The spiritual “Go Down Moses” tells the story of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt—a promise for exodus out of slavery. And did you know the language of African American religion, music, and literature has as its legacy the phrases of the King James Version of the Bible—the Bible of early American Protestant Christians? The American Bible Society alone, published one million KJB versions of the Bible in mid-1800s America—every year! Abraham Lincoln was sworn in with a copy, as was George Washington and

“Go Down Moses” is one of those spirituals you feel before you even understand it. Born out of the African American enslaved experience, this song carried a message of liberation that couldn’t be spoken out loud: the story of Moses confronting Pharaoh became a coded way to talk about freedom, resistance, and the hope of deliverance. And when Moses Hogan touches a piece like this? It becomes something else entirely. His arrangements always walk that perfect line between raw ancestral power and ra