Lead Me, Guide Me

I. Origins and Publication

This gospel hymn was written by Doris Akers (1923–1995) in 1953. Akers, originally from Kirksville, Adair County, Missouri, had moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in gospel music in 1945. In 1946, she was made a member of the famed Sallie Martin Singers, then the following year she partnered with another member of that group, Dorothy Simmons, to form a group and a publishing company of their own, the Simmons-Akers Singers, with songs published by Simmons and Akers Music. Initially, they performed as a trio with Hattie Hawkins, but after Hawkins left in 1950, they reconstituted as a quartet with varying personnel. Their makeup in 1953, when Akers wrote “Lead Me, Guide Me,” is unclear. They printed the song through their own company, and they licensed it to Hill and Range Songs (Fig. 1) for distribution on the east coast.

The sheet music published by Simmons and Akers (1953) was arranged by Maxine Blackburn, with tight, gospel-style parallel movement in the treble clef (varying from three to four parts) and a bass line below. Copies of this edition are held in the African American Sheet Music Collection of Rose Library, Emory University. This version of the score was included in the New National Baptist Hymnal (1977 | Fig. 2), the first time the song had appeared in a hymnal.

When this song appeared in Lift Every Voice and Sing (1981 | Fig. 3), compiled for the Episcopal Church, it was arranged by gospel composer Richard Smallwood. Similar to the sheet music in Figure 1, Smallwood arranged the song for unison/melody and piano accompaniment, but filled in the score more in the manner of how it might be played, versus the more sparse treatment in the original, and he more clearly realized the triplet feel of the music. In this score, the dotted figures are really substitutes for swung triplets, and the same could be said for the squared eighths in the other scores above. Smallwood’s score has been repeated in several other hymnals.

II. Recordings

In January of 1954, Akers recorded the song for Imperial Records in Hollywood, California (Imperial IM-694), on the opposite side of another song by Akers, “Meet Me in the Glory Land,” sung by her partner Dorothy Simmons. The personnel of the group must have been in a state of transition, down to just Akers and Simmons, because on “Lead Me, Guide Me” the disc label indicated “Doris Akers singing all three parts.” At the time, the technology to overdub voice parts would have been relatively new and fairly novel.

This 1954 recording takes the song at a slow pace, in keeping with the sense of the first stanza, which speaks of weakness. Akers’ three-part harmony was undergirded by piano and electric organ. The recording only covers the refrain (in parts), the first stanza (as a solo), and a return to the refrain (in parts).

Akers recorded the song again on the album Doris Akers Sings with The Sky Pilot Choir (Christian Faith SP-6047, 1963). By the time the album was released, Akers had left the group to direct The Gospel Jubilee Choir. This rendition is very different, with a brief introduction by the choir, Akers speaking through most of the first stanza, then Akers singing the chorus while the choir oohs and aahs behind her. The restrained tempo is such that this arrangement spans three minutes and twenty-four seconds.

The first cover version was recorded in 1954 by Brother Joe May (1912–1972) and the Pilgrim Travelers (Specialty XSP-860). May had popularized another song by Akers, “I want a double portion of God’s love,” via his recording in 1950 (Specialty SP-373). George Beverly Shea (1909–2013) recorded “Lead Me, Guide Me” on his album Inspirational Songs (RCA Victor LSP-1187, 1956). Elvis Presley (1935–1977) recorded it on his album He Touched Me (RCA Victor AFL1-4690, 1972) and sang it in his final film, the documentary Elvis on Tour (1972).

III. Analysis

Gospel historian Horace Clarence Boyer referred to “Lead Me, Guide Me” as “a gospel song set as a lullaby.”[1] Reformed scholar Bert Polman summarized the message of the song and noted its psalm-like quality:

The text is an earnest plea for an intimate walk with God, who is asked to lead, guide, and protect the believer. The deeply personal stanzas emphasize that divine guidance is essential because of our lack of strength, our blindness, and Satan’s temptations. Only God can lead us on the narrow path and through all the complexities and challenges of earthly life. Like many of the psalms, this text pours out in prayer the yearning of the individual Christian, a prayer that reminds us of these words of the psalmist:

Lead me, Lord, lead me in thy righteousness;
Make thy way plain before my face.
For it is thou, Lord, thou, Lord only
that makest me dwell in safety.
—Psalm 4:8; 5:8 (KJV) as set to music by Samuel S. Wesley[2]

Paul F. Becker further developed the psalmic ties, especially with Psalm 31:

The entire text, and especially the refrain, could be a meditation on Psalm 31:3, “For you are my rock and my fortress, and for Your name’s sake You lead me and guide me.” “My strength fails” (Psalm 31:10) becomes the confession of stanza 1: “I am weak and I need Thy strength and power.” Verses 1 and 14 of the psalm, “In You, O LORD, do I take refuge. . . . But I trust in You, O Lord,” are reflected in stanza 2: “I am putting all my trust in Thee.” And verse 16, “Make Your face shine on Your servant,” elicits the prayer of stanza 3: “I am blind without Thy light to see.”[3]

Lutheran scholar Paul Westermeyer compared the hymn to the German “Wer nur den lieben Gott lasst walten” by Georg Neumark (1621–1681) and provided some important cultural context:

The hymn is the African American gospel counterpart of the chorale tradition’s “If you but trust in God to guide you.” “Lead Me, Guide Me” appears on the surface to be more personal—and it surely does not lack that quality, but the first person singular of the African American tradition is profoundly communal. To miss that is to miss a central facet of this hymn.[4]

Hymnologist Carl P. Daw Jr. observed the descending melodic motif in the melody and suggested a situational use:

The first three notes of the refrain establish the context of this tune: the stepwise movement from mediant to tonic provides both a foreshadowing and a synopsis of a search for resolution and peace. This motif recurs, sometimes with elaboration, at the midpoint of the refrain, at the end of the refrain, at the midpoint of the stanza, and at the end of the stanza. . . . [T]his gospel hymn will serve well whenever there is an emphasis on journey or pilgrimage, such as during the season of Lent.[5]

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
2 March 2021

Footnotes:

1. Horace Clarence Boyer, How Sweet the Sound: The Golden Age of Gospel (Washington, DC: Elliott & Clark, 1995), p. 208.

2. Bert Polman, “Lead Me, Guide Me,” Psalter Hymnal Handbook (Grand Rapids: CRC, 1998), p. 718. From the longer anthem by S.S. Wesley, “Praise the Lord, O my soul” (Novello, 1862).

3. Paul F. Becker, “Lead Me, Guide Me,” Lutheran Service Book Companion to the Hymns, vol. 1 (St. Louis: Concordia, 2019), p. 1004.

4. Paul Westermeyer, “Lead Me, Guide Me,” Hymnal Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2010), pp. 631–632. These sentiments are repeated in Daw (2016).

5. Carl P. Daw Jr. “Lead Me, Guide Me,” Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016), p. 708.

Related Resources:

Alan J. Hommerding, “AGO Service Playing Examination: Contemporary Hymn: Lead Me, Guide Me,” The American Organist (Nov. 2008), pp. 63–65.

“Lead Me, Guide Me,” Hymnary.org: https://hymnary.org/text/i_am_weak_and_i_need_your_strength_and