• My spiritual background is Christian and thus what I say here should be taken in a Judeo-Christian context for that reason alone. I wish I had the knowledge to be more ecumenical.
• Though I have been to churches of many denominations, they have mostly been Protestant churches and even then not fully representative of the spectrum of denominations.
• As a Caucasian, my church experiences have mostly been in Caucasian churches. (Some say the most segregated hour in America is 11 a.m. Sunday morning.)
• Afro-American spiritual music is prevalent in black churches and some other churches. I am assuming that there are others far better qualified than I to discuss that music so I am not attempting to do so here.

First, my wife, Caroline and I played music publicly for the first time in over 15 years as a warm-up for a church supper where Dr. Bob Lively, Chaplain, Austin Recovery spoke. (At a prayer breakfast the day before, the organizers were so desperate that they twisted my arm into agreeing to be the warm-up music, even though I haven't played alone in public in over thirty years. Fortunately, I was able to persuade Caroline to sing and play keyboard, and I just played my bass guitar.) Anyway, we played Farther Along, In the Garden, and Amazing Grace. Of course, "Amazing Grace" is often heard in churches. "In the Garden" is number 314 in the United Methodist Hymnal, but I have never heard it in any church. (I first learned it from Caroline over thirty years ago when we first started playing music together.) Though "Farther Along" is well known, I've never found it in a hymnal but learned in from my friend, Jack Moore, while we were driving down a country road some thirty-five years ago.

Second, a close family friend and mentor, a nominally retired Methodist pastor who probably works 60+ hours a week on mission activities, especially the P.E.T. Project, lamented some of the hymns such as An Evening Prayer that are no longer found in hymnals.

Third, yesterday, both during church service and speaking to our pastor afterwards, I had new realizations of the impact of Bible translations on spiritual music. Caroline is a strong advocate of the King James translation, so even though I was raised on the Revised Standard Version, I primarily read King James, both at home and during services. The sermon was based on Mark 8:31-38, and during the reading, the pastor talked about his fondness for the King James Version of that passage. Reading along I saw that Mark 8:37 is the basis for the first Monroe brothers' recording, wording totally lost in more recent translations. Afterward, our pastor lamented hymns that had been abandoned seemingly because they were based on the King James translation and have been set aside as that translation has been set aside so much.

• Hymns that are not sung even though they are still in hymnals and hymns that are generally not in hymnals any more.
• Pre-bluegrass American music, most notably, songs of A.P. Carter such as No Depression in Heaven, songs like Life is Like a Mountain Railway, the Monroe Brothers' recordings before Bill Monroe "invented" bluegrass, e.g., I think the Monroe Brothers' first recording was What Would You Give in Exchange for Your Soul, many of Bill Monroe's compositions (e.g., Happy On My Way) and other, only slightly more recent "country" recordings from Hank Williams, Sr., Jimmy Murphy, et al. (Much of this music had a resurgence in the 1960s/70s, and that is how I came to know/love it. There is so much more to say about the spiritual music of A.P. Carter, of Bill Monroe, of Hank Williams and of Jimmy Murphy that it is hard to know where to start/stop.)
• Reggae. Some Reggae recordings, e.g., The Melodians' Rivers of Babylon, are based directly on scripture (Psalm 137:1-4 and Psalm 19:14, in this case). I've long thought of Bob Marley's Redemption Song as his masterpiece and a strong spiritual influence. Marley's first recording was "Judge Not". More recently, I've recognized strong spiritual influence from some other Marley recordings, ones that I'd heard for years, but not really heard.
• Other popular music that I've heard, but not really heard. For example, one of the few LPs that I listened to so much that I bought a replacement copy after the first copy wore out, is Van Morrison's "His Band and the Street Choir". I've listened to If I Ever Needed Someone on that album for 30 years, thinking of that song as romantically intended for most of those years. A few months ago, I recognized that that song is literally a prayer and not intended romantically at all (in my opinion).
• Bob Dylan seems separate to me, partly because his music and words have influenced me so much, and partly because his religious transitions have been considered newsworthy (from Judaism to Christianity and then back to Judaism). Some of his songs, e.g., Gotta Serve Somebody are obviously intended to have spiritual influence. But his songs are often not obvious in their meaning. Often it takes years for me to truly grasp (or think I am truly grasping) some of my favorites of his songs, whether they are spiritual or not. For example, "Jokerman" has been captivating to me since I first heard it, but it wasn't until many years later, that I felt compelled to try to figure out what that song means. I still haven't, but there are lots of (spiritual) possibilities raised in Jokerman.