This was a long thread to go through! Hymns are great music, and it's nice to know a lot of people think so. My favorites are: "Great day" (don't know the chords, but there are great versions on the Jessye Norman/Kathleen Battle CD "Spirituals in Concert" and on a Jessye Norman CD); also, "Abide with Me" and one I think is called "I don't believe he would have brought me this far (to leave me here alone)." I heard the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble a couple years ago and they sang a fantastic version of this at the end. Oh, and "Gospel Ship", another great one.

On a related topic that occurs to me, does anyone know how to get CDs by the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble, or any groups that, like them, perform spirituals? I have surfed the web regularly since seeing them, but the 2 CDs they have issued are out of print. Gospel, as I understand it, is more composed and current music than the spirituals, and it is spirituals that I love. Crave more of them!