Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

Description

“Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child”

A Classic and Timeless Negro Spiritual

This song, like all the other Negro Spirituals, was conceived by and sung by enslaved African/African American men and women, bemoaning their experiences and existence, in their new world.  William E. Barton transcribed the music that he heard the enslaved African Americans singing, on plantations, in 1899, then he formally published the music.  To date, there is no record that the enslaved African/African American men and women were financially compensated for their original music and lyrics.  He heard this song, “Motherless Child,” and several other “Spirituals,” on plantations, in the south, during the 1860s.  This song was sung probably before, the 1860s, and certainly during the dreadful experience, and reign of terror, the enslavement period, of Africans, in their new world, the United States of America, was for them.  He, Barton, simply penned the melody and lyrics, of the song, from what he heard the enslaved men and women singing, while working and in their experience, of harsh and demanding, everyday life, on the plantation…

piano-Frank Owens, vocals-Aubrey Barnes