Just as I am

[richjens]

Our worship group had a practice night recently where we worked on new tunes and rearrangements for hymns. This is one where we rewrote the tune - hope you like it!

http://soundcloud.com/richjens/just-as-i-am

Words: Charlotte Elliott, 1835

Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, Thy love unknown
Hath broken every barrier down;
Now, to be Thine, yes, Thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, of that free love
The breadth, length, depth, and height to prove,
Here for a season, then above,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

[pian0dude]

Love it!

The female vocal lends an almost celtic feel/sound to this arrangement. I love when the harmonies kick in. The only critique I'd have, if any, is that around 2:06, the higher strings sound very "keyboard" based and un-natural. Other than that the orchestration is beautiful and the vocals are sweet.

[richjens]

Glad you like it! Yes, I appreciate the fakeness of the strings is a bit obvious in places - I chopped out some of the other string parts as they were really keyboardy sounding. I might replace the strings sometime with the real thing (we've got a few string players at church).

[WorshipVanguard]

WOW!!!! This is in my LOVE category. I remember singing ALL 5000 verses of this song in the choir at a Billy Graham crusade, and got sick of the hymn very quick. You've made it so fresh and so alive with this arrangement. Thanks for sharing. My spirit is truly blessed!!!!

[Wannabe a Worshiper]

Simply beautiful. I love the way you have taken so many of the great old hymns and put them into a modern setting.
Tom

[richjens]

In case anyone's interested, the (slightly inaccurate!) sheet music for this can now be downloaded here:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2043486/Just%20as%20I%20am.pdf