On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand

When I was a kid, that was my favorite Church song.  It was happy and upbeat and had great four-part harmony.  The reason the song came to mind is that I was upstairs this morning and happened to see this old songbook, copyright 1940:

Right down the road from my Grandma Stevens' house was the Zion Church of Christ.  This paperback hymnbook is from that church.  My mom wrote "Zion" on it at some point, probably thinking nobody would know where it came from after she was gone.  I would never forget, though.  Zion memories are all tied up with the grandma memories.  Sometimes I'd stroll down the road from her house, walk inside, and play church all by myself; the doors weren't locked.  I was the preacher, the song-leader, and the congregation, all in one.  Trouble is, I could never make a sermon last over five minutes.     

I see aunts and uncles and Grandma in this picture.  There were only two doors in the building, both in the front.  

I think they closed the doors of Zion sometime before 1960.

That battered old songbook has seen some hard times:  One time Big Creek got out of its banks and flooded Zion Church.  I was at Grandma's when it happened, and I remember watching her hang all those books on the clothesline to dry.

This was my favorite song.  But the strange thing is, I can't find this song, with this tune and chorus, anywhere on the Internet, so I'm going to fix that.  This is what I consider to be the REAL "On Jordan's Stormy Banks", because this is the one I grew up with.  

You get to watch Cora being cute while I sing.  That way you have something fun to look at.



Youtube has the "I Am Bound For The Promised Land" version by many different artists.  Different tune, different chorus.  I'm sure it's the oldest version, but that doesn't make it the RIGHT one.