Walk with me, Lord walk with me / Walk with me, Lord, walk with me / While I am on this tedious journey I want Jesus to walk with me is the opening of new release ‘Walk With Me’ (Otis’ Dream) featuring Junior Garr, Niiella, Sharon Irving and Chris Blue. Common Hymnal wrote of the story behind the song:
Rev Otis Moss III, founder of Unashamed Media Group, asked us to contribute music for ‘Otis’ Dream’, the Get Out The Vote film that he wrote and produced for the 2020 election. More specifically, he asked us to record a new arrangement of the old spiritual ‘I Want Jesus To Walk With Me’ for the final credits.
The goal of the project was to combat the wave of voter suppression that was forming in states across the nation despite the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 – and encourage black Christians to vote. The film tells the story of Otis’ grandfather who was denied the right to vote in rural Georgia in the forties after walking over 18 miles to three different polling locations. Oprah Winfrey first heard the story in the early eighties and has told it in election cycles ever since. She previewed the movie and interviewed Otis on SuperSoul Sunday the weekend before the 2020 election.
In addition, the film was shown in black churches all across the country that weekend, and will hopefully be used to inspire black Christians to get out and vote for many election seasons to come. We feel passionately about this issue and plan to support several Get Out The Vote initiatives this coming ‘mid terms’. This recording is one of our contributions to the discussion. Because of the deadline, we recorded the first version in an all-nighter, and vowed to re-produce a full version of the song when time presented the opportunity.
The result is this new music video, featuring vocals by The Spirituals, Junior Garr, Niiella, Sharon Irving and Chris Blue, and footage from the original film plus the animation that Ronald Abdou and Zach Stewart created for the original track.
Please visit otisdream.com to watch the movie and source helpful resources.
