I watched an old episode of "I Love Lucy" the other day while I ate lunch. (And yes, I realize that all the episodes of that show are old!) Anyway, as part of plot-line that took the Ricardos and the Mertzes from New York to California during the 1954-55 season, this particular episode centers around their getting thrown in jail in Bent Fork, Tennessee which just happens to be the hometown of Lucy's "Cousin Ernie". Cousin Ernie, of course, was played by Ernie Ford.
For anyone who reads this blog under 40 years old, Ernie Ford was not only a fine comic actor and television host, he also had a phenomenal voice and was an amazing singer. In fact, besides being a Grammy winning artist, he was also inducted into both the Country Music and the Gospel Music halls of fame!
But the reason I mention all of this is that on his own TV show (The Ford Show) several years later, he sang a version of the song whose title is the inspiration for the name of this blog, "Wayfaring Stranger". Certainly, there are other versions of this song and there are versions whose lyrics stay closer to the original. But in my opinion, there are none that are sung any better than the version by Tennessee Ernie Ford from 1961.
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