Just a closer walk with thee

I. Origins: Martin & Morris

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Chicago’s First Church of Deliverance, founded and pastored by Rev. Clarence Cobb, was a locus for the development of gospel music. In 1937, Cobb hired young musician Kenneth Morris (1917–1989) as organist and choir director. At the time, Morris was responsible for notating and arranging music for the Lillian Bowles House of Music publishing company. Morris was also responsible for introducing the Hammond organ to the church and to gospel music in general. While at the church, Morris came into contact with singer Sallie Martin (1895–1988), who was affiliated with the gospel publishing endeavors of Thomas A. Dorsey (1899–1993). In 1940, both disillusioned by their publishing jobs, Martin and Morris formed their own company. One of their first publications was an arrangement of “Just a closer walk with thee” (Fig. 1).

The original printing was offered as a single sheet in a simple choral harmonization, varying between four and five parts. It had three stanzas and a refrain, with the melody ending on 5 rather than rising to 1. At the top, it bore the credit, “As sung by Mr. William B. Hurse of Kansas City, Mo.” William Hurse (1911–1955) was the son of Rev. James Wesley Hurse (1866–1935), who was the founding pastor of St. Stephen’s Baptist Church in Kansas City.

In addition, the score was “Dedicated to Robert Anderson & R.L. Knowles, on their return from California.” Robert Anderson (1919–1995) was a notable gospel soloist and composer, one of the original members of the Roberta Martin Singers and formerly a member of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dorsey was music director. He split from Martin in 1939 to tour as a duet with Knowles.[1] According to historian Anthony Heilbut, R.L. Knowles, “as lead singer of the First Church of Deliverance, is widely credited with introducing the ad lib style in the 1930s,” he was a “debonair crooner,” “gospel’s first matinée idol and perhaps its first jazz-imbued stylist.”[2] Knowles was originally from Kansas City. Some scholars believe it was Knowles and Anderson who brought the song to Morris when they returned from their California tour, but Morris’s own testimony (below) indicates he had been in Kansas City and met William Hurse himself.

Morris presented “Just a closer walk with thee” with great fanfare at the National Baptist Convention annual meeting in 1944 (for more on this, see “Yes, God is real”).

In 1946, Martin and Morris published another arrangement by Morris, written for the Sallie Martin Singers, this time with a solo melody part and a harmonized background in a repetitive pattern (Fig. 2a). The first page (refrain and stanza 2) utilizes a soprano lead, while the second page (stanzas 1, 3) utilizes a male lead in bass clef. This version was recorded by the Sallie Martin Singers on 27 February 1948 for the Capitol Records 78-rpm single 40110 (Fig. 2b) and on the LP T-791, On Revival Day! The LP was billed as an album by the St. Paul Church Choir of Los Angeles, with which Sallie Martin was associated, even though she was not credited on the album art. This track has been re-released on Testify: The Gospel Box (1999).

In an interview with Bernice Johnson Reagon in 1987, Morris explained more about his experience with the song:

I went to Kansas City, to a conference of some kind, and one of the choirs there sang it. I asked them where they heard it, and they asked their choir director, Mr. William B. Hurse, where they had gotten it from. He didn’t know; he had heard it all of his life. I had never heard it before. I am the one who made the arrangement; the first one put in print was mine. I took it to the National Baptist Convention in 1944 and presented it with my group, the Martin and Morris Singers, and it simply clicked. After we left there, everybody was using it.

At that particular time, we weren’t too careful about getting copyrights so it was stolen from me. After I made my arrangement, it became very popular. . . . I don’t know if I should say this or not, but there was a Southern white publisher named Winsett, and he wanted to put it in his book. When he found out that the song had not been copyrighted, he was free to take out a copyright on it. He did not change the arrangement—not too much. He put it in shape notes, that’s the only thing he did. We didn’t know too much about copyright during those days. . . . We just put the copyright notice on the song, just put it on there. It wasn’t until we found out from the white man how popular the songs were, how necessary it was to get our own copyright. He started to come in and want our music. This woke us up. When they took my song, “Just a closer walk with thee,” that woke me up. From that time on, we started to copyright our material. Before that, we never did. Nobody did, including Mr. Dorsey. He didn’t start until he found out that it was money “in them there hills.”

Of course the white companies, the big, big publishing companies, started coming in and wanting our music. They wanted to pay for permission to put our songs in sheet music and all these different things. What they had to have was proof of copyright. So this is when that happened.[3]

II. Additional Early Recorded Examples

The Sallie Martin Singers recorded “Just a closer walk with thee” in 1948, but they were not the first. That distinction belongs to the Selah Jubilee Singers, who recorded it in New York City on 8 October 1941 for Decca (7872A). This premiere recording features Thermon Ruth as the lead vocalist, with three other men vocalizing behind him, accompanied by guitar. The group presented the refrain “Just a closer walk with thee,” plus “When my feeble eyes are closed / Time for me won’t be no more,” “I am weak but thou art strong,” and a return of the refrain. At the time, the group also performed regularly on Raleigh, North Carolina radio station WPTF, a fifty-thousand-watt operation, so the song likely filled the airwaves more than it sold on platters. This recording was reissued on Document Records, Selah Jubilee Singers Volume 2.[4]

Only a couple of months later, on 1 December 1941, famed blues singer Rosetta Tharpe (1915–1973) recorded the song for Decca (8594A) in New York City. This version, featuring Tharpe’s vocals and her up-tempo guitar stylings, includes the refrain and stanzas “I am weak but thou art strong,” “When my feeble life is o’er,” and “Through this world of toils and snares.”

The song was included in a couple of Library of Congress field recordings made by Alan Lomax (1915–2002) in the summer of 1942. The Rev. E.M. Martin performed the song in the Nelson Funeral Home, Clarksdale, Mississippi, on 23 July 1942. Two days later, it was presented by the Junior Choir of Silent Grove Baptist Church, Clarksdale. These recordings have apparently not been reissued.

The song’s pathway to New York City and Mississippi is unclear, but these early recordings show a fairly consistent understanding of the text.

III. Additional Early Printed Examples

Gospel songwriter and compiler R.E. Winsett (1876–1952) of Tennessee, upon discovering the lack of proper copyright protection on the song, filed for the copyright in 1948. Winsett included it in his collection Heavenly Sunlight (Dayton, TN: R.E. Winsett, 1948), and he produced a standalone sheet music arrangement for solo voice and keyboard accompaniment, both including an additional stanza (Fig. 3):

When life’s sun sets in the west,
Lord, may I have done my best,
May I find sweet peace rest,
In that home, happy home of the blest.

Fig. 3a. Heavenly Sunlight (Dayton, TN: R.E. Winsett, 1948).
Fig. 3b. “Just a closer walk with thee” (NY: Hill & Range Songs, 1948).

In the songbook arrangement, Winsett used the seven-shape note system. He was careful to only credit himself as arranger and only took credit for his added fourth stanza. He appears to have been responsible for introducing the common alteration in the refrain, “Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,” and for having the melody rise upward at the ends of the stanzas and refrain. In the folio arrangement, scored for melody and accompaniment, Winsett appears to have been given credit for the song, not just as arranger but as sole composer. In this score, Winsett’s melody, like Morris’s, ends on 5 rather than rising to 1. After publishing his own versions, Winsett was sometimes credited with writing the song in some other publications and recordings, but his authorship has since been discredited and his copyright has been effectively ignored by the music industry.

Winsett, in spite of his notoriety for claiming the song as his own, was not the first mainstream gospel publisher to adopt the song. A year before Winsett put it in print, the Stamps-Baxter company published the song in a collection edited by Marion W. Easterling, America’s Favorite Radio Songs (Dallas: Stamps-Baxter, 1947). It was more commonly printed in their collections using an arrangement by J.R. Baxter Jr. for Peaceful Echoes (Dallas: Stamps-Baxter, 1948 | Fig. 4), where the author was properly named as “Anon.” Baxter’s arrangement uses a delayed rhythm between the treble voices and bass voices to fill the long ends of each melodic phrase. This version of the melody rises at the end, but only in the chorus, where the customary “Let it be, dear Lord” has been replaced with a restatement of “Just a closer walk.”

IV. Analysis

Although the hymn seemingly has folk origins, it has features more advanced than most songs hailing from oral tradition, such as melodic chromaticism, a progressive melodic line, a nearly-regular strophic text, and advanced harmonies (either written or implied). These qualities, among others, have led one scholar to believe there is a strong likelihood “this song was written either professionally or by a trained musician. . . . There are elements of it that seem to me more literate than oral.”[5] Similarly, hymnologist Carl Daw has argued, “Whatever its original form might have been, the current version of this melody aligns it with the early 20th century and especially with the chromaticism of gospel music.”[6]

Theologically, the song expresses a desire for closeness with God. This type of longing or closeness can be found in passages such as Genesis 5:22 (“Enoch walked with God”), Deuteronomy 13:4 (“You shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him,” ESV), Psalm 27:4 (“One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple”), or James 4:8 (“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you”).

The line “I am weak but thou art strong” seems to take its cue from 2 Corinthians 12:9–10 (“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”). The author’s plea to be kept from wrong is echoed in the Lord’s prayer (“Lead us not into temptation,” Matt. 6:13). The description of a world full of toils and snares harkens to the curse of Genesis 3:17–19, or taken together with the author’s cry, “Who with me my burden shares?” we can see parallels to the Psalms, as in 18:4-6—

The cords of death encompassed me;
    the torrents of destruction assailed me;
the cords of Sheol entangled me;
    the snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called upon the Lord;
    to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
    and my cry to him reached his ears (ESV).

The fourth stanza speaks of an eternity without time, such as in Revelation 22:5, when the cycles of sun and moon will be unnecessary, “for the Lord God will be their light.” The “kingdom shore” mentioned in the song is likely a reference to the River of Life, also mentioned in Revelation 22.

Pastor Robert Cottrill said of this hymn, “The lyric, though simple, reflects a sincere and heartfelt love for the Lord, and a humble recognition of human weakness.”[7] Because the hymn is often a vehicle for jazz and gospel musicians to improvise—“associated with virtuosic singers and players and their improvisatory capacities”—Lutheran scholar Paul Westermeyer sees this a potential challenge for congregational singing, while others might see this as a quality often found and celebrated in black church music, part of the song’s inherent charm.[8]

Carl Daw saw the hymn as part of a long heritage of similarly-themed hymns, including William Cowper’s “O for a closer walk with God” (1772), Fanny Crosby’s “Close to thee” (1874) and/or “Closer walk with thee” (1885), and the spiritual “I want Jesus to walk with me” (early 20th century).[9]

V. Legacy

“Just a closer walk with thee” has a rich legacy, being continuously in print since the 1940s, and being known across multiple spectrums of Christianity. In addition, the song has been frequently recorded, found in the repertoire of the likes of Red Foley (1952), Louis Armstrong (1960), Ella Fitzgerald (1967), Loretta Lynn (1972), and others too many to list. The song is frequently associated with funerals, and it has a special place in New Orleans funeral processions, accompanied by walking jazz bands.

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
31 January 2020

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Footnotes:

1. Robert Sacré, “Robert Anderson,” Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music (NY: Routledge, 2005), p. 10.

2. Anthony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News in Bad Times, 25th Anniversary Ed. (NY: Limelight Editions, 1997), pp. 334, 365.

3. Bernice Johnson Reagon, “Kenneth Morris: I’ll Be a Servant for the Lord,” We’ll Understand It Better By and By (Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 1992), pp. 336–337.

4. For details of early recordings, see especially Robert M.W. Dixon, et al., Blues and Gospel Records, 1890–1943, 4th ed. (Oxford University Press, 1997).

5. Stephen Shearon, email correspondence with C. Michael Hawn, 27 July 2019, quoted in “I am weak but thou art strong,” History of Hymns (17 October 2019): https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/articles/history-of-hymns-i-am-weak-but-thou-art-strong

6. Carl P. Daw Jr., “Just a closer walk with me,” Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016), p. 797.

7. Robert Cottrill, “Just a closer walk,” Wordwise Hymns (12 June 2013): https://wordwisehymns.com/2013/06/12/just-a-closer-walk/

8. Paul Westermeyer, “Just a closer walk with thee,” Hymnal Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2010), p. 553.

9. Carl P. Daw Jr., “Just a closer walk with me,” Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016), p. 797.

Related Resources:

Bernice Johnson Reagon, “Kenneth Morris: I’ll Be a Servant for the Lord,” We’ll Understand It Better By and By (Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 1992), pp. 329–341.

Anthony Heilbut, The Gospel Sound: Good News in Bad Times, 25th Anniversary Ed. (NY: Limelight Editions, 1997).

Robert M.W. Dixon, et al., Blues and Gospel Records, 1890–1943, 4th ed. (Oxford University Press, 1997).

Robert Sacré, “Robert Anderson,” Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music (NY: Routledge, 2005), p. 10.

Paul Westermeyer, “Just a closer walk with thee,” Hymnal Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2010), p. 553.

Robert Cottrill, “Just a closer walk,” Wordwise Hymns (12 June 2013):
https://wordwisehymns.com/2013/06/12/just-a-closer-walk/

Cedric J. Hayes & Robert Laughton, Gospel Discography 1943–2000, 2 vols. (Canada: Eyeball Productions, 2014).

Carl P. Daw Jr., “Just a closer walk with me,” Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016), pp. 796–797.

C. Michael Hawn, “I am weak but thou art strong,” History of Hymns, Discipleship Ministries, United Methodist Church (17 October 2019): https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/articles/history-of-hymns-i-am-weak-but-thou-art-strong

“Just a closer walk with thee,” Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/text/i_am_weak_but_thou_art_strong