From Melanchthon he learned to shape his theological education, beginning with the difference between "law" and "gospel".

In singing that has always been a kind of running duel between sorrowful blues and affirmative gospel, a new note is becoming more pronounced.

Mediating between his blues and gospel influences is the voice of a benign musical elder statesman who sees it all as an amusing game.

The distinction between law and gospel is a standard formulation in Reformed theology, though in recent years some have characterized it as distinctively Lutheran.

If this includes everything between the epistle and gospel, the construction is:

While blues musicians regularly traveled between jazz, gospel, blues and vaudeville, they rarely mixed the elements in one piece.

Melanchthon made the distinction between law and gospel the central formula for Lutheran evangelical insight.

In a historic comment that, the author says, has passed into the realm between gospel and apocrypha, Stieglitz said, "Finally a woman on paper."

Apparently by coincidence, the series does bring out the kinship between blues and gospel, which deliver contrary messages in a shared style.

The song rolls at roughly 106 b.p.m., balanced on the line between disco and gospel, simmering without either exploding or folding.