From the recording Never Saw Blue
TK
©1991
–I’ve been opening or closing most of my shows with “Shallow Water” since I wrote it in 1990 at a fishing camp in the Arkansas Ozarks. I don’t remember why I didn’t go fishing with my dad that day, but I distinctly remember the feeling of writing the song-because it spilled into the world with such sweet force. I don’t remember ever praying while writing, but I prayed that day: “Lord, please help me get out of the way of this one.”
A lot of nice things have come from this song, but my sweetest memory is of singing it with a group of students and other activists riding to jail in a paddy wagon after being arrested for sitting in the Governor of Tennessee’s driveway to petition him to halt the state’s first execution in forty years. The students started the song, and when we finished one of the police officers said, “Y’all are the happiest bunch I believe I’ve ever taken to jail.”
[I’m not sure exactly how the connection was made, but after Randy Travis recorded “Shallow Water”, it was used as the theme for a special two-part episode of “Touched By An Angel”-Shallow Water Parts 1 & 2-which guest starred Faye Dunaway, Keb Mo, Delta Burke, Nell Carter, Rue McClanahan and… Randy Travis.]
Lyrics
I will not drown in shallow water
Not with your love within my reach
I did not come this far to falter
And will not rest until I’m free
You are the sun, you are the flower
You are the wind across the sea
And I will kneel here at your altar
And pray you take my soul to keep
O Precious One, you are the mountain
You are the earth beneath my feet
In you we’re one, now and forever
In you I find the love in me
Through your love my eyes are opened
Through your love I’ll learn to see
And in your name my bread is broken
By your grace I’ll live in peace
I will not drown in shallow water
Not with your love within my reach
I did not come this far to falter
And will not rest until I’m free
Through your love my eyes are opened
Through your love I’ll learn to see
And in your name my bread is broken
By your grace I’ll live in peace
I will not drown in shallow water
Not with your love within my reach
I did not come this far to falter
And will not rest until I’m free
I will not drown in shallow water
Not with your love within my reach
I did not come this far to falter
And will not rest until I’m free
I will not rest until I’m free
I will not rest until I’m free
words & music: Tom Kimmel
(Remix of track from the TK album Shallow Water, featuring the St. Augustine’s Chapel Choir, directed by Laura Donohue)
Featured in the television show Touched By An Angel, as performed by Randy Travis
Produced by Cliff Goldmacher & Tom Kimmel
Recorded with the Sister Sound Mobile Unit (at the VCCA in Amherst, VA) & at Cliff’s Walk-In Closet (Nashville) & Laura Donohue Studio (Nashville)
&Jimmy Dulin
Mixed by Jimmy Dulin at Cliff’s Walk-in Closet
TK – vocal, guitar
Andrea Zonn – harmony vocals, violin
Randy Sandersfeld – harmony vocal
Danny Flowers – resophonic guitar
Steve Conn – Hammond B3
Butch Baldesarri – mandolin
David Johnson – percussion
St. Augustine’s Chapel Choir, directed by Laura Donohue – vocals
Laura Donohue
Allen Karns
Chris Roberts
Fleming McWilliams
Inge Conway
Janet Davies
Karen Sorenson
Lauren Hagan
Michael Kelsh
Susan Compton
Tim Fudge