The hymn tune Nettleton is the pure product of the part of the world in which I've spent most of my adult life. It has tremendous resonance with the cultural history of the Northeastern United States. When I hear its various renditions, I hear the reel of the Scots/Irish, the twang of mountain music, the simple cadences of homemade instrumentation, and the dependence on voices soft, loud, and impassioned from a top tenor to a rich bass. I've heard it played on an organ, of course, and many times, but also from a string quartet, on a guitar, and from a small, A capella Gospel choir. In quiet moments in sanctuaries where I've served I've been known to sing it by myself in the solitary reaches of a vigil.
When the words are added, it may offer the best aural and oral presentation of American theology ever composed. More of the tune, the lyrics, and the composer[s] may be read of at this link.
Below are three videos that display the breadth of this fine hymn that still graces the Episcopal Church's latest version of the hymnal. The first is a "big" treatment by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the second sung in a noisy bar by a popular music group, and the third played simply on a homemade cigar box guitar. The latter is how it would have been heard in small churches and missions in the 19th century.