I Wonder as I Wander, composed by John Jacob Niles and recorded in May 2021 at Comber Hall, Church of the Little Flower in Miami, FL.
John Jacob Niles’ “I Wonder as I Wander” is a lasting testament to Niles’ dedication to the preservation and dissemination of Appalachian folk music. On a 1933 trip to Appalachia, Niles encountered a young girl in Murphy, North Carolina, who sang musical and textual fragments which Niles would later use as the inspiration for his original composition, “I Wonder as I Wander.”
Text
I wonder as I wander out under the sky,
How Jesus, the Saviour, did come for to die.
For poor ornery people like you and like I:
I wonder as I wander, Out under the sky.
When Mary birthed Jesus, Twas in a cows’ stall,
with wisemen and farmers and shepherds and all.
But high from God’s heaven a star’s light did fall,
and the promise of ages it then did recall.
If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing:
A star in the sky, or a bird on the wing;
Or all of God’s angels in heaven to sing,
He surely could have had it, ‘cause he was the King!
I wonder as I wander out under the sky,
How Jesus, the Saviour, did come for to die.
For poor ornery people like you and like I:
I wonder as I wander, Out under the sky.