best songs iv ever heard
awesome version! beautiful vocals.
That clawhammering seems simple but a great background to Tim's singing. Nice Video.
Come back to Seattle!
Nice rendition Tim!
Chills my soul
What a great song to play in front of a remonstrance
this kid of reverb is sacred, you cant hear it anywhere else but chapels... A++++
The acoustics in that place are awesome. Love your rendition of this tune. I come back to it frequently
me too.I love listening to him play.
You always fascinate and amaze me.
This is outstanding in every way...love it very much :)
@benhanbury I'm coming at the end of March- can't wait!
One of my favorite covers of this songs ever. Thanks! Hope to sing with you again some time soon.
+Kimberly Collins Can you make our convention this year? March 12-13...
wow! Great acoustics in there..awesome sound..
Sounds Great!
You are wonderful. This cover is beautiful. Reminds me of my father. I wish he could hear this for himself.
Hey! I'm glad you enjoyed it....
Chills!
good job!!!keep up the good pickin man!!
great video, Tim we should play sometime.. I live right near Amherst haha
THANK YOU FOR THIS
+DEFIANT DWELLER You're welcome!
+batfancy it's awesome, my favorite is when he sits in nyc, fret less. So sick, Riley is awesome too. DONT TREAD ON US!!
love this.you played it so well and your voice is great.
+Samantha Esra Thank you!
i'am at work my name is tim your music is hypnotic,very very cool thank's
+Big Blue Ha ha! NSFW- that's me. Thanks for the note.
still amazing.
I'm glad you're enjoying it. It was a really nice show for me.
One thing I dont understand....why do you even bother with instruments, you have enough talent in your voice that people would listen without them, I like the way you put feeling in the music, Thanks Bud
Please please come to Surrey BC... This may sound odd but my faux skeletons love you!
Thank you for your inscrutable positivity! I suspect my faux skeletons love you too.
Great version by one of best performers of traditional music. Don't ignore version by Estil C Ball recorded by Alan Lomax.
Love your comments on causes of 'singing in a wobbly voice monotone'! I'm sending a Sacred Harp version. No wobbly voices or monotones there!
You got it, boy.
Wow..
wow
@benhanbury Me too! Fish and or chips- driving on the wrong (uh...other) side of the road- just the tip of the iceberg...
I have to say, this is indeed better than the "wobbly" versions. Wayfaring Stranger is perhaps my favorite song, but there are so many versions that are just bleh...this is not among those!
Is there a specific name for this type of singing? It seems totally unique and different from most vocal styles - more guttural maybe? I don't know. Sounds great though!
@celtica99 Glad you like it- thanks to you too...
Your version of "how can I keep from singing" is one of the best things in the world. You're from mass?
Beautiful song, beautiful setting. At first I assumed it was sawmill tuning but....what is it? Thanks for sharing your music.
Amazing. I would love to meet him if you got the hook up :)
+DEFIANT DWELLER Well, I have the hook up in the sense that it's just me, and I frequently talk to myself. Come sing with us sometime- I don't know where you're at, but we sing Sacred Harp at least once a week in Western Massachusetts, and I sometimes get to sing with friends when I'm on the road.
Tim,
I'm in full agreement with your assessment of the public opinion on folk/roots/&c. music. It's far too limiting to what the genre encompasses as well as the numerous variables in how it's performed. Even the repertoire itself tends to get pared down to what best sates the nostalgia of a time few can relate to.
That is a beautiful alter setting. What church is this? I bet Wayfaring Stranger doesn't get performed too much in Catholic churches.
A question for Tim: As you perform this old Gospel song in this church, I have to wonder, what do you think of the common Catholic habit of changing the verse in Amazing Grace from "...a wretch like me," to "someone like me?" Me, personally, I hate it.
you're welcome!
Great performance man! By far my favorite clawhammer rendition of this tune that I've come across. If I may ask, what tuning were you playing in? I've tried it in minor tuning and G Modal but haven't quite been able to find a way to play it that I'm happy with.
Sure. it's eEABD
this has got to be one of the best videos, on youtube, I love the way you play it! What's the tuning you're using, if you don't mind me asking?
I'm glad you like i! The tuning is eEABD I think...
batfancy I like that you're not certain, shows how much of a folk musician you really are haha
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Great music Tim! Are you playing that in sawmill tuning?
You should play in Polan
Wow, this is so fascinating! How well did the Czechs like the music that you played?
That is a fine old church you've found. What is its name & where is it found?
Namest is in Moravia, not far from Brno.
and they say you can't play blues on a banjo. this proves them wrong
and while you at it stop in Newfoundland!
@pgallagher901: Well, every Catholic hymnal I've ever seen has "someone." It is interesting that some think it should be altered for doctrinal reasons. I've heard the Shaker hymn "Tis a Gift to Be Simple" also performed & the verse suggesting a a pre-mortal existance in that song is always retained.
As for any Calvinist implications, my understanding is that its author John Newton was Methodist in tendency. That would make him Arminian.
Yup, nothing wobbly there for sure. (although I didn't mean it as a dis- just different ways of singing...)
Is that a normal 5 string bluegrass banjo?
Next spring Germany?
+Ulla Robinlilly I would love to! But I don't have a booking agent for Germany at the moment. Hopefully before too long.
+batfancy I am searching one for you :-)
Oh, that's so sweet! Thank you.
This song is all about dying.
The beeches in the beginning look like a scene from Narnia or The Lord of the Rings.
What genre of music is this? Blue grass
Uh... probly. It's the same tuning as Sugar Baby...
So glad I heard this version of the song first- like, before Jack White's- which SUCKS
@@shawnhembree4145 haha! He’s got a lot of great stuff though. Thanks for the note
I know this is a very late reply, but it sounds like sawmill taken down a step, f C F Bb F
Whoops, meant f C F Bb C
blew jack white out of the water on this one. (and i like jack white) on cold mountain, they should of had you do this song instead of him.
@pgallagher901: So, "...saved & set me free," would be the alternative? I think that is worse then "...someone..." as it is meaningless. It is a redundancy, what else does Christ's saving us do if it does not make us free? I really hate this kind of monkeying around w/ old songs.
Another one is the last stanza of The Battle Hymn of the Republic. "As He [Christ] died to make men holy, let us die to make men free," is changed to "...let us LIVE to..." Ruins the whole point.
this is beautiful but i love Natalie Merchant's version better
Please tour in London soon!
Wow