Beautiful Isle of Somewhere

Barney E. Warren 1897

Beautiful Isle of Somewhere/Beautiful Isle of Sorrow (Long Family) 

 
Public Domain Old-Time, Bluegrass Gospel Words: Jes­sie B. Pounds, 1897 with music by John S. Fearis

ARTIST: Lester Mcfarland and John Gardner 1927- Words: Jes­sie B. Pounds, 1897 with music by John S. Fearis

CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel;

DATE: 1897 Jes­sie B. Pounds; First Recorded by Harry Anthony and Jmes Harrison 1908 on Edison 9959

RECORDING INFO: Beautiful Isle of Somewhere [Me III-F 58] - Pounds, Mrs. Jessie Brown/Fearis, J. S.

Benziger, Barbara; & Eleanor Dickinson (eds.) / That Old-Time Religion, Harper & Row, Sof (1975), p 81 (Beautiful Isle)
Herder, Ronald (ed.) / 500 Best-Loved Song Lyrics, Dover dn500/500, Sof (1998), p 31
Kincaid, Bradley. Mountain Ballads and Old Time Solos. Album Number Six, Bluebonnet BL 123, LP (1963), trk# B.06 [1963/07ca]
Muldaur, Geoff; and Amos Garrett. Geoff Muldaur & Amos Garrett, Flying Fish FF 061, LP (1978), trk# B.06

OTHER NAMES: "Beautiful Isle of Sorrow"

SOURCES: Meade

NOTES: The popular turn of the century gospel song, "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere" was written by Jes­sie B. Pounds, 1897 with music by John S. Fearis. it was recorded several times from 1908 until 1927 and then four times by early country artists. Bradley Kincaid included it in one of his songbooks.

One Sun­day morn­ing, when Jessie B. Pounds she had been mar­ried on­ly a few weeks, Jes­sie was not feel­ing well, so her hus­band John went to church with­out her (Cent­ral Christ­ian Church, In­di­an­a­po­lis, In­di­a­na). Jes­sie stayed home and be­gan med­i­tat­ing on Hea­ven; by the time John re­turned, she had prod­uced these words.

This song was sung at the 1901 fun­er­al of as­sas­sin­at­ed Amer­i­can pre­si­dent Wil­liam Mc­Kin­ley. It was re­port­ed­ly his fav­or­ite song.

Jessie B. Pounds (1861-1921)
Born: Au­gust 31, 1861, Hir­am, Ohio (near Cleve­land).
Died: March 3, 1921, Hir­am, Ohio.
Buried: Fair­view Cem­e­te­ry, Hir­am, Ohio.

Jessie Pounds was in poor health as a child, and re­ceived her ear­ly edu­ca­tion at home. At age 15, she be­gan sub­mit­ting ar­ti­cles to Cleve­land news­pa­pers and var­i­ous re­li­gious pub­li­ca­tions. In 1896, she mar­ried Rev­er­end John Pounds, pas­tor of the Cen­tral Christ­ian Church in In­di­an­a­po­lis, In­di­a­na. In her ear­ly years, an ed­i­tor com­ment­ed that some of her po­e­try would make good hymn texts. So be­gan her song writ­ing ca­reer. Over her life­time, she wrote 50 li­bret­tos for can­ta­tas and op­er­et­tas, 9 books, and more than 400 Gos­pel song texts. She collaborated with James Fillmore for three decades.

Hymns by Pound: Anywhere with Jesus
Are You Coming to Jesus Tonight?
Beautiful Isle of Somewhere
Going On
I Know That My Redeemer Liveth
I Want to Live Closer to Jesus
Place in the Ranks for Me, A
Tell the Promises over to Me
Touch of His Hand on Mine, The
Way of the Cross Leads Home, The
We Are Going Down the Valley

BEAUTIFUL ISLE OF SOMEWHERE- Jes­sie B. Pounds, 1897  music John S. Fearis
 
“The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.” Revelation 21:23

Somewhere the sun is shining,
Somewhere the songbirds dwell;
Hush, then, thy sad repining,
God lives, and all is well.

CHORUS: Somewhere, somewhere,
Beautiful Isle of Somewhere!
Land of the true, where we live anew,
Beautiful Isle of Somewhere!

Somewhere the day is longer,
Somewhere the task is done;
Somewhere the heart is stronger,
Somewhere the guerdon won.

CHORUS:

Somewhere the load is lifted,
Close by an open door;
Somewhere the clouds are rifted,
Somewhere the angels sing.

CHORUS: