I can't sing with a darn, and I just recorded this on a lone electric guitar w/ vocal. It's the kind of demo I would have done with a band years ago to show them a new arrangement I had come up with so they could take it home and learn it. Anyway, I'm only posting it to see if anyone likes the arrangement.
 
As you probably know, this is an old traditional song, and like a lot of old songs, no one knows how the original lyrics went, so you'll find several different versions of them. These are the ones I used. The chords are actually the same; I just used some progressions to create movement and gradually sped up the temple to build a climax at the chorus.
 
Thanks!
 Bill
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Wayfaring Stranger
 
 
Verse 1
I’m just a poor wayfaring stranger
Passing through this world of woe
But there’s no sickness, toil, or danger
In that bright land to which I go
 
Verse 2
I know dark clouds, they gather around me
I know my way is rough and steep
But golden fields, they rise before me
Where the saints, their vigils keep
 
Chorus 1
I’m going there to see my mother
Going there, no more to roam
I’m only going over Jordan
Just passing through on my way home
 
Solo
 
Chorus 2
I’m going there to see my father
He said he’d meet me when I come
I’m only going over Jordan
Just passing through on my way home

This is an expertly crafted song.  You go from departure to anticipation to return through many interesting chord changes.  For some very ODD reason it made me think of the mac davis show.  Remember that?

Good stuff - weirdly reminds me of Tom Waits

Yep I hear Tom Waits in the recipe a bit too, Never missed a note on the guitar work! I think you have a really good canvas in this work. OK the vocal could do with some help but all said and done I listened to it a couple of times and loved the mood so thanks for sharing
 
Steve

No comment on the vocal, inappropriate for a furry alien whose singing kills at a parsec.

Enjoyed the guitar work, are you intending to take this somewhere else?

Sure I remember Mac Davis. Tom Waits too. I'm not really a fan of either and I'm not sure how this recording relates to them, but we all hear things in different ways, so that's kind of cool.
 
Wook, I'm not sure anybody else has ever noticed it, but the music to both "Summertime" and "Wayfaring Stranger" is exactly the same except their choruses are different. If I had thought of it earlier, I would have turned this into an instrumental version of "Summertime." At some point I'll do exactly that providing I can find a drummer to work on it with. (I don't really know any these days.)

Bill,
 
The arrangement is pretty cool, like the guitar playing a lot.   Thumbs up.
 
Regards

Bill,
As always, excellent guitar water.

I like how the chord patterns went from fairly simple to more involved, expressing the mood rising from woe to joyful. (I don't usually talk this way)

"rough and steep" I like the change in mood here
"but golden fields"  I think the chord pattern is too different from previous
"no more to roam"  really like that transition bit
 
The solo is great.  Hey, that's the way the original song was meant to be played (kidding)

Now that you mention it I do hear the similarity to Summertime.

Thanks for the comments fellas. I know it's not very good, but I see you other guys post all these vocal songs, and I just wanted to jump in the pool for a while too. Now, back to my little world of instrumental music where bums like me belong. 
 
Bill

I enjoyed that rendition very much. My mom used to sing that eerily forlorn song.
 
The speed up was a surprise and then when it slowed down at the very end it had a very nice reflective impact.
 
Brilliant! :)