| Whether read or listened to, southern gospel music | | | | I'm kind of homesick for a country |
| lyrics have the focus and the message that grounds | | | | To which I've never been before. |
| you in an attitude of thankfulness and humbleness, | | | | No sad goodbyes will there be spokenfor time won't |
| whether you are Christian or not. | | | | matter anymore. |
| Of all the genres of music popular today, one of the | | | | This song is a great example of how universal the |
| most authentically original is black gospel and souther | | | | southern gospel themes are, breaking out of the |
| gospel music. The gospel music song lyrics are one of | | | | bounds of bible-thumbing Jesus-saved me politics, and |
| the most searched for items on the internet, and for | | | | speaking to the human condition in a timeless way. |
| one good reason. They uplift. They pick you up. | | | | Beulah Land closes out with these amazing lyrics: |
| Let's look at two of the most popular gospel songs | | | | I'm looking now across the riverwhere my faith will |
| and see why. | | | | end in sight. |
| Amazing Grace | | | | There's just a few more days to labor. |
| Amazing Grace is perhaps one of the most famous | | | | Then I will take my heavenly flight. |
| and popular American songs, well beyond the gospel | | | | Cure Those Blues Now |
| category. Here are the opening lyrics: | | | | How ironic that another great southern music |
| Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, | | | | tradition is the blues, and this phrase has entered our |
| That saved a wretch like me.... | | | | language to denote 'being down.' If you think about |
| I once was lost but now am found, | | | | it, perhaps it's only logical that the 19th century |
| Was blind, but now, I see. | | | | slavery experience would lead 20th century African |
| Aside music itself, which sends shivers down your | | | | American culture -- still segregated and oppressed for |
| spine from the opening notes, the lyrics speak to a | | | | much of that century too -- to develop two great |
| universal condition. All of us, at various times, feel lost | | | | music traditions that denote the depressed condition |
| and unworthy, blind and hopeless. So this song's lyrics | | | | (the Blues), and provide the antidote (Gospel Music). |
| bring a powerful message of the bliss of when we | | | | So pump yourself up with some gospel music - you |
| find our way, our purpose, whatever that might be. | | | | can either listen to it online or, one of my favorites, is |
| Beulah Land | | | | to print out the lyrics to my favorite songs. Once |
| This song is one of my favorites. It is so short, but it | | | | you're up again, feeling good, and all jazzed up, then |
| speaks to the longing for a home that we all feel: a | | | | it's time to listen to the third great black southern |
| place where our separations and sorrows of this | | | | music tradition, Jazz. But that's another whole story. |
| world will no longer intrude. | | | | |