“Harbor of Love” is a Carter Stanley original whose first recording was made by the Stanley Brothers during their Mercury era, and which the brothers re-recorded for King during sessions on May 2–4, 1962 for the album Good Old Camp Meeting Songs (King 805). The 1962 King recording is the version most contemporary pickers reference; Billboard gave the album a four-star review in its September 29, 1962 issue.
The lyric works the same maritime-as-spiritual conceit that runs through “Drifting Too Far from the Shore” and the wider shore-and-harbor strand of Southern gospel writing. The narrator’s life has been knocked about by storms; the harbor of love is the Christian shelter waiting at the end of the journey. Carter’s lead vocal carries the lyric’s plainspoken weariness, and the Stanleys’ tight trio harmony fills the chorus.
The song belongs to the deep Stanley Brothers gospel catalogue alongside “Pig in a Pen”’s shadow companion piece “Drifting Too Far from the Shore” and a long string of Carter-written gospel originals. It works as a slow vocal feature in the bluegrass gospel set and remains a frequent call in church-and-festival gospel programmes that lean toward the Stanley side of the tradition.
