James Rowe
Musician · 1865–1933 · Devonshire, England
Best known for
Songwriter
James Rowe was an English-born American gospel lyricist whose roughly twenty thousand published hymn texts — among them “Love Lifted Me,” “I Walk With the King,” and “I’m Going That Way” (with L.B. Register) — passed into the standard country, bluegrass, and Southern-gospel repertoires of the twentieth century. He worked as a staff writer for the Trio Music Company, the Vaughan Publishing Company, and Stamps-Baxter.
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- Born in Devonshire, England in 1865.
- Worked for the Irish government before emigrating to the United States in 1890; settled first in upstate New York.
- Joined the Trio Music Company of Waco, Texas as a staff lyricist; later wrote for Vaughan Publishing and Stamps-Baxter.
- Wrote “Love Lifted Me,” set to Howard E. Smith’s tune in 1912 and since cut by Kenny Rogers, the Statler Brothers, and many other country and Southern-gospel acts.
- Co-wrote “I’m Going That Way” with L.B. Register.
- Wrote “I Walk With the King,” “The Last Mile of the Way,” and roughly 20,000 other gospel-song lyrics across his career.
- Died November 10, 1933, in Wells, Vermont.
