"Anchored in Love Divine" is a beautiful song and it is fun to sing and play! Although authorship of this song is often mistakenly attributed to the Carter family because of their recordings, it was written by James Rowe (lyrics) & James Vaughan (music) and first published in Vaughan’s “Crowning Praises” (1911) songbook. Vaughan is from Lawrenceburg, TN. The Carter Family recorded the song on Victor 40036 on May 9, 1928.  The chorus has two parts, which makes it popular with duets and groups, and it is a favorite of autoharp players thanks to the Carters.

James Rowe 1865-1933

James Rowe was born in England and came to America in 1890 where he first worked for the New York Central & Hudson R.R. Co., then as superintendent of the Mohawk and Hudson River Humane Society. He began writing songs and hymns about 1896 and was a prolific (!) writer of gospel verse with more than 9,000 published hymns, poems, recitations, and other works.

James D. Vaughan is considered by many to be the "father of southern gospel music". Over his lifetime, he wrote more than five hundred songs, printed and sold over six million gospel songbooks, founded the first radio station in Tennessee, and pioneered professional southern gospel music. There is a James D. Vaughan Gospel Quartet Festival , as well as a James D. Vaughan Southern Gospel Museum in Lawrenceburg, TN.

Anchored In Love