From the recording Bones
TK
©1991
–I’ve been opening or closing most of my shows with Shallow Water since I wrote it in 1991 at a fishing camp in Arkansas. 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 bubbled up into the world with such force. I don’t believe I’d prayed while writing before, but I prayed that day: “Lord, please help me get out of the way of this one.”
A lot of good things have come from this song, but my sweetest memory is of singing it with a group of students and other activists as we rode 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.”
[Randy Travis recorded this for a gospel album, and his version was later used as the focus of a special two-part episode of Touched By An Angel starring Faye Dunaway, Keb Mo, Delta Burke, Nell Carter, Rue McClanahan and Randy.]
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
©1991 The Night Rainbow/Morrissette Music (admin. by HoriPro Entertainment Group Inc.)(ASCAP)