Grace Will Lead Me Home

Last year was the 250th anniversary of the writing of ‘Amazing Grace’ while next year is the 300th anniversary of the birth of the hymn’s writer, John Newton. To mark the dual occasion the Cowper and Newton museum in Buckinghamshire commissioned the folk singer Jon Bickley to co-ordinate a project celebrating the legacy of ‘Amazing Grace’. His research is detailed in a series of podcasts and he also invited two Black folk singers to contribute to an album of songs old and new exploring the legacy of the one-time slaver turned abolitionist. Without diminishing the input of her two colleagues, it is Morrison, following her triumphant 2022 album The Sorrow Songs, who emerges here as the star. Her ‘Dear Polly’ is based on Newton’s letters to his wife; ‘Turn Round Newton’ is another powerful composition and ‘Grace Will Lead Me Home’, which she sings with a children’s choir, boasts an utterly gorgeous arrangement that sits halfway between gospel and doo-wop. Braithwaite-Kilcoyne contributes the striking ‘Press Gang Song’ and the Anglo concertina instrumental ‘Fantasia on a West Indian Burial Theme’ and Bickley’s songs include ‘I’m Going To Hear John Newton Preach’ with a narrative tracing the slaver’s conversion. Needless to say the album ends with a splendidly earthy folk rendition of ‘Amazing Grace’ itself.