George Washington Johnson was a Canadian schoolteacher who fell in love with one of his pupils, Margaret “Maggie” Clark. They were married in 1864, but she died only a few months after their wedding. He wrote When You and I Were Young, Maggie for her. J.A. Butterfield set the poem to music, and it has become a standard among folk and bluegrass musicians.

While I was in Mountain View last May and participating in one of several jam sessions, I suggested we play Maggie, and I sang the lead vocal. When we finished, one of the players looked at me and said, “I’ve been playing that song in jam sessions for probably 30 years, and that’s the first time I heard it had words.”

My wife, Deb, is the pastor of DisciplesNet Church, a congregation of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) that gathers for worship on the internet. This online church has been holding worship for a little over a year now and has reached into more than 80 countries. I have enjoyed the privilege of providing some of the music for DisciplesNet, including The Ninety and Nine.

Methuselah, Brebis and Grace are just three of the sheep that play a critical role in the congregation. DisciplesNet posts worship in video that is shared online, so the preacher and others serving in the worship service may be speaking just to the camera or the few persons that have gathered when the core team meets for worship. The sheep serve as a present reminder of those beyond the camera lens who will receive this ministry.

The Ninety and Nine is among the 19th century American hymns written after the Civil War. The music was written by Ira D. Sankey, a gospel singer and composer associated with Dwight L. Moody. Sankey sang the hymn as an impromptu conclusion to a revival service, having just heard Moody’s sermon on the Good Shepherd. He had clipped the poem by Elizabeth Clephane from a newspaper en route to the service. It would become Sankey’s best known and most popular hymn.

Clephane wrote the poem in 1868 and died just one year later.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the Thumbpick Thursday posts so far. If you would, please drop in a comment and let me know what you think. This will be the last Thumbpick Thursday for 2011. I won’t post a video next week, so we’ll wait and see what develops in the new year.

And if you stick around, there’s some bonus time in this week’s video, along with a few pictures from the year.

This week’s Thumbpick Thursday features a perennial Christmas favorite, Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It was fun to work out this thumbpick arrangement of the tune, but I have to be honest that, even with the Travis-style accompaniment, I still hear Burl Ives singing it!

In the midst of voices calling us to hurry and buy, to rush and spend, I Wonder As I Wander invites us to calm ourselves and to contemplate the stillness and the quiet that accompanied Jesus into the world.

I was playing on the porch of a cafe and noticed a lady going through the motions like she was playing a harmonica. When I realized she really was, I invited her to come up and play with me. She did, and we had a delightful time.

The video quality is not the greatest. We did a great sound check but failed to do a lighting check! It was a fun evening nevertheless, and I hope you enjoy Play On, Pauline.

I’ve kept that song close by for almost 40 years now. It was one of my dad’s favorites, and he always loved to hear me sing it. I’ve always used the song as a framework for songs like Will the Circle Be Unbroken or I’ll Fly Away because it talks about singing those old songs again.

The Gospel was included on my first CD, Going Over Home, and I’m thinking about recording it again to include the thumbpicking arrangement of I’ll Fly Away that is part of the song for me now. If you catch me and the audience in the right mood, I sometimes include a bit of thumbpicking on Words of Earnest, which Goose Creek Symphony reprises on their recording of the song.

If you’re not familiar with Goose Creek Symphony, I hope you’ll visit their web site and check them out. I hope you enjoy this old standard of mine, and thanks for watching!

When We All Get to Heaven was written in 1898 and first appeared in Pentecostal Praises (Philadelphia: Hall-Mack, 1898). Eliza Hewitt penned the lyrics, and Emily Wilson composed the music.

Doc Watson did some nice thumb and finger style arrangements of late 19th and early 20th century gospel songs on the album On Praying Ground (1990). I’ve been learning some of Doc’s arrangements and trying to do my own arrangements of a few revival hymn tunes, including this one.

I hope you enjoy it!

You can use this link if you want to watch the video and leave comments on YouTube.

I guess I just don’t like feeling left out! I’ll post new videos on most Thursdays. I hope to post them every Thursday, but sometimes my schedule sneaks up on me.

Hope you enjoy Thumbpick Thursday. Leave me a comment, and let me know what you’d like to hear.