her version overwhelmed me b/c before this i'd only heard slow, mournful, dirge-like takes on the song rendered by the congregation at my family's Baptist church in rural Alabama. i barely knew the lyrics b/c they always draaaaag out all the words until they're nearly moaning and chanting. it's nice in it's own way. but i didn't know what a triumph lay in this song until i heard this version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcjP4LgW0Rw

and then Yolanda Adams bowled me over singing it last night in tribute to Whitney. it was too much. lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WbZIjG_3sE

i'm not a Christian anymore, but i still love Gospel. i tend to favor the 'traditional' stuff like this. the songs i heard in churches and on road trips w/my family when i was a kid. it's what i miss most about church. i still want to find a Black church w/a large, tight choir and band that i can attend. and leave right before the sermons.