“Great High Mountain” is a bluegrass gospel song written by Keith Whitley, the Kentucky singer who came up through bluegrass — singing with Ralph Stanley and with J.D. Crowe — before his run as a country star later in the 1980s.
The song was first recorded by Larry Sparks and the Lonesome Ramblers, who released it in 1980. Its message is a quiet reversal of the familiar metaphor of faith moving mountains: the singer does not ask for the mountain to be taken away, but for the strength to climb it. That humble, durable sentiment gave the song a firm place in the bluegrass gospel repertoire.
“Great High Mountain” went on to be recorded by other major figures in the music, among them Ralph Stanley and Emmylou Harris, who helped carry it well beyond its bluegrass origins. It remains one of the better-known gospel numbers to come from Whitley’s pen.
