Conventional wisdom divides African American music into “secular” and “sacred,” with the blues clearly falling into the secular category, and spirituals falling into the sacred category, along with gospel music. However, the reality is that this distinction may not be nearly as clear as this. In fact, theologian James Cone argues, in his book The Spirituals and the Blues, that both the spirituals and the blues have important sacred dimensions. The blues, according to Cone, are very spiritual in the sense that they highlight the essential God-given humanity of Black people as they struggle to deal with the stresses of day-to-day living.

Beyond the idea of a sacred dimension to the blues, it is clear that as America’s first music, the spirituals have had a significant impact on the evolution of all subsequent American music genres, including the blues and jazz. Moreover, some spirituals, in form and style, previewed the lyrical and musical feel of the blues. The clearest example is the spiritual “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child”:

Sometimes I feel like a motherless child;
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child;

Sometimes I feel like a motherless child;

A long ways from home . . .

One recognizes instantly in this song the structure and style of emotional expression that would later be commonplace in the blues.

As music educator Hansonia Caldwell has pointed out, the blues are sometimes thought of as “secular spirituals,” indicating that the venue in which the songs are performed are “secular,” but that the content – songs dealing with all the varieties of life – is deeply spiritual, consistent with the thinking of James Cone and other Black liberation theologians.