Blood Songs with Alan and Mahalia Jackson

This week on “The Cross and the Jukebox,” we step back and look at a broader theme in music: the persistence of blood. Willie Nelson, for instance, will often go from singing songs about honky-tonking and hard-living to singing “There Is a Fountain.” This is at the same time that, in almost every generation, some tell us blood is offensive to contemporary sensibilities.

But the blood abides. And on this episode, I pose the question why. We’ll listen to some covers by Alan Jackson (”Are You Washed in the Blood?”) and Mahalia Jackson (”Power in the Blood”), as we look at why people, even those who don’t know Christ, often want to hear blood in their gospel.