Folks, many of you responded in the thread about "Favorite Spirituals" with titles of the songs dear to you among African-American Spirituals. And the list of spirituals posted at Mudcat (and in DT) is getting longer and longer.

Now I need to know, for summary in the African-American Spirituals Permathread, what you DO with your favorites.

Do you do them for your own pleasure or in your sets?

Do you use them in a religious way or for their historical value?

Do you sing them solo, in a group, or leading a group?

Do you do them a capella, or with instrument, and if so what?

How does the way you do them relate to how they may have been sung originally? Do you use dialect? Are they somewhat translated textually or stylistically?

Do you make up new verses?

If you do these in public, do you say anything about the difficult issues involved?

How did you learn the ones you love, and how would you go about learning more?

If you care to share, it would also be great to hear how you first discovered this music, and what-all you remember about that time.

THANKS!

~Susan