PLEIN AIR 12: Angel Band
You may recognize this tune from O Brother Where Art Thou (2000), but "Angel Band" had occupied a place in American Gospel music for nearly 150 years before the Cohen brothers' ever produced their Americana adaptation of Homer's Odyssey.
The lyrics were originally published as a poem title "My Latest Sun is Sinking Fast" by Jefferson Hascall in 1860. The poem was orginally set to a tune by J.W. Dadmun, but the tune most often employed today was written by William Batchelder Bradbury, the composer of Jesus Loves Me and Just As I Am's melodies.
As a recording, the song is often associated with the Stanley Brothers and their 1955 version of the classic hymn. Listen to my wife, Molly, and I join our voices to various cicada chimes and bird songs in the midwest Summer shade.
