Just As I Am - William B. Bradbury (arr. Atkins)

Classic Hymns and Praise Music for the Classical Guitar - Steven Saulls, Classical Guitarist
About the music and the composer…

William Batchelder Bradbury (October 6, 1816 – January 7, 1868) was a musician who composed the tune to “Just As I Am” and many other popular hymns.

He was born on October 6, 1816 in York, Maine where his father was the leader of a church choir. He had a brother, Edward G. Bradbury. He moved with his parents to Boston and met Lowell Mason, and by 1834 was known as an organist. In1840, he began teaching in Brooklyn, New York. In 1847 he went to Germany, where he studied harmony, composition, and vocal and instrumental music with the best masters. In 1854, he started the Bradbury Piano Company, with his brother, Edward G. Bradbury in New York City. William Bradbury is best known as a composer and publisher of a series of musical collections for choirs and schools. He was the author and compiler of fifty-nine books starting in 1841.

In 1862, Bradbury found the poem “Jesus Loves Me”. Bradbury wrote the music and added the chorus: “Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes, Jesus Loves me ..." He died on January 7, 1868, in Bloomfield, New Jersey (now Montclair, New Jersey) at age 51. He composed many tunes, including those for “He Leadeth Me”; “Just As I Am”; "Sweet Hour of Prayer"(attributed to William W. Walford, 1772–1850); “Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us” and “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less”, all of which can still be found in hymnbooks and songbooks today.

“Just as I Am” is a well-known hymn, written by Charlotte Elliott in 1835, first appearing in the Christian Remembrancer, of which Elliott became the editor in 1836. The final verse is taken from Elliott’s Hours of Sorrow Cheered and Comforted (1836).

John Brownlie described the hymn's story in his book The Hymns and Hymn Writers of the Church Hymnary: Charlotte's brother, the Rev. H. V. Elliott planned to hold a charity bazaar designed to give, at a nominal cost, a high education to the daughters of clergymen supported by St Mary Church:

The night before the bazaar she was kept wakeful by distressing thoughts of her apparent uselessness; and these thoughts passed by a transition easy to imagine into a spiritual conflict, till she questioned the reality of her whole spiritual life, and wondered whether it were anything better after all than an illusion of the emotions, an illusion ready to be sorrowfully dispelled. The next day, the busy day of the bazaar, she lay upon her sofa in that most pleasant boudoir set apart for her in Westfield Lodge, ever a dear resort to her friends." The troubles of the night came back upon her with such force that she felt they must be met and conquered in the grace of God. She gathered up in her soul the great certainties, not of her emotions, but of her salvation: her Lord, His power, His promise. And taking pen and paper from the table she deliberately set down in writing, for her own comfort, "the formulae of her faith." Hers was a heart which always tended to express its depths in verse. So in verse she restated to herself the Gospel of pardon, peace, and heaven. "Probably without difficulty or long pause" she wrote the hymn, getting comfort by thus definitely "recollecting" the eternity of the Rock beneath her feet. There, then, always, not only for some past moment, but " even now " she was accepted in the Beloved "Just as I am".

Billy Graham converted to Christianity in 1934 in a revival meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, led by evangelist Mordecai Ham hearing the altar call song “Just as I Am”. This song became an altar call song in the Billy Graham crusade in the latter half of the twentieth century. Graham used the title of the hymn as the title of his 1997 book - Just as I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham. Michael W. Smith sang the song in a tribute to Graham at the 44th GMA Dove Awards. (Wikipedia)

About the performer...

Steven began studying the guitar at age nine and has attended some of the finest music schools in the world including the Berklee College of Music (Boston), and the Mozarteum (Salzburg, Austria). He holds both a Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Washington University (1980) and a Master of Music degree from the University of Arizona (1982).
Over the past 40 years, Steven has performed hundreds of concerts throughout the United States, Central & South America, and Europe. His debut recordings ‘Espressivo’ and ‘Steven Saulls Plays Works by Ponce, Torroba & Bach’ have received wide acclaim both nationally and internationally. In addition to solo concerts, he has performed over 200 chamber works including guitar concerti (with orchestra) by Vivaldi, Ponce, and Rodrigo.

About the recording...

Recorded at The Steven Saulls Guitar Studio, Sahuarita, Arizona 2023/Guitar handcrafted by Martin Blackwell.

Copyright© 2023 Steven Saulls, Sahuarita, Arizona

For additional information please contact Steven Saulls at [email protected]