I wrote this song right around Thanksgiving time. I am incredibly thankful for many, many things, including the very fortunate life I’ve had. Not everyone is so lucky of course. And in the 17th century, people fled Europe to essentially invade a new land. They were trying to find safety and opportunity. And since that time, all the people in North America, with the exception of the Native Americans, have followed the same route. They were all pilgrims. So now, we are either pilgrims, or the products of pilgrims.

In this song, the pilgrim is an immigrant to the United States, perhaps undocumented. They come with the same motivation as the first of us. And now they work the countless jobs that few people want. The person in the song is one of the armies of night workers who make our world habitable, perhaps even possible.

I was a janitormyself, although I knew this was just a stop along the way for me. Basically, other people treated you like dirt in the buildings you cleaned, but it was an oddly satisfying job, making the messy clean and the dull sparkle. It’s hard work and I am thankful for the people who do it.

I’m not sure what the genre of this song is. It’s somewhere between folk and country or who knows. But anyway, it’s my gift to all the pilgrims, past and present.

The song is available on all streaming services, and if you do not have a music service, you can access the song on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3WWQMcBSh8

If you would like to check out the lyrics: http://craigjhansen.com/pilgrim