Gospel Spirituals

With a strength and beauty born of the misery of bondage, our Gospel Spirituals Essentials stand as a triumph of the human and holy spirit, as freedom on earth and in Heaven is celebrated by modern-gospel trailblazers the Mighty Clouds of Joy and the 19th-century song “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” and by Sam Cooke, who brings the same soulful passion to the Christian hymn “Nearer to Thee” that made him a star in the secular world. Gospel icon Mahalia Jackson sings the best-loved song of faith, “Amazing Grace,” while her mentor, the father of gospel music Thomas A. Dorsey, preaches to the tune of his own cherished composition “(There’ll Be) Peace In the Valley.”

“I’ll Take You There,” promise the Staple Singers on their funky ’70s spiritual — and we’ll take you to more great songs of faith and love, in Next Steps.

The past is bound to the present, and the present looks forward to eternity as our Gospel Spirituals demonstrates the timeless power of Divine faith expressed in song. Witness an uplifting “Oh Happy Day,” the 18th-century hymn that, as sung by the Edwin Hawkins Singers, became a 1969 crossover hit. A 19th-century song of faith in the face of despair, “It Is Well With My Soul” still offers strength today, especially when belted out by Broadway star Jennifer Holiday. Sweet Honey In the Rock join voices on “We Shall Not Be Moved,” the spiritual-turned-tune of protest, and the Dixie Hummingbirds rev up the harmony-driven engine of a “Christian Automobile.”

Tramaine Hawkins is “Goin’ Up Yonder” to be with her Lord, and we’re goin’ to Deep Cuts for more enduring gospel spirituals.

Echoes of a past spent in slavery blend with the promise of deliverance, the positivity of empowerment, and the glory of freedom everlasting in our wide-ranging Deep Cuts set of Gospel Spirituals. So, while Bessie Griffin brings the strength of her soaring voice to the tried-and-true devotional “The Old Rugged Cross,” contemporary gospel king Andraé Crouch brings pop polish to the modern-day testimony of “Say So.” The Davis Sisters celebrate a soul at peace with God by transforming “Blessed Quietness” into a Sunday-service shouter, while gospel godmother Albertina Walker highlights the spiritual foundations of the blues in “Working On a Building.”

They were songs that enabled the singers to communicate with one another when other ways were silenced, and to forge a bond with the God who held a promise of Heavenly reward for earthly suffering. They speak to the strength of a people who held fast to community in the face of cruel separation and who, today, honor their collective past even as they look forward to glory. They are the great gospel spirituals, and we bring the best together in one celebratory set of everything from Aretha Franklin’s stunning rendition of the spiritual person’s daily bread, “The Lord’s Prayer,” to the work-song echoes of “Hush” from the Blind Boys of Alabama, the a cappella beauty of “Jesus Gave Me Water” from Sam Cooke & The Soul Stirrers, and the jubilation of James Cleveland and a rousing song of scripture, “I Don’t Feel Noways Tired.”