B. F. White / Adger M. Pace / 2:44
Musician
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar
Recording Studio
Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: May 1993
Technical Team
Producer: Bob Dylan
Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan
The lone pilgrim in the song is Joseph Thomas (1791–1835), known for preaching in a simple white cassock in eastern Mississippi until he died of smallpox. A few years later, a preacher named Elder John Ellis visited Thomas’s grave in Johnsonburg, New Jersey, and composed a poem that became a song. The music originates in an old Scottish ballad, “The Braes O’ Ballquhidder,” based on a Gaelic song called “Brochun Buirn.” The song was adapted by B. F. White, known for his compilations of songs and melodies in a book first published in 1844 under the title The Sacred Harp. As with most traditional songs, numerous artists have covered “Lone Pilgrim.” One—or rather two—of the most famous interpretations are certainly by Doc Watson in the early 1960s: first with the Watson Family, and then solo at Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village.
The last track of the album, “Lone Pilgrim” is another great, solemn, and respectful interpretation, close to that of Doc Watson. In the second verse, Dylan sings, “But calm is my feeling, at rest is my soul / The tears are all wiped from my eyes.” But unlike Watson, who adopts a mild intonation, Dylan’s vocal performance is intimate, almost like he’s telling a secret. He has probably felt deeply the words of this beautiful ballad and he expressed them with his heart. With superb guitar playing and subtle arrangements, he concludes his final foray into tradition—a foray started a year earlier with Good As I Been to You.