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Alma Bilberry Playing ~ Just a Closer Walk With Thee ~ Kenna-Elida New Mexico

395 views · Published 4 December 2009 · 1:19 · Indexed 5 October 2026

Channel: djlovelace · 2009 · People & Blogs

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Alma Bilberry Playing ~ Just a Closer Walk With Thee ~ Kenna-Elida New Mexico

The author of "A Closer Walk" is unknown.Circumstantial evidence strongly suggests it dates back to southern African-American churches of the 2nd half of the 19th century, possibly even earlier. The song became better known nationally in the 1930s when African-American churches held huge musical conventions. In the 1940s, a boom of recordings in many genera recorded the number, ranging from Southern gospel to jazz and brass bands.

The first known recording was by the Selah Jubilee Singers on October 8, 1941, (Decca Records 7872) New York City; with Thurman Ruth and John Ford lead vocal; Fred Baker, lead baritone; Monroe Clark, baritone; J. B. Nelson, bass vocal; and Fred Baker on guitar. Rosetta Tharpe also recorded the song on December 2, 1941 (Decca 8594), with Lucky Millinder and His Orchestra.
 
The revived interest in traditional New Orleans jazz resulted in multiple recordings of the number, including a 1945 session by Bunk Johnson's Brass Band featuring numbers Johnson had played in New Orleans before he left in 1915.
 
In 1950, it was a million-seller for Red Foley.
 
In 1958, an unreleased home recording was recorded by Elvis Presley made in Waco, Texas on May 27.Presley's studio version can be heard on Just A Closer Walk With Thee (2000) (Czech CD on Memory label). Tennessee Ernie Ford made the charts with it in the late 1950s. By the end of the 1970s, more than a hundred artists had recorded the song.

Kenna, a small ranching community in Roosevelt County, started in name in 1899 as a construction camp along the Pecos Valley and Northeastern Railroad. Before the arrival of the railroad, famed Texas cattleman George W. Littlefield claimed much of the land surrounding future Kenna as part of his cattle empire spreading across Texas and New Mexico Major Littlefield started the advance of the Texas-Anglo frontier across the Pecos River in 1882 when he purchased John Chisums Bosque Grande Ranch near Roswell. Later, following the advise of his principal ranch manager and half-nephew, J. Phelps, Littlefield, purchased water rights east of the Pecos between Fort Sumner and Roswell, permitting control of four over million acres of rangeland. This massive holding became the basis of his LFD Ranch. The drought of 1866 struck the overstocked range. Despite this setback Littlefield, who lived by the buy when people are selling philosophy of business, continued to expand his holdings, purchasing and consolidating ranches up and down the Pecos River.

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