It’s one of the most moving for me of what I like to think of as the sacred songs from the hills. It tugs at something deep within. It was written by Charles E. Moody in the 1920s. Famous versions exist by Hank Williams and Emmylou Harris. No less than Bob Dylan has credited his hearing of a version of this song while a child with altering him on some indefinable but vital level.
Some of us would do well to listen to it every day, and I certainly count myself among them. The lovely version I found and am embedding below is by someone on YouTube using the moniker “Confederado1.” I imagine he’s been told before that he has kind-of a little Burl-Ives-vibe going for him; but I’d say that Burl himself never sounded so good.
Out on the perilous deep
where danger so silently creeps
and storms so violently sweep
You’re drifting too far from the shore