"Nothing But the Blood of Jesus" (Solo de Jesús la Sangre)

This hymn was composed by Robert Lowry (1826-1899) in 1876. Lowry was a Baptist preacher who lived from 1826 until 1899. The first mention of it being sung was at an outdoor camp meeting in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, from whence it immediately spread across the United States. Lowry is also the composer of the popular hymn "Shall We Gather at the River" (1864) which even nonreligious types will know from films like Stagecoach (1939), Tobacco Road (1941), and the The Searchers (1956).


"I have no method. Sometimes the music comes and the words follow, fitted insensibly to the melody. I watch my moods, and when anything good strikes me, whether words or music, and no matter where I am, at home or on the street, I jot it down. Often the margin of a newspaper or the back of an envelope serves as a notebook. My brain is a sort of spinning machine, I think, for there is music running through it all the time. I do not pick out my music on the keys of an instrument. The tunes of nearly all the hymns I have written have been completed on paper before I tried them on the organ. Frequently the words of the hymn and the music have been written at the same time." - Lowry

My version is a little different from that which is typically sung in church. I accompany it on an 1840s-style fretless "minstrel" banjo made by Terry Bell in the early 2000s after an original example by Baltimore luthier William E. Boucher, Jr. I'm using Aquila NEW Nylgut strings, and my tuning is ~ e♭BE♭F♯B (relative f♯DF♯AD) A=432 Hz.

The tab provided below is transcribed pretty much exactly as I play it in the video; however, none of the drop-thumbs are necessary for beginner banjoists. For an easier approach, simply ignore them and pick only the leading melody note with your trigger finger, then pick the 1st string with your trigger finger, quickly followed by a pluck of the thumb string with your thumb. If you are an overhand (clawhammer) picker you can follow the same routine, thus: strike the leading melody note with the back of your trigger finger, then brush across all (or some) of the string with the back of all (or some) of your fingers, quickly followed by plucking the thumb string with your thumb.

 Download 8.5" x 11" tablature PDF file 👇