This is one of my favorite hymns as interpreted by Chris Tomlin. I still like the original, but there is a kind of reverence and passion to this version that I find compelling. This song was sung the night I accepted Christ. May 2, 1971. My rebirth day.
Happy Sabbath all.
Tom King
Here's a more solemn and traditional version by the Generations Gospel Choir. I really like this one better.
We saw Cathy Ryan and Cherish the Ladies more than a decade ago at the Southwest Irish Festival in Dallas. I even got to perform there once. I think they were desperate. This song is a fun little number that my daughter Meghan learned by heart. We'd sometimes break out in this song while we were riding in the car somewhere. I'd join her on the chorus. My little girl will never know how much those little moment meant to the old man.
I've always thought that life should be like a musical and we should just randomly break out in song at the slightest provocation. I suspect that's what heaven will be like.
This according to some is the definitive version of this song. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band sings a rousing bluegrass rendition of the popular funeral song here with Del and Ronnie McCrory. Lots of country musicians have done this song including Arlo Guthrie and Willie Nelson below in a concert in Austin, confidently singing "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" There's the question if you're a Christian. Will the circle indeed be unbroken?
Apparently not, if you listen to what Arlo Guthrie and Willie Nelson have to sing about it. Perhaps the song is only some sort of fire insurance for these guys, given the lifestyle they lead, but hey? Even the mighty Elvis Presley put out a Gospel album to make his mama happy.
Meanwhile we get to enjoy this joyful rendering of the old Southern Gospel standard.
This is one of the first songs I learned to finger-pick on my guitar when I was learning. I once heard a recording of Elizabeth Cotten singing this song. This version for clawhammer is different from the one Elizabeth sang with her big dreadnaught guitar or the one I play on my classical guitar.
I love folk music because it's so open to individual interpretation.
Here is the original version as played in her unique style by Elizabeth Cotten playing a left-handed dreadnaught.
Here's a link to the Smithsonian Folkways biography of Elizabeth.
