Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound (for Alex).

"Amazing Grace" may be the most popular hymn in the English language and Afro-Americans have embraced it as a hymn against slavery, a song of freedom relevant to both heaven and life on earth.

The words of the hymn were written by John Newton, born in London on 24 July, 1725 (died 21 December, 1807). After many adventures and much suffering at sea, John Newton became a slave-trader and the captain of his own ship. Converted in 1748, he kept extensive journals of his experiences and life-changing deliverance from a dreadful storm. Whatever his inner feelings, he didn't cease to be a slave-trader until the end of 1754. Later in life he was ordained as a priest and accepted the curacy of Olney (hence the title of the collection "Olney Hymns", London, 1779).

He did not compose the melody, which some have suggested began life as a bagpipe tune or a slave song, but it could also have begun as a simple slide guitar melody (eg the version by Fred McDowell), the sort that children might have tried to pick out on a piece of bailing-wire nailed to the wall of a shack, to accompany the words of hymns and songs they learnt in church.

There's a great version on a CD by The Zion Harmonizers. Heard them live in New Orleans. Very different from Judy Collins! Not quite the right version for a wedding on the Île de Ré (Ile de Re)!

Here's another spiritual by Fred McDowell, "When I lay my burden down".