How Great Thou Art (for my father)

I woke up on a Saturday morning in January, 2009, thinking about my father, who had died a year and half earlier. I thought of his favorite Baptist hymn. I thought about him dying and about his sincere belief bringing succor. About the world he expected to wake into.

So I got out my guitar and started messing around with that old hymn. I fired up my recorder and put down all the tracks. I'm no lead guitarist. Robin Willhite fills that role, but he wasn't available that Saturday morning. So I winged it on the guitar solo (which sounds less like a transcendent apotheosis and more like a mental breakdown). By late afternoon, I had the thing mixed down to a master file.

Anyway...here is my radical take on a wonderful old hymn.

How Great Thou Art

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works Thy hands have made.
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee;
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee:
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze:

And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin:

When Christ shall come with shouts of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art!