Were You There

Selah, joined by Russ Taff, sing this African American spiritual's three questions in order rather than compressing them, letting each one stand on its own before moving to the next: "were you there when they crucified my Lord?"

"Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble" repeats after each question, treating the trembling itself as the honest response rather than something to sing past — the song doesn't resolve its own discomfort, it holds it.

The third question turns the trembling into something else entirely: "were you there when He rose from the grave... sometimes it makes me want to shout." Luke's account of the crucifixion at the place called The Skull, and the empty tomb's announcement that he isn't there but has risen, both sit behind the spiritual's arc — from trembling at the cross to shouting at the resurrection, without skipping past either.