JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE

Listen to JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE by Ray Price.

This is the payoff post that nearly didn't happen (in fact, as I begin typing, it's not confirmed there is a payoff, yet). Recall that my grandfather left instructions for his funeral, which sadly took place last week. Included in those instructions was a specific request that Just A Closer Walk With Thee by Ray Price be played. I failed to find this version in time, which has had me in a funk.

But, how could I find this song on short notice? Price's rendition was included on an album called "How Great Thou Art," released by Word Records thirty years ago. Now, everybody knows Word Records. Since being founded by Jarrell McCracken in Waco, Texas back in 1951, it's become one of the premier Gospel labels in the country (thanks, Wikipedia!). Despite all that, Word never saw fit to keep "How Great Thou Art" in print, never released it on CD. Maybe it's on 8 track or cassette somewhere, but it definitely ain't on anywhere on the internet, much less on iTunes.

Still, once we got back from the funeral, we went crate-digging. We looked for it in New York, we looked for it in Los Angeles. I looked for it on eBay, and that's where I finally found it. It arrived in the mail the other day, and with an assist from a good friend, we got it transferred to m4amp3 today.

I'm not going to review the song today. I haven't heard it yet, as I finish typing, which makes it hard, but also because that's not really the point. I'm just going to put it on and think nice thoughts about my grandparents.

See you next week.

Photo: Most Holy Redeemer Church (4).

JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE

Listen to JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE by Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan.
Listen to JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE by Johnny Paycheck.
Listen to JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE by Dave Van Ronk.

Here a few songs that I had high hopes for, but that don't quite work. First is the third--Dave Van Ronk. Last year I read Van Ronk's book, The Mayor Of MacDougal Street, and loved it. Loved it--it's a great read, especially if you have any interest at all in the history of the Village, the folk movement of the 50s and 60s, Dylan, and all that. Even if you don't, it's very agreeably written. Van Ronk comes off as an incredibly appealing, engaging character, who was involved in every little thing that happened in the New York folk scene. The problem was I had never heard his music, and was pretty disappointed when I went and tracked it down. Closer Walk is as good an example as any. It was recorded around the time Little Richard recorded his version, and it's in the same uptempo style, but its light years away in interest. He just doesn't really have the chops or the charisma. Which is no sin, but read the book, skip the tunes.

When I saw Johnny Paycheck had a version of Closer Walk, I jumped to download it. Paycheck was unfairly pigeonholed as a one hit wonder, when he had a great run of songs on the Little Darlin' label in the 60s. (I'm sure Corbett will get around to doing a retrospective on him someday.) But leaving that aside, this is a deeply boring performance.

Finally, Just A Closer Walk With Thee, performed by Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, part of the legendary lost "Nashville Skyline" sessions. Incredible! Not incredible! In fact, these sessions are mostly disappointing (notwithstanding some cool moments). These two don't actually have that much chemistry on record to my ears, and what's more, Bob doesn't even know the words to the song! (Listen to the very beginning. Bob suggests, hopefully, they try Closer Walk With Thee. Then listen to the very end. "What's one you know, Bob?" This makes me smile.)

Photo: Most Holy Redeemer Church (3).

JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE

Listen to JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE by Little Richard.
Listen to JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE by James Rivers.

Closer Walk has been recorded so many times, it's no surprise that it's an important song. But what I didn't know is that it is so important to so many different American traditions. Ray Price is a country singer, obviously, and along with Patsy Cline's version and Loretta Lynn's version from yesterday, there have been hundreds of recordings by country musicians over the years. In fact, from what I can tell, pretty much every country musician of any longevity from about 1950 on has a version of the song on wax somewhere. No one is sure where the song came from, but there's no doubt most of its success in American charts have come from country musicians.

Most people agree, however, that the song was born, or at least entered its modern incarnation, with the birth of gospel music in the thirties. One of the things I love about the history of gospel music is how radical it was. One thinks of "gospel" as ultra-traditional, ultra-conservative, when in fact Georgia Tom was kind of a scandalous figure, bringing the sounds of the fields and the saloons into the churchhouse. Just A Closer Walk With Thee was either written or adapted around the same time Dorsey was doing his thing, so I like to think there's something just a little bit loose about the song you might miss if you didn't know the story. Mahalia Jackson is the quintessential gospel performer (as well as a child of New Orleans, see below), so have a listen to her track yesterday to get a basic sense of the style. But by all means have a listen to Little Richard's version posted today. This is by far my favorite performance of the song. It is thrilling! It's from 1959, hard on his run of rock & roll classics, before all of a sudden he quit the biz and enrolled in bible school. In my opinion, this cut has all (well, how about nearly all) of the energy, verve, and charisma of Long Tall Sally, Tutti Frutti, etc. It's pretty wild.

Moving on. Leaving aside the country & gospel traditions, Just A Closer Walk With Thee is just about THE essential song for a New Orleans-style "jazz funeral." (Scare quotes because folks who live in New Orleans don't like to refer to their funerals that way.)

The way it works is the musicians follow the body from the church to the grave site, playing traditional music relatively straight. Sometimes the only song played will be Closer Walk. Then, once the body is interred, the second line begins, with the twirling parasols and all of the trappings associated with jazz funerals. Today's second selection from James Rivers is a New Orleans-style rendition of Closer Walk. I know next to nothing about Rivers--everything I know I learned from one of my favorites, "Home Of The Groove," where they know everything about New Orleans music, and even he doesn't know much about Rivers. It's a nice swinging instrumental.

Photo: Most Holy Redeemer Church (2).

JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE

Listen to JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE by Patsy Cline.
Listen to JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE by Loretta Lynn.
Listen to JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE by Mahalia Jackson.

With apologies to you readers, and to the "soul-funk funk-soul" series (which will return someday), and with thanks to John and Jason for covering, I'm back with a detour from the regularly scheduled programming.

One reason we were away was to attend my grandfather's funeral back home. Those of you who have met him will know what a loss that is. But I'm not soliciting tributes (in the comments section at least), and this week isn't totally related to him, but it is somewhat. This post will be especially, to set up the back story.

We had to plan for the funeral, of course. I got put in charge of the music, which suited me fine. Fortunately, Grandpa left some guidance. About 15-20 years ago, Grandpa had a cancer scare. At the time he wrote himself out a program for his funeral service on a sheet of paper, and had held onto it until the end. I was now given this piece of paper.

The directions were characteristically plain-spoken and a little wry ("solo singer, preferably male"; "prayers okay, no sermon"). The blue ink had seeped into the paper.

One of the things he had done was make a list of songs he wanted included. I was a little disappointed, in spite of myself. The Old Rugged Cross; What a Friend We Have in Jesus; Memories; My Buddy; Always; Peace In The Valley; My Way. It's not that I had objections to Grandpa's taste (endearingly conventional), really, just that I didn't have any great versions of these in the vaults (that I thought I could use anyway, i.e., not the Gipsy Kings' version of My Way!). Plus, despite not having anything great, serviceable versions were so easy to find. i was basically done in ten minutes.

One song stood out though. Grandpa had written: "Just A Closer Walk With Thee by Ray Price." Hmmm... Don't have that one.

Why had Grandpa picked this specific version? I was quickly wishing that he hadn't. I know Ray Price (Night Life being one of my favorite country tunes), I even knew he was still out recording. But I didn't know this one, and I couldn't find it anywhere (turns out there's a good reason for that, which I'll explain later). I spent a couple of hours on the internet before the funeral, but it was in vain. If Grandpa didn't have a copy (he didn't), there was nothing I could do.

I picked what I thought was an appropriate substitute, and the funeral service went along fine. But I felt a little disappointed in myself, like I let my grandfather down. Whether it's that, or just natural curiosity, I've spent the intervening days piling up as many different versions of Just A Walk With Thee as I can. (And there are more than you can imagine!)

So that's why we only have one song this week. These three are three of the "substitutes" I considered for the funeral. Come back tomorrow sometime and I'll share some more versions!

Photo: Most Holy Redeemer Church (1).