One of my favorites hymns is “Blessed Assurance,” the beloved tune from blind lyricist Franny Crosby and pianist Phoebe Knapp. They wrote the hymn in 1873. Knapp played the melody on the piano and asked Crosby what the melody “said,” and she said, “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine.” Thus, history was born.
I love playing this hymn, and had the opportunity to play it with our congregation this past Sunday. I decided to take a quick recording before service.
As you can tell, there’s some pre-service chatter going on, including from my pastor (who is not the older gentleman in the shot at the beginning of this video):
I actually played it a second time an octave higher, but botched it, so trimmed the clip here. I hope you enjoy listening to this short clip as much as I enjoyed playing it.
Happy Listening!
—TPP
Other Editions of Open Mic Adventures:
- “Open Mic Adventures I: Oingo Boingo’s ‘Just Another Day’“
- “Open Mic Adventures II: Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’“
- “Open Mic Adventures III: Joanie Sommers’s ‘Johnny Get Angry’“
- “Open Mic Adventures IV: KISS’s ‘I Still Love You’“
- “Open Mic Adventures V: ‘There’s a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place)’“
- “Open Mic Adventures VI: Journey’s ‘Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’“
- “Open Mic Adventures VII: ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’“
- “Open Mic Adventures VIII: Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound of Silence’“
- “Open Mic Adventures IX: Journey’s ‘Faithfully’“
- “Open Mic Adventures X: ‘Time Warp’“
- “Open Mic Adventures XI: Spooktacular Supergroup Covers ‘Monster Mash’“
- “Open Mic Adventures XII: ‘Ghostly’“
- “Open Mic Adventures XIII: The Penguins’ ‘Earth Angel’“
- “Open Mic Adventures XIV: ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’“
- “Open Mic Adventures XV: ‘O Holy Night’“
- “Open Mic Adventures XVI: ‘Please Come Home for Christmas’“
- “Open Mic Adventures XVII: ‘L’il Divertimento in C major’“
- “Open Mic Adventures XVIII: ‘Satiean Motion’“
- “Open Mic Adventures XIX: ‘Two-Day Minuet for Left Hand’“
- “Open Mic Adventures XX: ‘Sleepy Student’s Serenade’“
- “Open Mic Adventures XXI: Styx’s ‘Come Sail Away’“
The Portly Politico 
Isn’t it funny? We only need to hear the opening notes and we’re immediately singing the hymn in our minds, lol.
Culture shock! All that chatter in the background? That would NEVER float in an Anglo-Catholic church, lol. Unh-uh. We come in quiet, we take our seat, we kneel in prayer, we reseat ourselves and prep the prayer book for the day’s reading and stick tabs in the hymnal to be ready when we sing. LOL! I know it sounds horribly (lol) ‘regimented’ but what it actually does is allow quiet time for each person to bring their focus in on what they’re there for and quiet in God’s house allows us to speak to Him those things that only the individual knows and needs. Yours is not necessarily wrong, ours is not necessarily right … it’s just different. But … yes – I was shocked, lol!
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Hahaha, it’s definitely a big difference! Lots of socializing and such before church. There’s also a great deal of communicating back and forth between me, our sound guy (usually my buddy John), the deacon/music minister, and the pastor, as we (usually I) pick the songs we play each Sunday, usually when I get there.
It was particularly noisy this Sunday morning, which irked me a bit—I was trying to take this video, and people kept coming up to say good morning! I’ve gotten better at having conversations while playing prelude music, haha.
But the best part is when I first get there—typically around 10:30 or 10:40 AM—and the sanctuary is empty, other than John (working sound) and our usher, Doug. It’s so peaceful and quiet before everyone gets out of Sunday School (which I don’t attend), and I love warming up and playing hymns in that quietude.
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